Integrals Power has begun distributing samples of its lithium iron phosphate (LFP) and lithium manganese iron phosphate (LMFP) battery cathode materials to customers across the battery manufacturing, energy storage, and electric vehicle (EV) sectors including “global OEMs” in both Europe and the U.S. The milestone follows the successful start of production of the materials at Integrals Power’s UK pilot plant, with the company aiming to position itself as a key supplier in the global push for sustainable energy solutions.

“We are thrilled to begin distributing these samples to our customers in the EU and U.S.,” said Behnam Hormozi, Founder and CEO of Integrals Power. “The fact that these materials were manufactured on our UK pilot line is a proud achievement, and we are excited to see how they perform in the real-world applications of our customers in the EV, battery manufacturing, and energy storage sectors.”

LFP has gotten greater attention for its safety, long cycle life, low-temperature performance, and sustainability benefits. The material is seen as a critical enabler of the green energy transition and accounts for a growing global battery market share. The International Energy Agency reports that, in 2023, LFP was supplied for more than 40% of global EV demand, more than double its share in 2020. The company’s new UK pilot plant is capable of producing 20 t of LFP material a year and is also developing breakthrough LMFP chemistries, all made using high-purity raw materials instead of bulk precursors.

For the LMFP, the company adds manganese to the LFP mix, increasing energy density by up to 20% while maintaining the safety and cost-effectiveness for which LFP is known. Integrals Power achieved a breakthrough with an 80% manganese content instead of the 50-70% typically found in existing blends. This offers greater performance in applications such as EVs, enabling the material to compete with NCM (nickel cobalt manganese) chemistries while being more affordable and less reliant on critical minerals.

In October, Integrals Power announced it had made the LMFP breakthrough in cathode active materials for battery cells.

Applying its proprietary materials technology and patented manufacturing process, the company has overcome the drop in specific capacity that typically occurs as the percentage of manganese increases. The result is cathode active materials that support higher voltages and high energy density, which could enable EV ranges to increase by up to 20% or, for a given range, to allow battery packs to become smaller and lighter.

The LMFP materials have a higher specific capacity of 150 mA·h/g while delivering a voltage of 4.1 vs. 3.45 V for LFP. Third-party testing by experts at the University of Manchester‘s Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre (GEIC) has been completed on coin cells and is now being evaluated using EV-representative pouch cells.

“The challenge that the automotive industry has been trying to overcome for some time is to push up the percentage of manganese in LMFP cells to a high level while retaining the same specific capacity as LFP,” explained Hormozi. “With the third-party evaluation from the Energy team at GEIC, we’re proud to have developed a world-class cell material in the UK that can rival the performance of NCM but is more sustainable and more affordable and will accelerate the transition to e-mobility.”

As part of Graphene@Manchester at The University of Manchester, the GEIC says it is unique in UK academia being a state-of-the-art translation center that accelerates lab-to-market development, enabling companies to fast-track technology readiness levels and launch new technologies, products, and processes that exploit the properties of graphene and 2D materials.

“Our GEIC Energy facility, combined with its dedicated team of battery engineers, is driving the push for decarbonizing the transport sector and reinforcing the UK’s leadership in developing sustainable battery technologies,” said Nic Savjani, GEIC’s Applications Manager in Energy. “The battery cells we produced using Integral Power’s LMFP materials exhibited competitive specific capacity during testing, highlighting their potential to enhance EV efficiency and reduce costs by increasing range.”

The capability to manufacture these materials in the UK is critical to the development of a sustainable domestic battery industry and supporting not just the 2030 ban on sales of new combustion engine vehicles but also 2050’s net-zero emissions targets. Establishing manufacturing in the UK will also enhance supply chain security and transparency and mitigate geopolitical issues such as import tariffs on EVs and their components.

Integrals Power sources all its raw materials from European and North American suppliers, which the company says ensures purer, higher performance LFP and LMFP cathode materials with greater energy density compared to the Chinese-manufactured cathode materials that currently account for around 90% of production worldwide, according to the IEA.