Project description and overview:

Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP) batteries are a type of rechargeable battery, specifically a Lithium Ion battery, using LFP powder as the cathode material. These batteries are finding a number of roles in electric vehicle, utility scale stationary applications, and backup power storage. The LFP powders used as the cathode material have the following advantages over other cathode materials such as Cobalt Oxide, Nickel Oxide and Manganese Nickel Oxide:

• Low cost as compared to other cathode materials
• Low toxicity
• Well-defined performance
• Long-term cycling stability
• High thermal and chemical stability during operation etc.

The current VSPC Generation 4 LFP powder technology delivers more sustainable and high-performance LFP powder due to its unique uniform carbon coated nanoengineered particle morphology tailored for use as cathode materials in LFP batteries. Although there are substantial advantages to the established VSPC Generation 4 process, the high cost of certain input raw materials is still a major economic impediment to commercialisation in Australia and for global export.

In this project, VSPC and their partners aim to reduce the production cost of VSPC Generation 4 LFP powder by:

• Integrating “commercial grade” low cost iron sources into the VSPC manufacturing process.
• Determining the feasibility of alternative lithium sources in the VSPC manufacturing process.

VSPC will continuously explore the prospects of technological integration and R&D partnerships, with its Brisbane facility well positioned to develop other high-performance battery materials.