WHAT IS ENERGI TALKS?

Journalist Markham Hislop interviews leading energy experts from around the world about the energy transition and climate change.

EPISODE DETAILS

Markham interviews Connor Hund, chief operating officer at NanoGraf, an advanced battery material company located in Chicago, Illinois.

Next-gen battery tech is expected to change the economics of EVs, grid-scale renewable power, and other energy-intensive applications. Learn about what's inside the cells that will be coming to market over the next decade.

NanoGraf CEO Francis Wang explains the silicon-anode advantages that made it possible and its implications for the US military and others.

“If you told me this is a 10-year play, I would say, yeah, that makes total sense,” Chip Breitenkamp, president of battery materials company NanoGraf, told TechCrunch. “I think 2024, 2025 is really aggressive for what they’re trying to do and the stipulations they put on the tax credit.”

Recycling electric car batteries is the next big space to watch as the first wave of electric and hybrid vehicles begins to retire from the streets.

“I’m a huge bull on recycling,” Breitenkamp said.

Automakers are betting on range and performance to win the

electric vehicle wars. These 17 battery startups could reap the

rewards by delivering an energy breakthrough.

Our CEO, Francis Wang, talked to Wall Street Journal technology reporter Christopher Mims last week about battery market supply chain challenges (including the graphite shortage), and their impact on the “other electric vehicle” – E-bikes. We were excited to see his comments run in this weekend’s edition of the WSJ.

NanoGraf Corporation shares its insights on the lithium shortage and the prospects for non-lithium alternatives.

Dr. Francis Wang, CEO of battery material startup NanoGraf Corp., shared his thoughts about the electric vehicle market and what battery technologies can lead the way.

Anodes, Cathodes, and All Things Lithium-Ion With Guest Connor Hund, Director of Business Strategy and Operations for NanoGraf

“We certainly welcome President Biden’s effort to invoke the Defense Production Act Title III to help secure the domestic production of batteries that is clearly in our national interest,” Dr Francis Wang, CEO of Nanograf told Energy-Storage.news.

Nanograf is a US startup which is developing silicon anodes for lithium batteries which could be a higher energy density replacement for graphite which is typically used today. The company is working to perfect its technology, which it claims could overcome challenges limiting the use of silicon that have prevented others from commercialising it.

Tech company NanoGraf has been developing an advanced material for lithium-ion batteries that they say could help EVs improve their range and performance by upward of 40 percent while significantly reducing manufacturing costs.

NanoGraf President Chip Breitenkamp talks about the new technology and why the U.S. needs to become self-reliant when developing electric vehicle components.

Dr. Francis Wang serves as the Chief Executive Officer for NanoGraf Technologies, a leading advanced materials company in the energy storage space. He brings over 20 years of experience in technology innovation and commercialization in the energy storage and clean energy industries.

NanoGraf is an advanced battery material company whose patented silicon-anode technology enables longer-lasting, higher-energy, and higher-power lithium-ion batteries.

More energy dense, faster charging batteries. Batteries, or any energy storage of all natures, are so critical to the ongoing energy and mobility transitions. One of the areas that doesn’t get much thought, but is so critical, is material science, the materials which enable bigger, better, faster, more efficient batteries. This week I speak to Francis Wang, CEO of Nanograf. From PhD to entrepreneur and CEO, he has a great story to tell, and some superb insights into both the startup entrepreneurial journey, and the whole battery industry. I hope you enjoy the episode.

The battery supply chain crisis will extend through 2022. In 2022, Asia’s dominant position as the world’s leader in the lithium-ion supply chain will continue, but it is expected that Asian suppliers across the value chain will be challenged with supply chain constraints. Just how long and wide-reaching the bottlenecks persist may very well depend on the impact of the Omicron variant.

We see disasters on the news – extreme weather, failing power grids, rising sea-levels, and more. Francis recognized that in order to solve these challenges you needed to disrupt, take chances, and innovate.

Some of Francis Wang’s favorite childhood memories are of doing science experiments with his father. Francis’ father was a chemist and planted the early seeds of innovation and creative thinking. In his favorite experiment, Francis grew crystals in plastic cups and figured out how to make the crystals bigger.

Efforts are underway to limit the performance of lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles (EVs). U.S. startups and SoftBank have each devised electrode materials to double their capacity. The cruising range extends proportionally. The company aims to put it into practical use after 2022. There is a high possibility that technology can be diverted to all-solid-state batteries, which are said to be the favorite of the next generation, and competition for development is intensifying.

Chicago-based NanoGraf says it has developed a new silicon-based battery chemistry with much higher energy density than is currently available.

According to Francis Wang, the CEO of NanoGraf (a Chicago-based battery tech company with just under $25 million raised), “the Midwest not only has a deep talent pool with top universities and national labs, but is also quickly becoming a ‘quality of life’ alternative to the West Coast.”

According to the startup executive, the result of the quality-of-life conversation is that they are “increasingly seeing talent finishing their education in the Midwest and deciding to stay.”