[Newsprime] The electric vehicle industry has grown rapidly in recent years by implementing carbon neutrality policies in many countries to solve environmental issues on global scale. In addition, the market value of the battery industry, its core component, has increased considerably in a short period of time. According to the Bloomberg NEF 2023 survey, the global battery industry is valued at US$347.5 billion(about KRW 450 trillion).
However, as the electric vehicle industry and the battery manufacturing industry are in fierce competition to develop high-performance batteries, unexpected issues have emerged along with rapid increase in R&D costs. Conflicts between countries to secure mineral resources such as lithium, an increase in carbon dioxide emissions due to overheating of the production of mineral-based cathode materials to improve battery performance, and labor rights issues in developing countries have emerged. In this situation, as the EV industry is at war with labor-intensive resources, concerns are raised that the industry is becoming another smokestack industry.
Lithiway Co., Ltd. (CEO: Professor Hyungmo Jeong, Dept of Mechanical Engineering, Sungkyunkwan University), established as a start-up in Sungkyunkwan University in September 2023, developed "Energy-Elixir(E-Elixir)," an additive-based solution that improves battery performance in a simple way in order to contribute to solving above-mentioned problems.
The characteristics of E-Elixir are its excellent compatibility with simple additive methods, economic effect creation, and high marketability by providing customized solutions to the clients. Lithiway has already secured a source patent for E-Elixir and is planning to file four more patent applications in line with product diversification.
E-Elixir can significantly improve battery performance by adding only a small amount to the any stage of production line from material to battery cell, like cathode synthesis, slurry fabrication, or cathode film production, without requiring modifications to the manufacturer's existing production line or building new facilities, thereby reducing production costs and carbon dioxide emissions.
According to Lithiway's experimental results on the 3 most-commecially available high Ni-cathode in the market, in the case of MCN811, the addition of E-Elixir with only 0.1% amount of the cathode material weight increased the battery retention by 1.3-1.7 times, which is equivalent to cost reduction by 20-40%.
E-Elixir can be very easily applied to various products released on the market, including all kinds of cathode and anodes and next-generation batteries, and is expected to rapidly expand product line-up and have high grow potential by providing tailored solutions to meet the demand of battery producers and EV companies.
"With the development of E-Elixir, we have been collaborating with some battery manufacturers and EV companies in global top-tier group" said CEO Hyungmo Jeong. "Through a simple and innovative 'Just-Add Solution,' we can help address performance, process, and price related challenges in the battery industry. Through this, Lithiway pursues a win-win business strategy with the clients."
Lithiway was invited to the Innovative Leaders Summit(ILS) 2024 in Tokyo in December 2024, and will also participate in CES 2025 in January 2025. It also announced that it will actively pursue global partnerships and enter the global market in the near future.
