Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd. (CATL), the world’s largest electric-vehicle and energy-storage battery manufacturer, has taken a strategic stake in New Zealand-based CarbonScape Ltd. as part of a partnership to accelerate production of forestry-derived battery graphite.
CATL and Hong Kong-based investment firm Lochpine Capital will together hold a combined 20% shareholding in CarbonScape, with board representation. CarbonScape develops battery-grade biographite by converting forestry byproducts such as woodchips and sawdust into graphite for lithium-ion battery anodes.
The partnership will allow CarbonScape’s technology to be tested at demonstration scale at CATL’s existing facilities in China. The companies aim to support commercial biographite production by the end of the decade.
Graphite is a key raw material used in lithium-ion battery anodes and can account for up to half of a battery cell by volume. A typical electric vehicle contains about 50 to 100 kilograms of graphite, more than its combined lithium, nickel and cobalt content, according to CarbonScape.
