Final Environmental Assessment for FutureFuel Chemical Company Electric Drive Vehicle Battery and Component Manufacturing Initiative Project, Batesville, AR (DOE/EA-1760) - National Energy Technology Laboratory - Bog

The Department of Energy (DOE) prepared this Environmental Assessment (EA) to assess the potential for impacts to the human and natural environment of its Proposed Action-providing financial assistance to FutureFuel under a cooperative agreement. DOE's objective is to support the development of the EDV industry in an effort to substantially reduce the United States' consumption of petroleum, in addition to stimulating the United States' economy. More specifically, DOE's objective is to accelerate the development and production of various EDV systems by building or increasing domestic manufacturing capacity for advanced automotive batteries, their components, recycling facilities, and EDV components. This work will enable market introduction of various electric vehicle technologies by lowering the cost of battery packs, batteries, and electric propulsion systems for EDVs through high-volume manufacturing. Under the terms of the cooperative agreement, DOE would provide approximately 50 percent of the funding to FutureFuel to partially fund the retrofitting of an existing manufacturing building to a commercial-scale plant to produce intermediate anode material for high-performance Li-ion batteries (referred to as the "Proposed Project" within this EA). An existing FutureFuel manufacturing building (48,000 square feet, 5 stories) would be retrofitted to accommodate the proposed plant. The existing building that would be reconfigured currently includes over half of the major process equipment and pumps required to produce intermediate anode material. The goal would be to increase the product supply from the current 1,000,000 pounds per year at an off-site plant to 10,000,000 pounds per year, which would be sufficient for supplying over 2,000,000 HEVs. Additionally, the project would create approximately 33 permanent jobs. The environmental analysis identified that the most notable changes, although minor, to result from FutureFuel's Proposed Project would occur in the following areas: air quality and greenhouse gas, surface water and groundwater, transportation and traffic, solid and hazardous wastes, and human health and safety. No significant environmental effects were identified in analyzing the potential consequences of these changes.