AETC’S REAL CARBON BACKBONE: THE 2025 SUMMER INTERNS

As the summer draws to a close and the cooler weather makes its way back into Chicago, American Energy Technologies Co. (AETC) is excited to take a moment to acknowledge and congratulate our cohort of summer interns, who worked diligently and eagerly on a variety of projects during their 10 weeks here. Their marked contributions are celebrated by the whole team at AETC, and their absence has certainly been felt in the few weeks they have been gone. A big thank you and congratulations to Savi, Luke, Jayden, and Martha! Read more about the many accomplishments of our talented young professionals below.

From left to right, Luke Phillips (Materials Science Intern), Jayden Chow (Materials Science Intern), Martha Kubakh (Industrial Electrochemistry Intern), and Savita Thompson (Chemical Engineering Intern).

Savita Thompson

Savi Thompson joined as a Chemical Engineering Intern for AETC this summer, and studies at Carnegie Mellon University during the academic year. In addition to learning a variety of characterization techniques for graphite samples, Savi worked extensively on the processing of carbon monofluoride precursors in order to establish a domestic source of the electrode material. Over the course of this initiative, she operated a hammer mill and learned about a variety of purification practices. Another major project she took ownership of was creating life-cycle data inventories for innovative EU Horizon programs STREAMS and SAFELOOP Gigafactory-supplied direct recycling processes for 18650 lithium-ion batteries. The data that Savi collected will now be used by partners at Imperial College London to understand the economic viability and environmental impacts of this newly-launched AETC technology at a scale of 50 million batteries per year. Additionally, Savi collaborated with other AETC team members to develop the initial design and block diagrams for high-throughput semi-automated wet classification. She particularly enjoyed learning how to assemble coin cell batteries in the glovebox and is grateful for this wonderful opportunity to understand the criticality of graphite and related carbon products to a variety of essential industries, in both commercial and government-contracted capacities. Savi is looking forward to completing her junior year abroad at Imperial College London and hopes to work further with AETC and its partners in the future.

Jayden Chow

Meet Jayden, a rising junior majoring in materials science and engineering from University of California, Berkeley.

Jayden says he was “fascinated by AETC’s internship due to the numerous opportunities to work on graphite projects alongside various engineers, which allowed [him] to bridge the gap between academia and industry. AETC has provided [him] the chance to gain hands-on experience analyzing and testing graphite materials and to work with other major companies to create a lasting impact on the real world.” At AETC, Jayden focused on analyzing different surface coatings to test their hydrophobicity and icephobicity, characterized and developed 27 PIBs and COAs to help establish a Canadian supply of natural graphite for the North American supply chain security in critical minerals, and worked on the lithium-ion battery recycling EU Horizon SAFELOOP project with Imperial College London, to determine the environmental impact and sustainability of AETC’s lithium-ion battery Direct Recycling process. Jayden also worked on the STREAMS project alongside engineering firm UNE, collecting data on the amount of volatiles lost from wet carbon-coated spherical graphite to directly develop industrial-level furnace equipment. In addition, Jayden aided in the research of developing coin cells using various carbon-coated spherical graphites and testing them on the potentiostats.

Martha Kubakh

Martha Kubakh has been working as an electrochemistry intern at AETC for the past three summers. This spring, she graduated from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign with a degree in chemistry and will be attending UC Berkeley in the fall to obtain her Ph.D. in chemistry. Martha shares, “Over the past three years, AETC has provided me with an invaluable opportunity to work with multiple battery varieties (including lithium-ion, alkaline, and lead acid batteries).  Driven by a passion for sustainability, I am excited to be a part of an industry that advances high-performance energy storage technologies. My internship has also given me the opportunity to grow the American graphite industry, especially as we work to reduce reliance on international sources of supply of battery raw materials. I am proud to be involved in efforts to find innovative applications for both spherical and non-spherical graphite, with the goal of achieving 100% utilization of domestic sources. I was included in every part of the battery process from production of the electrode material to the construction of the cell, to the testing and cycling of the battery, and the analysis of the battery performance. Being involved in the entire development cycle provided me with an understanding of how each component and phase directly influences battery performance. This experience also taught me key differences and similarities between primary and secondary batteries, allowing me to apply this knowledge when analyzing new energy storage systems.”

Luke Philips

Our final intern of the summer was Luke Philips, a senior from University of Chicago studying Molecular Engineering. Luke lent his talents to many projects during his time at AETC. Specifically, he learned a great deal about working hands-on in both lab and plant environments, preparing countless carbonaceous samples, operating processing equipment, and performing material characterization. In addition, he collaborated with the amazing engineers and fabricators at AETC to generate electrochemical data, meet required product specifications, write technical reports, and detail our progress to clients. These projects had applications in energy storage, defense, and critical mineral processing, such as advancing sustainable methods for producing battery-grade graphite from CO₂-derived carbon and petroleum coke.

Our interns have made great contributions to AETC’s success in the industries we serve. We’re thankful for their hard work and dedication, and we hope their experiences working on sustainable technologies in the graphite and carbon industry will serve them well in their future endeavors. We look forward to new internship opportunities opening up for talented and enthusiastic individuals pursuing STEM disciplines joining us at our new Wheeling, IL plant in the near future!