Business case for fluorinated battery electrolyte materials (Biz-Fluor-Bat)

This project seeks to develop a specific plan and business case for investment in a new UK based manufacturing capability for a key material in the Li-Ion battery chemical supply chain, LiPF6\.

To deliver this, FluoRok seeks to develop a detailed business and project plan for the development, execution, and commissioning of the new high value UK based manufacturing operation. To provide the quantitative information for the business case/plan FluoRok will commission a pilot manufacturing plant, delivering data on manufacturing economics, and work with subcontractors to develop a detailed go-to market strategy, engineering designs, supply chain, organisational structure, risk analysis, financial and funding plan for the manufacturing plant.

BIZ-FLUOR-BAT targets the development of a vital aspect of the UK based automotive supply chain. LiPF6 is the main Li-Ion battery electrolyte salt responsible for enabling the shuttling of the Li-Ions between the electrodes with the electrolyte formulation. The supply of LiPF6 is of critical importance as it represents a significant portion of materials costs for the electrolyte formulation, and cell costs, and represents a crucial supply chain risk for the UK battery/automotive industry with the majority derived from China.

This project exploits a highly innovative chemical manufacturing process developed within FluoRok's business and based on a seminal work from the University of Oxford (Science DOI: 10.1126/science.adi1557). FluoRok has developed an innovative process, which enables manufacturing of fluorochemicals, such as LiPF6, with lower manufacturing costs (operational expense/capital), improved safety, improved/lower emissions (eCO2), and a highly flexible/diverse supply chain.

Furthermore, FluoRok's process can utilise waste streams of the key raw material(CaF2), a material listed on both EU/US critical minerals lists and predicted to be in significant shortfall in the coming years.

FluoRok's process is in stark contrast to existing manufacturing routes which are based on Hydrogen Fluoride (HF), a highly dangerous, hazardous and corrosive gas effectively limiting development of a local supply chain due to difficult regulatory/manufacturing hurdles and extreme manufacturing costs in regions with effective regulatory/environmental controls. FluoRok's technology breaks this paradigm enabling the development of a UK based supply chain and provides the UK electric vehicle industry a unique competitive advantage.