Industrial byproducts upcycler Rain Carbon launches Hamilton innovation hub

Rain Carbon Inc., a Dover, Del.-based upcycler of industrial byproducts, will build a 30,000-sq. ft. industrial research and development facility in Hamilton, Ont.

The new Rain Innovation Center for Energy Storage Materials will include a demonstration facility, allowing pilot-scale processing of carbon and carbon precursor materials, and laboratories dedicated to the carbon material analysis with analytical and electrochemical testing equipment.

“This move reaffirms our dedication to the growing North American energy materials supply chain while maintaining our position as an innovator on a global scale,” said Dr. Michael Spahr, vice president of innovations for Rain’s carbon distillation and advanced materials department, in a press release.

The centre will facilitate testing and application development of Rain’s Lioncoat thermoplastic precursor products used for enhancing the electrochemical performance of battery anode that are essential raw materials for staples of everyday life materials.

It will support the development and commercialization of energy storage material solutions based on natural and synthetic graphite, as well as silicon-carbon composites for lithium-ion batteries.

The center will house product innovations for carbonaceous materials tailored to emerging energy storage technologies such as solid-state batteries, sodium-ion batteries and hydrogen fuel cells.

The release said equipment installation is already underway with start-up planned for early 2025.

“Our new centre is the natural, next step to bring together Rain’s battery materials and high-purity carbon businesses, which are well established in the energy storage materials sector in both Europe and Asia,” said Rain president Gerry Sweeney in the release.

“Our (research and development) teams are already known as market leaders. We aim to combine these strengths with our long-standing presence in North America to use this new facility to expand our existing list of patents and to spring-board Rain to an even higher, more-value-added level in the evolving energy storage space.”

Rain Carbon Inc. is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Rain Industries Ltd. The company’s carbon segment converts industrial byproducts of oil refining, steel production, bio-based and recycling sources into carbon materials and intermediate chemicals.

The company’s products enable customers in the aluminum, green steel, graphite, energy storage, tire, adhesive, coatings, pigment and specialty chemicals industries to transform byproducts into usable, valuable products.