The US Department of Energy (DOE) is awarding $20 million to Ion Storage Systems to support the scale-up of domestic manufacturing of next-generation solid-state lithium-metal batteries and to accelerate commercialization of the technology into the electric vehicle market.

Ion is commercializing next-generation, high-power-density, solid-state lithium-metal batteries, based on ceramic electrolyte manufacturing for large-scale, low-cost battery production. The battery’s 3D ceramic solid- state electrolyte architecture is nonflammable, making it intrinsically safer to use and store and works with myriad cathode chemistries and cell configurations.

A key feature is that there is no change in volume during cycling, resulting in simpler module packaging and higher pack level density.

Ion will mature the design and manufacturing processes toward deployment in the electric vehicle market with expansion opportunities into consumer electronics and defense applications. Ion’s ceramics-based approach has the potential to reduce battery manufacturing greenhouse gas emissions by 50% per kilowatt-hour.

The funding is one of four awards totalling $63.5 million for transformative technologies through the ARPA-E Seeding Critical Advances for Leading Energy technologies with Untapped Potential (SCALEUP) program. (Earlier post.)

The SCALEUP program provides new funding to previous ARPA-E awardees that have successfully de-risked their technology and established a viable route to commercial deployment.

The other three projects selected as part of the latest SCALEUP program are:

• AeroShield Materials will develop a pilot manufacturing facility for aerogels for high-efficiency insulated glass units that will enable residential and commercial buildings to become more energy efficient, meeting current and future ENERGY STAR targets for windows. (Award amount: $14,500,000)

• Antora Energy will scale up production of its thermal battery technology, which turns low-cost renewable energy into reliable, on-demand heat and power for industrial facilities, enabling rapid decarbonization of the industrial sector. (Award amount: $14,500,000)

• Queens Carbon will develop an on-site pilot facility capable of producing carbon-neutral supplemental cementitious materials using industry standard raw materials to support decarbonized cement production. (Award amount: $14,500,000)

This is the third cohort of projects selected under the SCALEUP program. One of the project teams from the initial SCALEUP—Natron Energy, a global leader in sodium-ion battery technology—recently began commercial-scale operations at its manufacturing facility in Holland, Michigan.

Sila—a next-generation battery materials company also funded under SCALEUP—was recently selected to receive up to $100 million in funding through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) to support the build-out of a facility in Moses Lake, Washington.