UK-based Faradion Limited has secured investment from a group comprising Haldor Topsoe, a catalysis technologies developer, and Finance Yorkshire’s Seedcorn and Rising Stars Growth Fund.
Haldor Topsoe acquired an 18% equity interest in the Sheffield sodium-ion battery developer and will collaborate to co-develop and scale up the technology to commercial level. The Danish engineering firm will also hold a license to manufacture and sell cathode materials using Faradion’s technology.
While interest in sodium-ion batteries has been high in recent years, there has been relatively little R&D in this area. Faradion hopes its own increase in R&D will enable it to bring the advanced battery materials to market.
Faradion is working toward replacing the lithium in a lithium-ion battery with metal sodium for large-scale batteries that Faradion claims will have the same performance level at a much lower cost.
“The relationship with Haldor Topsoe provides us with a fast-track route to bring our proprietary materials to market in commercial quantities. Haldor Topsoe’s experience of large-scale manufacturing of highly similar materials will enable the future users of our technology to secure high quality materials in commercial volumes at competitive prices,” says Chris Wright CEO Faradion Ltd.
The technology is being aimed at the automotive and stationary storage markets.
