PERTH (miningweekly.com) –  A consortium, which includes ASX-listed Talga Resources, has gained funding from the UK government’s ISCF Faraday Battery Challenge initiative, which would see the development of Talga’s graphitic anode for solid state batteries.

Talga on Wednesday said that the Faraday project aimed to address the industrial and fundamental challenges of solid state batteries by combining Talga’s technology arm at Cambridge with multinational chemical sand sustainable technologies company Johnson Matthey, and with Sheffield University, one of the UK’s leading battery materials group.

While solid state batteries are theoretically capable of high performance, they have suffered a range of technical and commercial issues, hindering development, with none of the solid state batteries to date exceeding the performance and economic requirements of lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicles.

Talga pointed out that a major bottleneck of solid state development is the anode, safety issues both within the battery and in mass production, and higher costs.

The company is hoping to overcome these issues through a new high capacity graphitic carbon composite anode designed to have multiple advantages including faster charge, higher power, easier processability, safer handling, highly scalable industrial manufacturing, and lower costs.

“This new anode product, Talnode-E, joins our range of advanced battery materials designed to provide leverage to current and emerging battery technologies, delivering ongoing opportunities for growth,” said Talga MD Mark Thompson.

“We are seeing increased customer demand for solid state batteries, and have attained non-disclosure agreements with leading electronic and automotive companies looking to test our anodes based on our 100%-owned Swedish graphite supply.”

With the funding now awarded, joint development agreements between the consortium partners have been executed and project activities have started.