Kyocera, which is a long-time partner and investor of 24M, intends to validate the 24M SemiSolid manufacturing platform.
The Japanese corporation hopes that a low-capital and cost-effective approach to lithium-ion battery manufacturing is achievable at scale and will allow for expanding residential sales throughout Japan.
The pilot production of residential solar and storage system will be conducted in a new facility, under construction in Osaka, Japan. The promising announcement from 24M also gives hope that EV batteries will be more energy dense (up to 350 Wh/kg) and more affordable.
"The 24M SemiSolid manufacturing platform delivers a significant structural bill of materials advantage and requires substantially less upfront capital. Using electrolyte as the processing solvent in a binderless system, the SemiSolid platform allows for production of electrodes 4-5 times thicker than a conventional process. The use of thick electrodes significantly reduces inactive materials content – copper, aluminum and separator – yielding substantial cost savings.
Moreover, using electrolyte as the processing solvent results in the elimination of numerous capital- and energy-intensive steps like drying, solvent recovery, calendaring and electrolyte filling. The elimination of these steps, and the reduction in plant footprint associated with the steps, yields a capital reduction of up to 50%. In conjunction with the thick-electrode-driven structural bill of materials advantage, the reduced capital cost structure contributes to industry-leading cost of goods."
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Masahiro Inagaki, Senior Executive Officer at Kyocera said:
“Kyocera considers the unique 24M SemiSolid approach the emerging standard for lithium-ion battery manufacturing. The ability to cost-effectively manufacture advanced lithium-ion batteries can enable Kyocera to expand residential sales throughout Japan.”
Naoki Ota, President and CTO of 24M said:
“Kyocera is a long-time investor and supportive partner of 24M and we look forward to realizing our shared vision for cost-effective lithium-ion battery manufacturing. Kyocera’s plans to use the 24M SemiSolid platform is validation that our low-capital, cost-effective approach is achievable at scale.”