Could Tacoma Help Build Batteries From Captured Carbon?

Tacoma startup Homeostasis Systems is pursuing an unusually ambitious idea: capturing carbon dioxide and transforming it into graphite—the material used in the negative end, or anode, of lithium-ion batteries.

The company recently received a $303,518 Small Business Innovation Research grant from the National Science Foundation. The yearlong project, which began in August, will investigate whether Homeostasis can purify its carbon-derived graphite enough to function as a replacement for conventional battery-grade material.

This is still research, not commercial production. The challenge is more complicated than simply extracting carbon from emissions. Battery manufacturers need graphite with extremely precise characteristics, and the NSF-funded project will test whether adjustments to the company’s electrochemical process can produce material meeting those standards.

Homeostasis is developing its technology at a facility in the Port of Tacoma. Its proposed system uses small, modular reactors to convert captured carbon into graphite and other potentially marketable materials. The company ultimately envisions installing those systems near industrial sources, allowing businesses to turn part of their carbon output into a useful product instead of simply storing it.

There is also a national-security dimension. Graphite is considered a critical mineral, and the United States depends heavily on foreign suppliers for the refined material used in batteries and other technologies. Homeostasis believes domestically produced graphite could eventually serve electric vehicles, energy-storage systems, data centers and defense equipment.

The Tacoma company has already attracted significant public and private support. In 2024, the Washington State Department of Commerce awarded it $700,000 for a pilot project developing carbon materials from atmospheric carbon dioxide. In 2025, Homeostasis announced $600,000 in private investment alongside that state support.

Whether the technology can be produced affordably and at industrial scale remains unanswered. But if Homeostasis succeeds, Tacoma could become the testing ground for a compelling trade: unwanted carbon dioxide exchanged for one of the materials modern batteries cannot do without.

Read the White Paper explaining the project here.