Electroflow promises to make LFP material for 40% less than Chinese producers

The battery world fell over the cure for lithium-iron-phosphate cells, a cheap, sustainable chemistry that could reduce the price of a vehicle Thousands of dollarsThe Customs and anti -Chinese rules have complicated the image for American automakers.

“We think the LFP is a missing element for energy enrichment. The problem is that it literally made 99% in China,” Eric McShen Techchen, co-founder and CEO of Electrophlo, told Techchen. “If we want to get the opportunity to competition we’ve been able to flip that script.”

McShan and his co-founder Ivan Gardner created a technology that they think that Chinese producers are capable of spending several steps in the production process. If they can supply they can deduct an LPF battery as 20% when making a domestic supply chain.

“We looked at the whole process of mining, starting from the rock or salt water and all the way to lithium chemicals. We were, people, it was like ten steps,” he said. “This is definitely not the best way to do it.”

Most lithium in the world comes from the salty water found in deep underground. When pumped on the surface, those brines can be processed to extract the lithium they have. Brines in the United States have several million tons of lithium, enough to produce several million EVs every year. The possibility is so big that is exenmobil A site is being developed in ArkansasHowever, the cost of purification makes it difficult to compete with Chinese suppliers.

Sells around the elder powered from China Every metric ton of $ 4,000 Today, it is about a third of what it costs to the United States. However, McShan said that once the electrophlo was once in the entire scale production, he hopes that it will be able to produce at least 40% less than Chinese producers while doing this in the United States.

“In our V1 system – the end of this year – our goal should be about $ 5,000 per $ 5,000 [metric] Tons are going to cost the production cost, and we’re going to scale up and getting it less than $ 2,500 every [metric] Ton, “he said.

Electrophlo has recently raised a million seeds of a million seeds, learning TechCrunch exclusively. The round was led by Union Square Ventures and Voyza with the participation of Herpon Venture.

The process developed by the electrophlo takes only three steps to convert saline water into LFP elements. The startup recently proved that the technology has worked on a Pipe from a pipe on a geothermal site in California.

The electrophlo technology itself is based on the lithium-ion battery, not surprising that both McShan and Gardner studied battery and battery materials before. “We are really fascinated by the idea of ​​using new technologies like battery technology and applying it to other industries, just as battery technology. Applying battery tech to mining is really fruitful,” McShan said.

But the real inspiration of the electrophlo came one day when Gardner came when he was running Caltrine to work in the Bay Area. When people were running the trains from the platforms, he portrayed the ions running in different chambers of one of their devices.

“He brought it to me by sketching it on a piece of paper,” McShan remembered. “Like I was, hey man. Actually it works.”

The main technology of the startup is a cell that contains anodees that when driven on one side, absorbs lithium ions from the brines and then leaves them in carbonated water. Once both passes are finished, the result is the lithium carbonate that is ready to react with phosphate, iron and other reagents that can produce LFP powder that is ready to send to the battery factory. For manufacturers who want to create something other than the LFP, the electrophlo process can stop quickly and only send their lithium carbonate.

The system is completely driven on electricity and every year 50 metric tons will be needed to produce lithium carbonate just like the US family, McShan said. The water used in the carbonate step may be recyclable in most cases. “We don’t use one ton of electricity. We don’t use one ton water,” he said.

When the full -sized system is complete, it will be packed inside the 20 -foot shipping container and will be able to produce 100 metric tons of LFP material each year.

“We are going to churn the stacks of these electronic chemical cells and really be able to process lots of brines in the United States,” McShan said. He is confident that the company will be able to reduce Chinese producers, even in a few years when electroflo reaches commercial production.

“If the Chinese methods are not completely blank-slate, then clean-shit solutions like we are doing, they cannot get less than that,” he said.