NEO Battery Materials Ltd announced that it has established and built a research and development (R&D) Scale-Up Centre at the Yonsei University of South Korea through NEO Battery Materials Korea (NBM Korea), a wholly-owned subsidiary.
The Vancouver-based company said it entered into a collaborative development agreement with the university in May 2021 to develop and commercialize its proprietary nanocoating technology for silicon anode materials.
Due to the increasing need for expanding space and procuring equipment to advance R&D and manufacturing activities, it said it decided to establish the independent scale-up centre through NBM Korea. With the active support of Yonsei University, it said it has successfully secured a strategic space of 4,300 square feet next to testing and evaluation facilities within the university to develop its technology.
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"We have placed an order for equipment to facilitate further silicon anode production and will be in place by mid-February,” president and CEO Spencer Huh said in a statement.
“With the setup of our research space, we are underway to hire more talented researchers. We believe that this centre could speed up our further development of additional NBMSiDE (silicon microparticle anode material products) pipelines of silicon anode active materials.”
NEO noted that the establishment of the R&D Scale-Up Centre will make it further possible to access non-dilutive Korean government grants and financing through NBM Korea, including tax incentives for the Korean subsidiary registered as a foreign investment company from Canada.
"We will keep our valuable shareholders updated regarding our continuous corporate activities in Korea and Canada," Huh concluded.
NEO has a focus on producing silicon anodes materials through its proprietary single-step nanocoating process, which provides improvements in capacity and efficiency over lithium-ion batteries using graphite in their anode materials.
The company intends to become a silicon anode active materials supplier to the electric vehicle industry.
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