Solidion Technology, Inc. (Solidion), an advanced battery technology solutions provider, aims to address the burgeoning battery materials supply shortage, driven by anticipated soaring demand for electric vehicle (EV) and energy storage systems (ESS) battery capacities.

 

Solidion plans to build a graphite production facility in the Southeast United States with an initial capacity of 10,000 metric tons per annum (MTA) by the end of 2026, which will be expanded to ~180,000 MTA by 2030 to fulfill the growing domestic demand. This US domestic facility will manufacture graphite anode materials primarily from biomass, an abundant and sustainable class of feedstock materials for battery-grade graphite production in North America.

According to Benchmark Mineral Intelligence1, the annual worldwide graphite demand in 2035 is forecast to be 12.4 million metric tons (7.2 million tons of natural graphite and 5.2 million tons of synthetic graphite). As of 2022, the production capacity of the graphite industry was only 3.2 million tons per year. By 2035, the world will need additional 97 natural graphite mines, each producing 56,000 tons, and additional 54 synthetic graphite factories, each producing 57,000 tons per year. 

According to a recent Department of Energy report, China produced 84% of the global lithium-ion anode materials in 2021, whereas the domestic sources produced only 0.6% per annum. The US supply shortage will likely worsen as China has stated that it intends to put in place graphite export restrictions beginning in December 2022.

Having developed a cost-effective process for mass-manufacturing green graphite anode materials from sustainable biomass sources, Solidion's years of in-depth R&D and anode manufacturing experience put it in a unique position to capitalize on the rapidly changing EV battery materials market.