Ann: Epanko Graphite Project, page-57

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WhatsTheTip

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01/03/23

08:27

Post #: 66528157
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Originally posted by semi retired: ↑

New battery breakthrough paves way for 100% silicon batteries with higher energy density

Not so fast What's the Tip, the expansion problem has been overcome by a number of patented tecnoledgies , some very clever Australian owned techs could put an end to expensive graphite BAMS before or even while they get the pilot plant going .

There are a quite a few companies some Australian that have excellent silicon Anode technology progressing very fast , silicon is 8 times cheaper than graphite and retains over 10 times more energy than graphite , electric vehicles have a range problem , silicon will provide cheaper , lighter and much more energy retention making 2000k range posible on a single charge,

LeydenJar Technologies, a Dutch spin-out of TNO, the Netherlands Organisation for applied scientific research, has developed a new anode which it believes will “drastically change the battery industry,” allowing lithium-ion batteries to be made from 100% silicon, boosting energy density by 70%.

With demand increasing across a variety of technology sectors for improved battery technology, recent innovation has been focused on transitioning away from the reliance on rare earth metals and carbon-based elements such as graphite. Conversely, increased battery performance and longevity is required as more and more sectors turn to batteries to participate in the global transition to cleaner energy.

Thus far, it has only been possible to produce anodes with a small amount of silicon due to the mechanical limitations of the material and the fact that anodes were primarily carbon based. However, as an anode material, silicon has ten times the capacity of carbon.

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Good to have contrasting view.

IMO there are a lot of battery plants built, under final design and under construction that will be using LFP or NCM technologies and Graphite. Many will have a high weighting towards synthetic graphite in their batteries despite its higher cost relative to natural graphite. I believe the substitution between natural and synthetic graphite is fairly easy if both have sufficient consistency of shape and purity. Its hard to say where this natural vs synthetic space will go. EGR's suggested to 50/50 but no-one really knows.

While I think performance issues will outweigh price issues (assuming sensible prices), I'd also suggest that as a raw material, silicon is 2-3x more expensive than graphite rather than the 8x cheaper reference noted above. What is less clear is what the processing cost of taking a basic silicon product and shaping/processing it for use in a battery, relative to the cost of doing this for natural graphite. I'm not therefore sure if the 8x more expensive is a like-for-like comparison. There is a huge price uplift in taking graphite flake then purifying, shaping and sometimes coating it.

When I last checked, smaller flake graphite was circa US$700-800/t or around 80 cents per kg. Statista puts the price of silicon across different years and grades at around 90c per pound to $1.40 per pound. There are however 2.2 pounds per kilo. As a raw material, silicon is in the $2 to $3 per kilo range vs circa 80c making it around 3x more expensive as a starting product (but still massively cheaper than other metals used in batteries).

EGR Price at posting: 22.0¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Held
5 Upvote

1 Great analysis

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