Sicona Battery Technologies, an Australian battery materials innovator, recently announced its expansion into the fast-growing United States battery component market, with the development of its first commercial production facilities in the south-eastern United States near the geographic heart of the growing battery and electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing hub.
Sicona cofounders Dr Andrew Minnet and Christiaan Jordaan.
Sicona is moving forward with the phased development of a 6,700-tonne per annum (tpa) silicon-carbon anode materials production plant. This development will make Sicona the largest producer of silicon-carbon anode materials in the United States — surpassing the approximately 5,800 tpa total silicon-carbon plants under construction and development in the Northwest.
By the early 2030s, Sicona plans to expand its US production to a total output of 26,500 tpa, enough silicon-carbon anode materials to power more than 3.25m EVs.
Sicona’s Silicon-Carbon (SiCx) can deliver significant improvements in today’s EVs through increased range and reduced charge times, two known major inhibiting factors to rapid EV adoption in the country, and which are critical factors in achieving the stated US goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by ~52% below 2005 levels by 2030.
Leveraging its extensive intellectual property portfolio Sicona produces SiCx anode materials that supercharge lithium-ion batteries delivering a 20%-plus increase in energy density over conventional graphite-only Lithium-ion battery cells and reducing charge times by more than 40%.
Furthermore, Sicona’s technology does not rely on costly, dangerous, bottlenecked or emissions intensive supply chains such as silane gas. This enables its customers to access unmatched prices and scale for maximum positive impacts of a “drop-in” material without incurring significant costs and disruptive reengineering in their battery production facilities.
Using a top-down process, Sicona has cracked highly efficient mechanical silicon metal reduction to create uniform nanoparticles. Further treatment in specialized carbon-coating processes create the unique material qualities that customers demand.
To support its US manufacturing plans, Sicona has started supplying product samples and initiated offtake discussions with cornerstone customers with qualification activities expected to ramp up significantly over the coming 12 – 18 months.
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Filed Under: Batteries, Technology News