BATTERY S&T COMMERCIAL PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN AIT AUSTRIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND AMERICAN ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES CO.

The AIT Austrian Institute of Technology of Vienna, Austria, and American Energy Technologies Co. (AETC) of Wheeling, IL, USA are pleased to announce the successful completion of their third consecutive commercial Science & Technology partnership project.

After starting their joint international research collaboration on the development of flexible and scalable technologies to sustainably produce advanced battery materials, representatives of American Energy Technologies Co. (AETC) visited AIT Austrian Institute of Technology to initiate a commercial project with the aim to create a resilient and responsible supply chain.  Specifically, AETC and its partners are currently advancing the development of a fully domestic graphite supply chain within the United States. Utilizing AETC’s manufacturing facility in Illinois, the company is producing spherical graphite anode active material as well as a non-spherical graphitic co-product for application in lithium-ion batteries. The important aspect and a scientific novelty around this graphite is the fact of using AETC's "Inverted Flow Sheet" technology, which produces in the same production run spherical graphite for anodes and non-spherical additive for the cathodes. In doing so, the yield of graphite processing approaches 100%, while the incumbent technologies practiced in Southeast Asia generate only spherical graphite and their yield is currently 35 to 50 wt.%. The above difference in process yield is so significant that it could allow for graphite to be produced at costs which are competitive compared to those available from Southeast Asia but on US or European soil. This move would enable great reductions in supply chain vulnerabilities and implementation of green technologies in processing, thereby minimizing global climate impacts by irresponsible producers. This would also add predictability and transparency to the supply chain of lithium-ion batteries. All of the above would be offered at the same cost as the current global market offerings, making it a lucrative commercialization opportunity. 

Commercializing on both the main product and the co-product for simultaneous use in the same battery creates an attractive economic advantage, which could reduce the cost of making graphite within the US or EU, despite the fact that the cost structure for labor in the Western hemisphere is higher than that of the cost structure in Southeast Asian practice. The increased yield of usable battery products could off-set the increase in labor costs, and thus, justify domestic production at a highly competitive level with that practiced in Asia. 

While it is possible to find organizations in the US which will qualify the performance of spherical graphite in battery anodes, the conductive carbon is a small addition to the Bill of Materials of the battery. In that regard, qualifying its benefits over established control materials is very difficult to justify within the US. Due to this, work with AIT became natural for AETC. 

A dedicated cohort of AIT scientists first worked on a bench scale coater to define optimum electrode recipes. This work was followed by scaling the bench scale formulations to a research pilot-line coater, where battery-ready electrodes were manufactured and incorporated into 5+ Ah pouch cells. AIT houses an impressive battery manufacturing line, including dry-room facilities, where pouch cells up to 10Ah are produced. Such pouch cells are representative of a broad spectrum of applications. This includes building blocks in lithium-ion battery modules for electric vehicles and energy storage systems for green energy power plant utilities to intermittently store energy from solar and wind sources. Qualification of performance of AETC’s graphite in these large cell formats is earmarked for the second phase of the project, which is planned to start in the very near future. 

Besides their ability to use American-made graphite in both cathodes and anodes of lithium-ion batteries, scientists at AIT were able to qualify the performance of AETC’s materials in both non-aqueous and aqueous binder systems. At the moment, the majority of binder systems used in the US-made lithium-ion batteries employ classic non-aqueous binders whose application is associated with the use of toxic organic solvents, which must be recovered at additional cost. However, the US Environmental Agency (EPA) has identified such organic solvents as unreasonable health risks, whose use should be limited during manufacturing. This validating test work is going to be very useful in further steps aimed at scale up and commercialization of AETC’s Inverted Flow Sheet technology. 

AETC’s Manager of Government Relations, Anna Doninger, states: “We are very excited about the fact that mesophase carbon precursor generated in the US by one of our trusted partners and suppliers of raw materials could be processed through AETC’s Inverted Flowsheet technology, into battery-ready synthetic graphite, for use in anode active materials as well as into the cathode conductivity enhancement additives for use within the same battery system. We are extremely happy that our partnership with AIT resulted in several measurable outcomes, which could have effect on the advancement of specialty EV mobility sector within the US in particular. We look forward to conducting other stages of development and qualification work with AIT scientists and battery engineers and to see what our collaboration can bring about in the future!”

Larisa Lucut (AIT Austrian Institute of Technology) is operating a continuous roll-to-roll slot die coater to produce American Energy Technologies Co.’s graphite anodes for their incorporation into 5Ah battery cells.

Damian Cupid, AIT’s thematic coordinator for battery materials & characterization, says: “We are also very excited about this key, cross-Atlantic collaboration with AETC, which brings us new insights into the global battery materials supply chain. Qualifying and testing innovative materials developed by industrial partners is a fascinating field of work. The results we achieved together with AETC are significant, as they show that competitive technologies can be developed that allow carbon-based materials from non-conventional sources to be integrated into supply networks, thereby increasing independence and autonomy from geo-political fluctuations.”

AETC is an established, woman-owned business concern operating out of the greater Chicago area in the state of Illinois, United States of America. We are just one of three US manufacturers of graphite for lithium-ion batteries, and one of only two companies in the US which is producing battery graphite end-to-end. We are an approved supplier of graphite to several leading automotive and specialty battery systems. AETC’s new plant located in Wheeling, Illinois has a nameplate capacity of 250 tons per year (TPY) of battery-ready graphite, with our company planning to expand to 7,500 TPY by 2030.

American Energy Technologies Co. - AIT Austrian Institute of Technology Project team. From left to right: Yuri Surace (Senior Scientist, AIT), Dr. Igor V. Barsukov (Manager, Business Development, American Energy Technologies Company, Wheeling, IL, USA), Larisa Lucut (Technician, AIT), Andreas Gigl (Senior Technician, AIT), Damian Cupid (Thematic coordinator for battery materials & characterization, Senior Scientist, AIT), Katja Fröhlich (Head of Competence Unit, AIT), Irshad Mohammad (Scientist, AIT), Justen Beffa (Vice President of Operations, ACP Technologies, LLC, St. Clair Shores, MI, USA, AETC's raw material vendor).

The AIT is Austria’s largest Research and Technology Organization (RTO) and an international key player in many of the research areas they cover. This makes AIT a leading development partner for the industry. The Competence Unit “Battery Technologies”, as part of the Center for Transport Technologies, covers a wide range of activities across the battery value chain with a strong focus on improving battery cell production. The competence unit also develops new generations of battery technologies and concepts by integrating materials research with cell design, sustainable manufacturing, and production upscaling.