Startup Dive: Battrion
"More with less" via anode architecture
This is part of Intercalation’s paid series where we dive deeper into battery companies. In this issue, we explore ETH Zurich spinout Battrion (featuring their shiny new website).
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Intro
In this issue, I spoke with Max Kory to learn more about Battrion. I’m particularly fascinated by battery electrode architecture as well as university spinouts started by entrepreneurial academics and have been thinking about Battrion for a while. In March 2022, the company announced their latest partnership with Jagenberg including plans to scale to gigawatt-hour potential with their new partners.
In a battery ecosystem where materials are limited, customers looking for better performing end products, and looking to reduce reliance on foreign suppliers, Battrion’s Aligned Graphite technology concept is simple in theory and has the potential to do “more with less”. It’s exciting to me to see work translate from benchtop-scale PhD studies and into factories, and thought Intercalation readers may be interested too.
Origin
The company was started in 2015 from the idea of Martin Ebner who was doing his PhD at ETH Zurich under Professor Vanessa Wood. While at ETH, he received the ETH Zurich Pioneer Fellowship which allowed Martin along with co-founders and fellow PhD mates Max Kory and Deniz Bozyigit to develop a proof-of-concept. Today the company is led by Thomas Gebauer (CEO), the two original co-founders Martin Ebner (CTO) & Max Kory (COO), and Neil Turton (EVP Manufacturing)
From 2015-21, the company operated in stealth mode conducting R&D, working on pilot projects with Hilti power tools, set up a 20MWh pilot line in Dubendorf, Zurich to develop and test customer samples, and raised about CHF 6.5M ($7m USD) in venture and debt financing.
Most recently in March 2022, Battrion announced their latest partnership with Jagenberg to build to GWh scale and hope to see the tech in EVs by 2024.
Technology
Battrion’s core product is its Aligned Graphite which helps streamline the diffusion of lithium ions in and out of the graphite anode.
On a product level, this has the potential to enable lower cell resistance (claiming approx. 50% reduction on their product datasheets on the old website e.g. 8.1 Ω/cm2 Aligned Graphite vs 16.2 Ω/cm2 regular graphite), shorter charging time, less heat generation, and improved safety.
This has two (and maybe 3?) main benefits: