SOURCE

Synthetic graphite for Lithium-Ion battery anodes

Characteristics

SOURCE develops and demonstrates economically and environmentally sustainable technologies to produce synthetic graphite for high-performance lithium-ion battery anodes. The project uses diverse raw materials to obtain carbon precursors, including alternative petroleum feedstocks, bio-waste, and black mass from recycled batteries, reducing dependence on petroleum coke. Low-temperature graphitization (<1000°C vs ~3000°C) is expected to cut energy use and costs by over 30%. Advanced anodes with carbon/graphite, silicon/graphite, and graphene/graphite coatings (>350 mAh/g) will be validated in 1 Ah pouch prototype cells, and graphite recovery processes from end-of-life batteries and production scrap will be developed.

Result to be enhanced

Our goal is to produce high quality synthetic graphite in a sustainable and economic way. We aim to do this by developing recycling processes to recover graphite from end-of-life batteries and production scrap, implementing low-temperature techniques to reduce energy consumption and producing carbon precursors from diverse raw materials to reduce the dependence on petroleum-based coke.

Why is it important?

The overall decrease in gas emissions related to graphite production is one of the main challenges for SOURCE. European coke plants emit to the atmosphere around 0.8 t CO2/t coke. Environmental concerns have increased the need to implement new technologies to obtain more sustainable processes. In the case of synthetic graphite, the use of biomass is one of the alternatives that can bring reduction to the CO2 release. A strategy that will be used to tackle reduction of permanent gases and emission of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) is the implementation of biomass-based reducing agents, which offer an excellent opportunity for decreasing emissions.