Battrion has built up a 20MWh/year small scale production facility in Dübendorf, Zurich and started manufacture of fast-charging electrodes for automotive customers in addition to existing non-automotive ones.
With a total investment of CHF3m (US$3.3m), the facility uses a production process based on Battrion’s Aligned Graphite technology, according to information from the supplier last month.
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The company says the process reduces electric vehicle charging time associated with standard lithium-ion batteries significantly.
“The successful production of electrodes in this manufacturing facility is key as it proves the process for manufacturing Aligned Graphite electrodes at a relevant scale, de-risking the widespread use of the technology,” said Battrion co-founder and CTO, Martin Ebner.
“This is great news for our automotive customers. With this technology we can reduce the charging time of batteries dramatically. For EVs this means, charging 400km of fresh range in 15 minutes instead of 25 minutes for the best vehicles today.
“This is possible because full charging power can be applied three times longer before it is reduced.” The technology allows for the use of lower cost, less processed flake graphite, an environmentally- friendly substitute that avoids a wasteful process step called graphite spheronization.
“Operating the facility, we are demonstrating how this technology can be used to reduce the CO2-footprint of lithium-ion batteries,” added Battrion co-founder and COO, Max Kory.
“We follow a clear path to enable the production of the negative electrodes for lithium-ion batteries at strongly reduced CO2-emissions. Using less processed flake graphite, a CO2-reduction of around 10,000t per GWh battery capacity can be achieved.”
Battrion’s next step is a ramp-up to GWh capability for the technology. For this, Battrion works on the implementation of technology with leading cell manufacturers and OEMs in different markets.
Aligned Graphite technology is a fabrication technology for lithium-ion batteries that controls the orientation of flake graphite particles in the negative electrode.
Orienting the flakes vertically leads to short effective lithium-ion transport distances.
This has several advantages says the supplier:
- Shorter charging times
- Lower cell resistance which leads to more power and less heat generation
- Higher environmental compatibility
- Decrease in raw material costs
