E-MOBILITY
introducing lithium comes with its challenges, as Brundish explains: “One of the downsides is that if you try to use lithium straight off , it doesn’t have a great cycle life or fast charging speeds. How this has been dealt with by nearly everyone else is that they’re looking at how to adapt the electrolyte to manage those defi ciencies. We, on the other hand, have been addressing this at the lithium metal positioning, bringing in a 3D architecture which is the core of the business, and which gives us lots of surface area and very thin fi lms. Typically, the thinner the fi lm, the faster it charges.” LionVolt’s 3D architecture overcomes
the limitations of lithium to enable fast charging rates, but there is a byproduct benefi t too. By its nature, the ultra-thin fi lm also has a good lifetime, meaning the company has overcome the two foundational limitations of lithium in a wide range of products. “We’re drawing on manufacturing
techniques in other scaled industries, like photovoltaics, like semiconductors. So, we’re looking at drawing those techniques into the battery world, and the advantages that those bring,” Brundish says. “We see ourselves as working on a complementary angle to those who are working on the cycle life side of cells. We think we’ve solved the challenge of fast charging lithium, and that enables it to be practically applied into a much wider market space.”
PLANES, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES Long-term, LionVolt sees its anode solution being dropped into the existing battery cell supply chain for many diff erent industries. “The beauty of working on a high
energy cell is that it can be applied to lots of diff erent markets,” Brundish says. “The same core product can be built up or down into bigger or smaller batteries, depending on what the end use is, and what we do is very deployable. If you were putting our technology into a plane, for instance, you’d just have to build much bigger batteries using the same product. We’re already working with companies in the vehicle space, but for now it’s about building that scale up. In terms of markets, we’re working in parallel with everybody, but recognising that the needs of each sector diff er slightly. Some favour early adoption,
An effi cient and repeatable manufacturing process is key
and some prefer a longer-term rollout. But we are working with all sectors – aerospace, electric vehicles, HGVs and so on – and we see ourselves being deployed in all those markets.”
NEXT-GEN ANODES ARE TRENDING While the general trends of more energy, lower weight and volume, and faster charging still remain as important now as they were decades ago, there are some interesting developments taking off in the cell development space. “We’re seeing the articulation of
solid-state as a solution to some of the safety issues, as well as delivering very high performance products,” Brundish off ers. “This has been a market desire for some time, although the practical time frames to deliver this are still being looked at. We want to accelerate this, because we solve some of the core challenges. Additionally, liquid-base cells have been in use for a long time and we’ve arguably had a very stable and safe product for years, but now we
want more from it. So of course, there’s the question of whether we can get this. And so, we are seeing a trend on next- generation anodes that could really deliver on those market trends of fast charging, good life and improved safety. The anode forms a very important part of this picture.” So, what are the next steps for
LionVolt on this journey? “Where we’ve been up until now is focusing on the innovation side and demonstrating the technology can deliver all of the above,” Brundish adds. “Over the last year, we have ensured that we have a manufacturing capacity that is suff iciently large and eff iciently repeatable, which means we can now build those cells and provide them to our clients in 2025. Our innovation is now being embedded in a product that our clients can evaluate and start to consider designing into their products.”
For more information visit:
www.LionVolt.com
www.engineerlive.com 17
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