Dürr has developed X.Cellify DC, a dry electrode coating system that forms a free-standing film of active material – 100% recyclable until laminated onto the collector foil.
This innovation significantly reduces material waste and is now ready for industrial pilot projects on a gigawatt scale, starting with lithium-ion batteries and extending to solid-state formats.
Unlike traditional wet coating, which applies cathode and anode materials as a solution and requires energy-intensive drying, Dürr’s dry coating process uses a powder mixture. The Activated Dry Electrode® method, developed by LiCAP Technologies, presses the material into a film without solvents or ovens. X.Cellify DC covers all stages: dosing, film formation, densification and lamination.
Dry coating offers major advantages: up to 65% less production space and 70% lower energy use, thanks to the elimination of dryers and solvent recovery.
“The successful proof of concept is a major step forward for us,” said Bernhard Bruhn, vice president of Dürr’s Global Business Unit LIB. “We have demonstrated that the new kind of dry coating with free-standing film works reliably and delivers consistently good quality. It can be scaled up, making it the basis for initial pilot projects in industry,”
At Dürr’s Chassieu site in France, calenders form and compress the film before lamination.
“Since we don’t need a carrier foil until the final step, we can return the film to the process in its entirety if it does not meet the desired specifications. Thanks to the closed loop, no valuable active material is lost and we significantly reduce waste”, adds Bruhn.
Dürr is now seeking pilot partners to bring this scalable dry coating technology into real-world production.
