Electrofloat was instrumental to advance the industrialisation and commercialisation of the initial IP. The IP portfolio related to the project has led to creation of a spinoff company (Floatech). The company has an established and registered product (SiCoil) supplied to customers in three continents. It has a fully operational pilot plant and 8 permanent staff, funded through its seed round led by VCs. Given strong interest from clients and need for rapid scale up to meet the demands the next generation batteries for EVs, Floatech is accelerating the integration of its anode in pre-commercial cells and increasing personnel for manufacture and ramp-up. It expects to close its series A round shortly.
The specific objectives of Electrofloat were largely completed.
One of the streams was to achieve synthesis with high selectivity and size control This objective has been broadly achieved: synthesis control will be reported in an upcoming publication. Furthermore, in the project the team was able to devise a strategy for catalyst control to increase production by a factor of X10 through a new, proprietary catalyst delivery method.
A second stream was the demonstration of improved electrochemical properties, particularly high capacity and high capacity retention, which was also achieved.
A third stream revolved around the fabrication of cell prototypes. Indeed, during the project large area pouch cells were manufactured using semi-industrial cell assembly methods. This demonstration of cell manufacture at prototype level has been very beneficial to engage with cell producer clients to start co-development activities.
The fourth stream dealt with techno-economic analysis, including a 5 year profit and loss analysis. This was successfully achieved at the start of the project, providing insights to secure the seed round of Floatech. Based on such analysis, the company has now a detailed financial analysis and business plan for scale-up to the level of commercialisation for EV batteries in coming years.
