Hazer Group (ASX:HZR) has received preliminary results from testing its synthetic graphite in lithium-ion batteries.
Initial results performed within the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Sydney University showed the company’s graphite product significantly outperformed the benchmark material.
The results also significantly exceed the performance of natural graphite anodes.
The company owns the Hazer Process, a low-emission hydrogen and high quality graphite production process using iron ore as a process catalyst.
Professor Andrew Minett, science advisory committee, commented:
“These preliminary half-cell battery results for Hazer graphite are extremely encouraging, performing on-par with a standard commercial spherical graphite and showing very good rate capability.”
Testing details
Initial results show an initial discharge specific capacity of 445 mAh/g (milliampere hour per gram) compared to 331 mAh/g capacity performance from a synthetic commercial graphite.
These results significantly exceed the performance of natural graphite anodes, which typically show first discharge capacity in the range of 360-370 mAh/g.
Results highlight that Hazer’s graphite, even as a non-optimised product outperforms both synthetic and natural graphite products on first discharge capacity.
Furthermore, the Hazer graphite used was subject only to simple chemical purification and further optimisation has the potential to further improve the performance of Hazer graphite in battery trials.
Analysis
Results from preliminary testing highlight that Hazer’s synthetic graphite has performance advantages compared to commercial alternatives.
These results highlight the potential for Hazer’s graphite to be used in the growing lithium-ion battery market.
The company is currently undertaking longer term stability testing and scaling up into a full cell testing.
Hazer has also identified further optimisation opportunities that are expected to improve the efficacy of Hazer graphite in battery applications.
It is expected that positive follow-up results will translate across to full-cell platform testing over the coming months.
Shares in Hazer have more than doubled year to date, currently priced at $0.56.