UK battery technology specialist Anaphite has raised £1.4m (US$1.86m) in funding via the Innovate UK Investor Partnership Program to expand its DCP technology platform – used to engineer homogenous dry composite powders for dry coating of NMC (nickel manganese cobalt) cathodes – to enable high-throughput, high-yield production of dry-coated LFP (lithium iron phosphate) cathodes and graphite anodes.
The total comprises £700,000 (US$932,363) in grant funding from Innovate UK’s Investor Partnerships: Clean Energy and Climate Technologies competition, matched by £700,000 in investment from climate-focused venture capital funds Elbow Beach and World Fund.
Manufacturing LFP cathodes is more than twice as energy intensive, per kWh of battery cells produced, than for NMC cathodes featuring a medium-to-high nickel content. Optimizing the material mixing and electrode coating processes, which account for 30%-40% of total cell manufacturing energy and cost, is a clear route to transformational cost and carbon footprint savings for battery cell makers and electric vehicle manufacturers.
With LFP expected to represent morethan 55% of global cathode demand by 2030, there is strong demand for technologies that enable its dry coating. Manufacturing dry-coated LFP cathodes is more challenging than for NMC, and no commercial-scale solutions currently exist. As OEMs face rising consumer demand and regulatory deadlines – such as the 2030 UK and 2035 EU bans on new combustion-engine vehicles – a mass-production solution is urgently needed.
Anaphite CEO Joe Stevenson said, “We’re thrilled to have secured this grant support from Innovate UK and the matching investment from Elbow Beach, World Fund and other Anaphite investors. This enables us to attack one of the toughest technical challenges in dry coating – successfully manufacturing LFP electrodes. Once achieved at scale, it will be enormously valuable to the industry. Anaphite’s DCP technology has been successful with NMC dry coating formulations, and we’re confident it can be applied to LFP, to further boost the cost and carbon emission savings for OEMs.”
Gen IV LFP particles are much smaller (between 0.7-3µm) than typical NMC particles (3-20µm), resulting in higher surface area and making homogeneous mixing and dry-film formation more challenging. Anaphite’s work with nanomaterials and dry-coating processes, including its DCP technology for chemically dispersing difficult-to-mix components such as binders and conductive carbons onto active particles, is aimed at addressing these formulation challenges.
Craig Douglas, partner, World Fund, said, “Anaphite’s technology is broadly applicable across next-generation and established battery technologies alike. This investment will enable the company to significantly expand its commercial capabilities, accelerating the scale-up of its manufacturing processes and driving down manufacturing costs for the global battery industry.”
Key expected outcomes include producing dry-coated LFP cathodes and graphite anodes via roll-to-roll processes suitable for mass production, which will then be assembled into full cells for testing. Achieving high first-cycle efficiency and cycle life would demonstrate the approach’s potential to address current LFP and graphite dry-coating challenges, enable dry coating for a broader range of high-volume electrode materials, and support OEM collaborations focused on reducing battery cost and environmental impact.
Jonathan Pollock, CEO, Elbow Beach, commented, “The future of driving is electric, so scaling up affordable, low-carbon battery manufacturing is essential. Anaphite’s technology has the potential to significantly cut both costs and carbon footprint for battery makers and EV manufacturers, and we’re excited to support them as they lead the way in this critical sector.”
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