CONOVATE INC — Department of Agriculture SBIR Phase I: 8.8

Description

Advanced batteries require novel low-cost safe materials to charge faster last longer and work atwide-ranging temperatures. Currently dominant lithium-ion batteries use imported criticalminerals leading to a national effort to improve supply chains. Proposed domestic green solutionsfor carbon-based anodes address this issue. The project objectives are to: 1.) develop and optimizemethods to synthesize a new patented material graphene monoxide (GmO) using high purity bio- sourced products; 2.) evaluate the properties of these ECOphiteTM materials; and 3.) prepareanodes and test batteries to compare performance with batteries made with anode materials derivedfrom inorganic carbon sources. The goals are to improve cost-performance and environmentalimpact of carbon-based anodes. The main effort in Phase I is to evaluate several bio-renewableproducts as feedstocks for ECOphite materials with special attention to micronutrient andcontaminant impact on formation of GmO and battery performance. Big-data analysis e.g.materials informatics and machine learning will be used to optimize the quality and quantity ofECOphite materials production and correlate material properties with battery performance.With successful demonstration of ECOphite production from forestry- and farm -products the costperformance and carbon balance of batteries will be improved. This will enable the commercialpromise of batteries for many applications including power tools drones electric motorcyclesconsumer electronics cars and stationary power.Replacing graphite with ECOphite material willaddress the critical minerals initiative increasing options for domestically- sourced anode solutions.The results will encourage battery manufacturers to adopt this novel material for manufacturingfuture anodes for batteries.