Vianode, an Elkem company, has successfully operationalized its industrial pilot in Kristiansand, Norway.
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To enable faster market entry of Vianode’s products, the company has entered into a lease agreement for an additional building at Herøya Industrial Park in Porsgrunn, Norway. The initiative targets to shorten the time to production start and increase Vianode’s overall capacity at Herøya Industrial Park.
The building is located next to the site where Vianode plans to establish the large-scale plant and is intended for a fast-track option that is being considered to address the strong demand from customers and to shorten time to market. A fast-track plant will also represent a platform for further technology and process development.
The potential fast-track plant at Herøya can add an additional 5,000 metric tons of production capacity, bringing Vianode’s total production at Herøya to approximately 60,000 metric tons of synthetic graphite – equivalent to close to 1 million electric vehicles per year.
Vianode is creating long-term solutions for active anode materials in support of the clean energy transition to energy storage for renewables and electric vehicles.
Vianode’s advanced battery materials increase safety and reduce charging time in electric vehicles and other sophisticated energy storage applications.
In addition to synthetic graphite materials, Vianode and Elkem continue to carry out advanced research on silicon-graphite composite materials for improved battery performance for the years to come.
Vianode is participating in the Hydra and 3beLiEVe research projects on next generation lithium-ion batteries, coordinated by SINTEF and the Austrian Institute of Technology, respectively. Both projects have received funding from the EU Horizon programme.
Vianode is also investing in R&D on recycling of battery-grade graphite which is supported by the Norwegian Research Council.
Vianode has previously received grants from Innovation Norway related to the pilot plant and from Enova for planning the battery materials industrial plant. ■