Graphite One has received Ohio’s final air permit for the first phase of its proposed synthetic graphite battery-anode materials plant in Conneaut. The planned US$80 million facility would blend and coat 10,000 tonnes of active anode material annually, with the environmental approval enabling final engineering and financing work ahead of an investment decision.
The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency issued Permit-to-Install and Operate P0140891 to Graphite One (Ohio) Inc. on 27 October 2026, and the company confirmed the milestone on 2 November. The permit runs until 27 October 2036, subject to renewal, and applies to the first phase’s specified emissions units. Building, construction and associated local approvals will follow as the final design is completed.
The first-phase capital estimate remains US$80 million and will be updated after final engineering. The plant is designed to blend and coat synthetic graphite into active anode material for lithium-ion batteries. Graphite particles form part of the negative electrode, where their surface and internal structure influence the movement and storage of lithium during charge and discharge.
Graphite is used because its layered crystal structure can accommodate lithium ions during charging. Battery anodes also depend on controlled particle size, surface properties and consistency, because variations in powder and coating characteristics can influence electrode fabrication, capacity retention and cell performance. A manufacturing plant preparing active material must therefore control feed composition and processing conditions rather than simply handle graphite as a bulk commodity.
The permit names four emissions units: agglomeration, carbonisation, feeding and blending, and finishing and packaging. Moving and finishing graphite powders can generate airborne particles, while the heat-treatment stages can produce emissions that need separate collection and abatement. The approved plant design consequently combines process equipment with defined particulate and volatile-organic-compound control systems.
Thermal oxidisers are designed to remove 98% of volatile organic compounds, and the specified baghouse arrangements are designed for 99% particulate control. Those figures describe planned abatement performance, with the permit setting the framework against which equipment operation and emissions monitoring will be managed once the facility is built.
Graphite One says construction must start within 18 months of the permit’s 27 October effective date, although one 12-month extension is possible. Final equipment specifications, purchasing decisions and financing will have to be aligned with that timetable. The environmental milestone closes the air-permitting review, while the project’s investment and construction decisions remain ahead.
The company is targeting its first commercial sales of synthetic graphite active anode material in the fourth quarter of 2028. That schedule depends on completing the investment decision, securing financing and building and commissioning the plant. It also provides a sequence for customer qualification, which must establish that supplied material performs consistently in the battery makers’ own electrode processes.
Conneaut’s initial 10,000-tonne annual capacity is the first stage of a larger plan. Graphite One proposes later 25,000-tonne increments towards an eventual 100,000 tonnes annually, subject to the engineering, approvals and investment needed for each expansion. The existing permit establishes the scope of the first stage rather than advance authority for that larger manufacturing programme.
The Export-Import Bank of the United States has issued an amended, non-binding US$1.4 billion letter of interest in potential support for the wider anode materials project. Graphite One places total EXIM letters of interest at US$2.07 billion, including a separate indication. The amounts describe prospective financing pathways; loan terms, commitments and the company’s own funding arrangements still have to be concluded.
Graphite One has also supplied active material samples to prospective US battery and energy storage customers for testing and qualification. Qualification matters because a cell producer needs to understand a material’s behaviour in its own electrode formulation, coating line and operating conditions. Customer testing can inform production specifications, but a sample programme is distinct from contracted large-volume sales from a factory still awaiting investment approval.
The proposed Ohio synthetic-material plant precedes the company’s planned Graphite Creek natural graphite mine in Alaska, where initial production is currently targeted for 2030. Conneaut’s first stage therefore centres on synthetic graphite production ahead of the proposed natural-graphite supply chain. Both projects are part of the company’s longer-term US battery materials strategy, but they have distinct development timetables.
Domestic production of processed battery materials is being pursued partly to shorten and diversify supply chains that cross several national borders between raw material extraction, refining, electrode manufacture and final cell production. The benefit depends on the origin of the precursor materials and the ability of the new facilities to meet customers’ technical and commercial requirements; constructing one processing stage does not automatically localise all inputs.
Graphite One can now complete its Phase 1 process design and prepare procurement around an approved air-emissions configuration. Its next milestones are financing, remaining construction permissions and a final investment decision, followed by the start of construction required under the permit. The 2028 sales target will be tested against those engineering and investment steps.
