Australian battery development company Gelion has been awarded $4.8m in funding from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency to develop a prototyping facility for its sulphur-based chemistries that promise lighter batteries and longer range for EVs.
The funding will contribute to building the $9.6 million Advanced Commercial Prototyping Facility that will produce 2000 battery cells a year to help the company develop advanced chemistries that promise lighter batteries capable of allowing EVs to travel further.
Though not capable of producing at the scale of a Gigafactory, the facility will produce small-batches of cells at the same quality to quickly develop designs and to allow prospective customers to investigate how the batteries could be incorporated into their own manufacturing process.
Gelion CEO John Wood said that before the facility, the company was forced to develop cells to a certain point before sending them to Germany to complete the process, forcing it to wait months.
“Now we can just walk downstairs,” Wood said. “The whole process is much more difficult when you have to send outside to do your fabrication and you can’t iterate as fast.”
“At some stage you have to step up and have capabilities like this.”
The company, a University of Sydney spin off, was founded in 2015 to develop next-generation battery technology from research initially conducted by Professor Thomas Maschmeyer.
Unlike common lithium-ion battery technologies, that currently rely on a process known as “intercalation”, Gelion’s current work has focussed on developing lithium-sulphur and silicon-sulphur batteries.
These rely upon sulfur-conversation cathode technology where the carrier ions move across to the cathode and react with the sulfur in the cathode.
As sulfur is a common material widespread across the globe, these battery chemistries could make manufacturing processes easier and ease geopolitical tensions often associated with scarce critical resources such as cobalt and oil. They also offer higher densities, meaning they store more energy per unit of weight.
“That’s sort of a long way of saying you can make lighter batteries,” Wood said.
Lighter batteries mean electric vehicles could travel further and have less impact on the environment through wear on wheels, but could also make it possible to develop forms of electric aviation.
Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen said that with global demand for batteries to grow substantially over the rest of the decade, the project would help position Australia to take advantage of a growing market.
“Australia is emerging as a world leader in alternative battery chemistry and we need to ensure that we’re well placed to reap the rewards,” he said.
“Batteries are the building blocks of a sustainable future, and this project, by demonstrating the potential of alternative battery chemistries, could help us meet our net zero commitments.”
ARENA Acting CEO Chris Fairs said the project will help drive the development of more efficient, less expensive and more sustainable batteries that “could be a gamer changer.”
“The clean energy transition is dependent on batteries for energy storage and transport. It is therefore critical that we explore and commercialise innovations that make batteries perform better through improved energy density and at a reduced cost,” he said.
Global demand for batteries is expected to grow from 194GWh of annual demand in 2020 to 2,045 GWh by 2030, with electric vehicles expected to make up 87% of the demand and stationary storage making up 7%.
Gelion currently employs 44 people, with a team of six to work full time in its processing centre but the company hopes to expand in the future.
Maschmeyer welcomed the support for the company he founded, saying ‘it’s wonderful ARENA has come to the table and is supporting the battery ecosystem in Australia.
“By supporting local Australian battery activities, it means we are generating a competitive, technical ecosystem that allows Australia to be developers of technology rather than just technology takers,” he said.
“Given it is a strategically significant technology – China has taken a large stake in it because it sees it has strategic significance – it’s important we have a seat at the table.”
“And for us [as a company] it’s very, very meaningful, because we’re able to produce a number of cells that are necessary to do engagement with third parties, to do safety testing. It’s taking the next step towards true commerciality.”