UK battery technology company Anaphite has raised £1.4 million to expand its DCP dry coating technology platform for manufacturing LFP cathodes and graphite anodes, addressing energy intensity challenges in battery production.
UK-based battery technology company Anaphite has secured £1.4 million in funding to advance its dry coating technology for lithium-iron-phosphate battery cathodes. The financing combines £700,000 in grant funding from Innovate UK’s Investor Partnerships: Clean Energy and Climate Technologies competition with £700,000 from climate-focused venture capital funds Elbow Beach and World Fund.
The investment will enable Anaphite to expand its DCP technology platform, which engineers homogenous dry composite powders for coating battery electrodes. The company plans to adapt the platform for high-throughput, high-yield production of dry coated LFP cathodes and graphite anodes.
Manufacturing LFP cathodes requires more than twice the energy per kilowatt-hour of battery cells produced compared to nickel-manganese-cobalt cathodes with medium-to-high nickel content. Material mixing and electrode coating processes account for 30 to 40 percent of total cell manufacturing energy and costs, making optimization critical for reducing both expenses and carbon footprints.
With LFP projected to represent over 55 percent of global cathode demand by 2030, demand for dry coating technologies continues to grow. However, no commercial-scale solution for dry coated LFP cathodes currently exists, creating urgency as automakers face legislative deadlines including combustion engine bans in the UK and Europe by 2030 and 2035 respectively.
“We’re thrilled to have secured this grant support from Innovate UK and the matching investment from Elbow Beach, World Fund and other Anaphite investors,” said Joe Stevenson, Anaphite’s CEO. “This enables us to attack one of the toughest technical challenges in dry coating – successfully manufacturing LFP electrodes. Once achieved at scale, it will be enormously valuable to the industry.”
The technical challenge stems from particle size differences. Current generation LFP particles measure 0.7 to 3 microns compared to 3 to 20 microns for NMC, creating significantly higher surface area and complicating homogenous mixing and dry film formation.
Anaphite’s DCP technology uses proprietary chemical compositing techniques to disperse binders and conductive carbons by attaching them to active material particles. Craig Douglas, Partner at World Fund, noted the technology’s broad applicability: “Anaphite’s technology is broadly applicable across next-generation and established battery technologies alike. This investment will enable the company to significantly expand its commercial capabilities.”
The project aims to produce dry coated LFP cathodes and graphite anodes using roll-to-roll coating techniques for mass production validation.
