Morrow and partners awarded a 100 million NOK grant for research on sustainable batteries

Morrow Batteries and partners receives a 100 million NOK grant from the Norwegian Government to the research-project “Sustainable materials for the battery value chain”. The project includes the establishment of a cylindrical cell production-line at Morrow Research Center, and testing and development of new anode materials for Morrow's LNMO cell systems.

“We appreciate the support from the government. In Morrow Batteries we are pursuing sustainability in every step of the value chain. This grant ensures research and innovation on battery materials, which is an important step in developing a more sustainable and cost effective value chain for batteries. We look forward to work together with our partners to accelerate the energy transition through a sustainable battery value chain with minimal footprint”, says Stephen Sayfritz, Vice President Materials in Morrow Batteries.

Together with the industrial partners Elkem and its subsidiary Vianode, Norsk Hydro, Corvus and Freyr, Morrow will work together to develop a Norwegian foundation for sustainable batteries. SINTEF and IFE (Institute for Energy Technology) are part of the consortium as research-partners.

“It is through research and innovation we create tomorrow’s sustainable society. The Norwegian government wishes to use the Green Platform initiative to stimulate bigger and more rapid investments from companies in green sustainable solutions and products,” says Jan Christian Vestre, Norway’s Minister of Trade and Industry, in the press release from the government (in Norwegian).

“The Green Platform will strengthen Norwegian exports and value creation and enable us to implement the green transition and create green growth. It will also make Norwegian companies and research institutions better equipped to exploit the opportunities provided by the EU’s Green Deal initiative, which is part of the research and innovation programme Horizon Europe,” he says.

• In November 2021, Mr. Vestre laid the foundation stone of Morrow Research Center. Read here.

National test capacity and anode researchAs part of the project, Morrow has the lead on two sub-projects;

i) Cylindrical cell production-line: In cooperation with Future Materials, Morrow will build a cylindrical cell production line in Morrow Research Center, located on the campus of the University of Agder in Southern Norway.

• Morrow Research Center is currently under construction and is expected to be operational in early 2023. You can follow the construction here: https://jb-ugland.webflow.io/

"To realize sustainable innovations the new technology must be upscaled in an industrial environment. Future Materials has been given a national responsibility for test- and pilot infrastructure for battery materials, and Morrows cylindrical cell production line will play a key role in moving innovations in this project and the battery industry towards industrialization. We look forward to further cooperation with Morrow to facilitate sustainable value creation for the whole Norwegian battery industry", says Aslaug Hagestad Nag, CEO in Future Materials.

ii) The development of new anode materials: Morrow will also develop anode materials together with IFE. This includes both high voltage anodes, graphite and graphite/silicon composite that are tailored to Morrows LNMO cell systems.

"The development of this test-line for cylindrical cells is an important step towards developing sustainable prismatic cells based on our LNMO technology", says Sayfritz.

"Today’s anode technology is developed based on graphite. As we are moving forward with our development of next generation batteries with LNMO technology, we need to match anode material used to the properties of LNMO", he says.

Under this Green Platform-initiative, SIVA has granted Future Material 22 MNOK for its cylindrical cell line project with Morrow. In addition Morrow has been granted 6 MNOK by Innovation Norway for its work on LNMO anode development. This in total 28 MNOK is part of the overall 100 MNOK grant.

Media inquiries:

Jon Anders Skau, press contact

Tel: +47 476 35 078

jon.anders,skau@morrowbatteries.com / press@morrowbatteries.com