SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA: Australian technology company Calix Limited will be joining the $150 million Future Battery Industries Co-operative Research Centre (FBI-CRC) after the official opening of its BATMn reactor for advanced battery materials by Senator David Van in Bacchus Marsh, Victoria.

Calix has been invited to join the $150 million Future Battery Industries Co-operative Research Centre (FBI-CRC) as a key participant, given the role its technology could play not only in developing advanced battery materials, but also in improving extractive mineral techniques such as Lithium from Spodumene ore.

The FBI-CRC is the largest and most ambitious battery development program in Australia. With $25 million in Australian Government support, and the remainder from core industry participants such as BHP, Tianqi Lithium and Galaxy Resources, the ambition of the FBI-CRC is to position Australia as a world leader in innovative energy minerals extraction, processing and upstream battery storage technologies as well as how batteries are used in cities and regions.

BATMn is a $2.7 million proprietary electric reactor, based on Calix’s core technology, for producing advanced battery materials, part-funded by the Australian government through the Advanced Manufacturing Growth Fund.

BATMn was successfully commissioned on time and under budget in August, 2019.Membership of the FBI-CRC comes on top of Calix’s participation in the Australian Research Council $6.5 million StorEnergy industrial innovation training centre (announced August 2018), the EU Horizon 2020 €3.9 million Polystorage (Polymers for Next Generation Electrochemical Energy Storage) program and the Calix-led $9.4 million CRC-P for Advanced Hybrid Batteries (announced August 2019).

The rapid development of these research and development programs, and the associated international networks including global major industrial companies, is a testament to the potential of Calix’s platform technology, and the successful execution of Calix’s strategy to leverage this technology into new industries.

Phil Hodgson, CEO, Calix, said, “The rapid growth in electric vehicles and renewable energy is creating a global need for more efficient, cheaper, higher-capacity and more sustainable energy storage options. While a large part of this growth has been enabled through the performance of lithium-ion batteries, the issues around the cost, capacity, safety and sustainability of current lithium-ion batteries will increasingly limit this growth.

“There is a need for advanced materials for lithium-ion batteries that deliver superior performance and safety at lower cost while at the same time reducing environmental impact. With BATMn, and our expanded network of research institutes and major industrial players, this is exactly what Calix is trying to achieve.”

Dr Matt Boot-Handford, Calix’s R&D manager for batteries and catalysts, said, “Calix collaborates with and has backing from the government, industry, and research institutions including the Institute for Frontier Materials (IFM) and BatTRI-Hub at Deakin University, Monash University, Queensland University of Technology, the European Union and Boron Molecular Pty Ltd. For advanced battery development, this is critical in fast-tracking development and commercialisation of high-performance electrochemical energy storage devices.”