Metallurgical Silicon Technology as an Alternative to Graphite
California-based battery technology company Coreshell Technologies has received a $50 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Manufacturing Deployment. This funding, provided under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, will be used to establish the first U.S. gigafactory for lithium-ion batteries that use metallurgical silicon (MGS) entirely as an anode material in the anode structure.
With China controlling more than 93% of the global graphite supply chain, the battery industry faces a critical dependency. More than 100 thousand tons of metallurgical silicon are produced annually in the U.S. domestic market. Through its anode technology, Coreshell aims to meet all raw material requirements from domestic sources and overcome supply chain constraints.
Low Energy Consumption with Dry-Coating Technology
Massachusetts-based AM Batteries is collaborating on the project. Instead of conventional wet-electrode coating methods, production will use AM Batteries’ dry-coating technology called Powder-to-Electrode.
This process eliminates the need for solvent chemicals as well as the energy-intensive drying stages. This significantly reduces the facility’s construction costs and operating expenses.
The facility will have an annual electrode production capacity of approximately 2 gigawatt-hours (GWh) and a cell assembly capacity of 1.5 GWh. As part of the work to be carried out simultaneously with construction and equipment installation, more than 100 new jobs are planned in technical, administrative and production positions.
Defense Industry and Electric Vehicle Standards
The battery cells will be developed to meet the criteria of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and will be used in commercial electric vehicles and military defense applications. The project aims to deliver the high theoretical capacity of silicon anodes at commercial scale and compete directly with Asia-based manufacturers in terms of price and performance.