Urbix CEO and Chairman Nico Cuevas (left) and Executive Vice-President Anthony J. Parkinson at the Urbix, Inc. pilot plant in Mesa, Arizona.
Phoenix, Arizona, March 16, 2021 — US advanced materials leader Urbix, Inc. has completed preliminary testing on a new and better performing natural anode grade graphite, also known as Coated Spherical Purified Graphite (CSPG). Dramatic improvements through Urbix’s spheroidization have developed a process that makes CSPG competitive with synthetic anodes.
Typically synthetic anodes are 20 to 30 percent more expensive than natural graphite and, until now, they provide longer cycle life and more consistency. The new Urbix-developed product maintains the benefits of a natural anode, at a more reasonable price.
“This new Urbix anode will maintain the benefits of the energy density of natural flake graphite, while still providing the same life cycle of synthetic, graphite” says Urbix CEO and Chairman Nico Cuevas. “And maybe even longer.” This new product, says Cuevas, will be less expensive than synthetic, yet have all of the same properties and capabilities.
“Essentially,” adds Cuevas, “the process preserves all of the essential good qualities of natural graphite, such as higher specific capacity and discharge rates.”
Part of what has made this discovery possible is the new state-of-the-art laboratory at Urbix’s pilot facility near Falcon Field Airport in Mesa, Arizona. Urbix insiders have euphemistically been calling the new lab the “Battery Room.”
According to Dr. Palash Gangopadhyay, CTO of Urbix, Inc., the company’s on-premise lithium ion battery fabrication and test bed facility enables Urbix to test better and get to market faster. Products tested there will be analyzed at temperatures from -30 to 80°C under fast charge and discharge conditions.
This deep testing will be especially helpful in bringing Urbix’s revolutionary CSPG products to market. “The test bed includes a high precision coulometry system along with precision temperature-controlled chamber, battery cyclers and various electrochemistry tools to work on full and half cells,” says Gangopadhyay. “This will fast track Urbix’s ability to serve the existing as well as upcoming CSPG market using state-of-the art tools to measure physico– and electrochemical properties.”
As interest in electric cars and the batteries that power them reach fever pitch, interest in Urbix’s green tech commercial offerings have never been higher. Recent growth has brought both investment and partnerships from all over the world.
“We are building something that has never been done before,” says executive vice-president Anthony J. Parkinson. “The excitement we are generating is understandable. We are doing new things for the right reasons. That’s an exciting combination.”
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