This initiative converts CO2 emissions into highly efficient battery materials
Homeostasis founder and CEO Makoto Eyre quotes Eisenhower’s famous line to capture his current leadership mindset: “Plans are useless, but planning is everything.” It’s a fitting slogan for a startup trying to build a business at the intersection of climate policy, trade wars and the global race for battery materials.
A Seattle-area startup is developing technology that turns captured carbon dioxide into graphite — a key ingredient for batteries that power EVs, drones and the energy storage grid.
But today’s topsy-turvy geopolitical landscape creates opportunities and challenges for Homeostasis that moves over time.
While the Trump administration has no interest in carbon emissions as a climate strategy, they are enthusiastic about domestic graphite production – a bright spot to start with. But China’s graphite prices, now totaling nearly 200%, threaten to squeeze the broader battery sector, potentially undermining the market Homeostasis relies on.
In December, the startup announced a strategic partnership and funding from LAB7, the investment arm of Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil giant Aramco. The collaboration will help Homeostasis scale the performance of its plants and refine its graphite processing to ensure it reaches “break even” status for battery manufacturers. The deal is driven by Saudi Arabia’s goal of rapidly building a domestic EV chain.
It aims to make graphite made in the US
Homeostasis is also willing to supply graphite to North American customers, hoping to one day compete with China, which produces more than 90% of the world’s battery-grade graphite.
Commercial graphite mining largely ceased in the US in the 1950s, and domestic production has only recently resumed. Synthetic graphite can be produced as a byproduct of refining crude oil, but making the battery material requires an expensive, lengthy and energy-intensive process.
Startups take a different approach. Its molten salt electrolysis process uses electricity from a high-temperature salt mixture containing dissolved CO2 taken from industrial operations. Carbon deposits on the electrode as crystalline graphite, with oxygen released as a byproduct.
CEO Eyre and engineers are based in Tacoma, Wash., while a three-person science team led by founder Julien Lombardi works out of New York.
Homeostasis last year raised a pre-seed investment of $600,000 and $700,000 for the Washington Climate Responsibility Act. The company is hiring engineers in Washington and plans to double its number by the end of the year.
‘Setting the course’
Homeostasis is currently building a prototype that will produce 1 kilogram — just over two pounds — of graphite every day, specifically to supply samples to Aramco. Within two years, the team aims to open a pilot plant capable of producing tens of tons per year.
The long-term goal is a self-contained system that fits inside a single 40-meter vessel and produces 100 tons of graphite per year. Homeostasis plans to deliver the units to car manufacturers or energy companies with existing carbon capture infrastructure.
The US emits an estimated 30 to 50 million tons of CO2 per year, although most of it is currently used for oil refining – which represents a large amount of food that could be available if the economy ends. Based on battery demand forecasts, the startup estimates that the US and Canada will need about 1 million tons of graphite per year by the end of this decade.
For Eyre, the current dynamic is noise. What matters is the underlying signal: a global shift to electrification that will require energy storage on a scale the world has never seen.
“To support that we need essential materials, and they need low cost,” he said. “Although the details of the policy may change over time, we are building strong foundations. We are setting a course.”
