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Li-ion maker Electrovaya acquires Evonik Litarion and licenses SEPARION IP

Canada-based Li-ion developer and manufacturer Electrovaya Inc. has completed the acquisition of Evonik Litarion GmbH and the licensing of the ceramic composite separator SEPARION intellectual property from Evonik. The transaction includes an advanced and automated production plant for lithium-ion electrodes and ceramic composite separators, with a rated capacity of 0.5 Gigawatt hours (GWh) of electrodes and 10 million m2 of ceramic separators along with all associated intellectual property.

This transformational acquisition brings Electrovaya best-in-class manufacturing, experienced management and a strong technical team, with the manufacturing capacity to enable Electrovaya to bid on larger energy storage system opportunities worldwide.

Conventional manufacturing of lithium ion employs a toxic NMP (n-methyl-pyrrolidone) process, which is prohibitively expensive and energy intensive. Regulations are becoming more stringent in Japan, Europe and North America. Electrovaya’s unique non-toxic manufacturing technology will enable this best-in-class plant to become one of the lowest cost producers, as well as the greenest and one of the largest manufacturers globally. We are delighted to be working with an exceptional and experienced team at Litarion.

We also intend to make the ceramic composite separator available to all producers of lithium ion batteries and make it an industry standard. All lithium ion applications where safety is important such as energy storage, electric vehicles, aerospace and utilities, should, in our opinion, utilize this separator which gives vastly improved safety performance to lithium ion batteries and cells. Electrovaya’s proprietary green process provides low cost lithium ion batteries and this ceramic composite separator affords the highest safety, two critical challenges in the energy storage industry.

—Dr. Sankar Das Gupta, Chairman and CEO of Electrovaya

Separion is a proprietary ceramic composite separator for ultra-safe lithium ion battery applications. The acquisition includes an exclusive license to distribute as well as the ability to sub-license, form joint ventures, expand production within Germany, establish additional plants in Asia and elsewhere.

More than 170 protective rights relate to the Separion separator. Furthermore, Litarion owns numerous patents concerning chemical cell components for lithium-ion batteries. The portfolio contains more than 70 protective rights. Collectively, this portfolio of intellectual property and patents accompanies the purchase of Litarion.

Products from the plant will now be expanded to broader and higher margin markets including grid-scale energy storage, aerospace, micro-grids and marine industries.

Comments

HarveyD

Let's go Electrovaya and let's mass produce that 400+ Wh/Kg battery in Europe, Asia, USA and Canada!

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