Graphite producer and natural graphite anode developer Volt Resources Limited (ASX: VRC) has obtained a significant new results with the development of its graphite anode business.
Volt’s natural graphite anode has undergone industry testing to assess how well it meets market requirements. Volt’s flake graphite was purified to greater than 99.95% purity, spherodized, coated and then incorporated into multiple 32650 lithium-ion cylindrical batteries (a popular size and format). Except for Volt NGA, other components of the 32650 batteries of 5 Ah capacity were commercial products.
The battery was cycled between 4.25 to 2.50 volt to evaluate its cycle life. Cycle life data obtained over 100 cycles are shown below. Extrapolation of these data suggest that one can obtain 1,331 cycle life (number of cycles needed to get 20% degradation of capacity) with Volt NGA. This exceeds the typical electric vehicle target of 1,000 cycles. The compans plans to continue the product optimisation and cycle life studies.
North American LIB producer
Volt plans to deliver the sample to the customer in June 2023.
Graphite, a critical mineral in both US and Europe, is one of the largest components by weight of lithium-ion batteries (LIB), with a typical electric vehicle battery containing 60-70 kg of graphite.
Graphite demand in North America for LIBs is expected to reach 800-1,000 Ktpa by 2030, which offers a tremendous growth opportunity for integrated NGA producers such as Volt and is driving an increased customer interest in testing our NGA.
“We are excited about the progress in our downstream business and execution of our integrated graphite anode production strategy. We believe that this strategy offers our customers Inflation Reduction Act compliant product that meets performance criteria and supply chain security especially considering demand vs supply gap,” Chief Executive Officer, Prashant Chintawar, said.
