A 300-million-euro ($320 million) investment from Stellantis Ventures announced Thursday will enable Stellantis and Lyten to develop solutions together with these batteries plus additional technology from the California startup.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It’s claiming some serious supply-chain advantages and environmental bona fides, too. The companies say the Lyten battery has \u201ca pathway to achieve the lowest emissions EV battery on the global market.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Stellantis](\"https:\/\/images.hgmsites.net\/lrg\/stellantis-and-lyten--3d-graphene_100886093_l.jpg\" "\\"Stellantis")
<\/p>\nStellantis and Lyten – 3D graphene<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Lyten is currently quoting a 6% lower carbon footprint in the manufacture of the battery compared to NMC batteries, and it\u2019s working on a plan to lower that towards carbon neutral, according to Keith Norman, Lyten\u2019s chief sustainability officer.<\/p>\n
Lithium-sulfur cells have long been seen as a chemistry with strong potential but with real-world barriers around cycle life, or degradation, as well as manufacturability. Going back to earlier last decade, experts have been seeing lithium-sulfur battery tech as becoming commercially viable around 2030<\/a>, and if all goes well Lyten\u2019s tech may be on the leading edge of that.\u00a0<\/p>\n Looking back, Australian researchers in 2020 reported that they saw the potential to double EV range with lithium-sulfur cells<\/a>, but they faced issues with a low cycle life. Other researchers successfully introduced a manganese nanosheet composite<\/a> to control this undesirable \u201cshuttling\u201d behavior, but that poses manufacturing issues. Researchers at the DOE\u2019s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory overcame the issue with \u201ca sulfur-graphene oxide nanocomposite cathode,\u201d but manufacturability there too appeared to get in the way.<\/p>\n Lyten illustrating 3D graphene<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Lyten claims to be \u201cthe pioneer of tunable 3D graphene supermaterials,\u201d and the firm says that it\u2019s what makes the lithium-sulfur battery chemistry possible.<\/p>\n For the lithium-ion battery, the graphene helps hold sulfur atoms in place and prevent that shuttling of them as it charges and discharges. Secondly, it helps allow greater energy density, simply through the 3D texture.\u00a0<\/p>\n To get graphene from a planar sheet of carbon atoms to something useful here, it uses a \u201cpatent-protected reactor technology\u201d to convert that planar structure to \u201cthree-dimentional carbon shapes and structures\u201d\u2014essentially taking a piece of paper and crumpling it. That, according to Norman, brings the reactivity up by orders of magnitude, and allows the company to tune the materials to the characteristics it needs.\u00a0<\/p>\n Lyten claims that its chemistry brings a 60% lower carbon footprint versus today\u2019s lithium-ion cells. The company says that it can deliver more than twice the energy density of lithium-ion cells,\u00a0<\/p>\n The company also says that it can produce its 3D graphene n a carbon-negative manner at scale while, with all the rest of the battery in consideration it can deliver \u201ca world-leading carbon footprint.\u201d<\/p>\n STLA Large platform – Stellantis EVs<\/p>\n<\/div>\n It also says the tech is good to take global\u2014partly because of its simplified bill of materials.\u00a0<\/p>\n As exotic as 3D graphene sounds, these lithium-sulfur batteries need no nickel, cobalt, or manganese for their cathodes, and that takes a huge burden off automakers and battery makers in metal and mineral procurement.\u00a0<\/p>\n Lyten makes the graphene from natural gas (methane), in a process that they say can be carbon negative (as it produces hydrogen as a byproduct). That natural gas is abundantly available. So is sulfur, as a waste product of the mining industry. That helps simplify the supply chain and eliminate some of the geopolitical risk. Meanwhile, lithium investment is quite dispersed around the globe, the firm says.\u00a0<\/p>\n Because of those lower costs, Lyten believes it has \u201ca battery chemistry for the masses,\u201d as Norman put it\u2014especially when you consider that, capacity the same, it can reduce EV weight.\u00a0<\/p>\n Cylindrical, pouch, and prismatic cell formats<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Cylindrical cells – Lyten<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Lyten pouch cell<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Lyten prismatic cell<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Lyten is also looking into a wide range of form factors already made by big battery players like Panasonic or Samsung SDI, leading with cylindrical cells in a common 18650 format, then including pouch cells and eventually perhaps prismatic. Thus, they\u2019ll be able to be fitted into all sorts of applications\u2014including potentially aerospace and last-mile delivery.<\/p>\n Further, it can be made on the same equipment as existing nickel-based cell lines, the firm says.<\/p>\n \u201cWe’ve been able to develop our lithium-sulfur solution to basically be producible on existing types of manufacturing technology lines, with some very modest modifications,\u201d said CEO and co-founder Dan Cook. \u201cWe estimate somewhere in the neighborhood of about 10 to 15% of the direct costs of the manufacturing line itself to make minor modifications to handle the lithium-sulfur architecture.\u201d<\/p>\n Lyten has just opened a pilot lithium-sulfur battery line in San Jose and will be delivering batteries to customers for testing and qualification soon. The goal of that line is to produce about 200,000 cells a year and test the equipment and production process, but it hopes to establish a gigawatt-scale line to speed up EV adoption in the second half of the decade.\u00a0<\/p>\n Cook said that the company is looking to deploy its tech in the U.S. initially, then Europe and beyond as the company progresses.\u00a0<\/p>\n Besides batteries, Lyten is also working with Stellantis on a new generation of sensors, and on using its graphene to make lightweight composites that could help reduce the weight of vehicles.<\/p>\n![\"Lyten](\"https:\/\/images.hgmsites.net\/lrg\/lyten-illustrating-3d-graphene_100886088_l.jpg\" "\\"Lyten")
<\/p>\nWhy lithium-sulfur might work this time<\/h2>\n
![\"STLA](\"https:\/\/images.hgmsites.net\/lrg\/stla-large-platform--stellantis-evs_100799009_l.jpg\" "\\"STLA")
<\/p>\nEV battery tech that can go global<\/h2>\n
![\"Cylindrical,](\"https:\/\/images.hgmsites.net\/lrg\/cylindrical-pouch-and-prismatic-cell-formats_100886091_l.jpg\" "\\"Cylindrical,")
<\/p>\n![\"Cylindrical](\"https:\/\/images.hgmsites.net\/lrg\/cylindrical-cells--lyten_100886092_l.jpg\" "\\"Cylindrical")
<\/p>\n![\"Lyten](\"https:\/\/images.hgmsites.net\/lrg\/lyten-pouch-cell_100886090_l.jpg\" "\\"Lyten")
<\/p>\n![\"Lyten](\"https:\/\/images.hgmsites.net\/lrg\/lyten-prismatic-cell_100886089_l.jpg\" "\\"Lyten")
<\/p>\nWouldn\u2019t require new EV battery factories<\/h2>\n
![\"Stellantis](\"https:\/\/images.hgmsites.net\/lrg\/stellantis-targets-net-zero-carbon-emissions-by-2038_100871542_l.jpg\" "\\"Stellantis")
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