6K’s UniMelt receives ‘Top Product of the Year Award’ for sustainability benefits
July 20, 2021
6K, North Andover, Massachusetts, USA, has received a ‘Top Product of the Year Award’ in the Environment + Energy Leader Awards programme for its UniMelt® plasma production system. The award is said to recognise 6K’s ability to produce and deliver powders for both Additive Manufacturing and energy storage in an environmentally friendly way compared to existing powder production technologies that serve these markets.
“We are honoured that the UniMelt platform has been selected as the top product for the Environment + Energy Leader Award,” stated Bruce Bradshaw, Chief Marketing Officer for 6K. “UniMelt’s unique ability to leverage scrap material as a feedstock and turn it into high-value powder is just one example of our clean production approach. UniMelt’s environmentally friendly process lowers green house gases, uses significantly less energy and produces zero waste water creating a pathway to a circular or sustainable economy with performance material production.”
The Environment + Energy Leader Awards programme recognises excellence in products and services that provide companies with energy and environmental benefits, and in projects implemented by companies that improved environmental or energy management.
Sarah Roberts, Environment + Energy Leader publisher, commented, “With a very experienced and critical judging panel and a strict set of judging criteria, entrants faced an extremely high bar to qualify for an award in 2021.”
6K states that its UniMelt platform offers multifaceted sustainability benefits like no other battery material production platform in the world. As an example, if a legacy battery cathode production plant was replaced with 6K’s UniMelt platform, 100% of wastewater would be eliminated, energy usage and greenhouse gas generation would be reduced by up to 70%, and water usage would be decreased by 90%.
The company recently announced the creation of the Battery Center of Excellence which will accommodate ten UniMelt systems that can produce as much as 100 tons of material from each system annually. This will support full-scale development of materials such as high energy density and single crystal cathode, solid-state electrolyte materials, Silicon Anode for fast-charging and more.