Canadian lithium battery developer Volt Carbon Technologies has received a second United States patent for its dry-separation graphite platform and reported new technical results from its lithium battery development program.
Volt Carbon has received its patent titled “Method and System for Aerodynamic Air Classification” from the United States Patent and Trademark Office, issued as USPTO Patent Number 12491538. The patents for its air classification technology support the aerodynamic separation method at the core of its dry separation graphite purification technology.
The company operates a lithium-ion battery plant and a graphite processing facility in Guelph, Ontario and holds mining claims across Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia.
Recent work at the Guelph facility includes long-duration cycling, high-rate discharge testing, and expanded low-temperature evaluations to determine the most effective configurations for extended cycle life and high discharge performance in its batteries.
The testing is part of the company’s ongoing work to refine its lithium metal architecture. The battery has now achieved 1,600 cycles at a 0.75 C discharge rate and demonstrates stable behavior over a significant number of cycles, the company noted. The cathode loading used for this single layer pouch cell is projected to support a 340 Wh/kg lithium metal configuration with parallel testing underway to advance the company’s 400 Wh/kg design.
Cells tested at a 10 C discharge rate using Volt’s low temperature electrolyte formulation demonstrated strong capacity retention under high power demand. This highlights the chemistry’s ability to deliver rapid discharge performance while maintaining stability.
The battery demonstrated stable behavior and strong operating characteristics under cold-load conditions, having made meaningful gains in performance below -40° C compared with its previously reported performance last year.
In a separate evaluation using a different cell format, Volt Carbon also completed a comparative low-temperature test of its Solid UltraBattery pouch cell against a commercially available 21700 lithium-ion cell.
The Solid UltraBattery pouch cell delivered usable performance at -20° C and -40° C, while the commercial 21700 cell showed a rapid decline at -20° C and complete failure at -40° C. Previous testing has shown Volt’s cell can withstand temperatures as low as -80° C.
“Demonstrating strong retention at a 10 C discharge rate is important for aerospace and UAV applications that require rapid power delivery,” said V-Bond Lee, President and Chief Executive Officer. “These performance levels are generally not seen together in lithium-metal systems, making the results important for engineering teams evaluating high-power or cold-weather platforms. Strengthening our IP portfolio alongside this technical progress remains an important part of our strategy.”
Source: Volt Carbon Technologies
