Australian battery materials company Novonix receives $3.5m from Canada

Leading Australian battery materials and technology company Novonix has received up to $3.5 million from the Canadian government to fund research and development.

Novonix announced on Wednesday that its Battery Technology Solutions division located in Nova Scotia, Canada, would receive up to $C3 million in research and development funding and advisory services from the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC IRAP).

The ASX-listed Novonix will make use of the funds to advance two important research and development initiatives aimed at enhancing its battery materials and technology projects.

The two projects to receive the R&D funding boost include Novonix’s all-dry, zero-waste cathode materials development and pilot line, as well as a new technology designed to predict the lifespan of lithium-ion batteries.

This second, unnamed project is backed by a collaboration with New York-based SandboxAQ and will utilise its AI-driven chemical simulation software.

Novonix’s all-dry, zero-waste cathode pilot line was commissioned in July of this year and has already proved that produced materials match the performance of leading cathode materials from existing suppliers in full-cell testing.

Further, Novonix has shown recently that its all-dry, zero-waste production process can deliver “potentially significant cost savings and waste reduction” compared to traditional ‘wet’ production processes.

“Lithium-ion battery tailwinds have accelerated quickly on the back of public policy support, increasing private sector investment, and strong electric vehicle demand,” said Dr Chris Burns, CEO of Novonix.

“We expect this trend to grow, underscoring the increasing need for Novonix’s materials technologies and advanced battery testing expertise that support cleaner high-performance materials.”