Li-Metal is a developer of lithium metal anodes and lithium metal production technologies for next-generation batteries. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Li-Metal CEO Dr. Srini Godavarthy.
Dr. Srini Godavarthy’s Background
Dr. Godavarthy started his career in engineering and, through numerous experiences, developed a deep understanding of the technology behind specialty chemicals and materials. Over the past decade, he has had the opportunity to look at this space through a commercial, financial, and strategic lens. And Dr. Godavarthy said:
“Before joining Li-Metal as CEO earlier this year, I was the SVP of portfolio management for PTT Global Chemicals and was focused on decarbonizing their portfolio through strategic M&A and venture capital investments.”
“Prior to that, I led the metals and specialty salts business at Albemarle Corp, the world’s top lithium producer. At Albemarle, my team and I were responsible for the commercial and technology development efforts for lithium metal, lithium metal anodes, solid-state electrolytes, and other lithium-based specialty salts.”
“I wasn’t always working with green technologies, as I started out my career at Huntsman International as an engineer and worked for nearly a decade in chemicals for oil and gas production. Prior to that, I earned a Bachelor of Technology in Chemical Engineering from the University of Madras. Then, I went on to earn my Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Oklahoma State University. I also earned my MBA in Finance from Colorado State University.”
“I’ve always been passionate about chemicals and engineering with a focus on big-picture strategy. Through my extensive work in the lithium industry, I’ve seen a glimpse of the impacts that next-generation battery materials and battery tech can have in the marketplace. Now, I’m really excited about what’s in store for the Li-Metal team as we help unlock the future of e-mobility.”
Formation Of Li-Metal
How did the idea for the company come together? Dr. Godavarthy shared:
“Li-Metal Corp. (CSE: LIM) was founded in 2018 by Maciej Jastrzebski and Tim Johnston to address an emerging and prevailing underlying trend in the electrification of transportation – the transition from conventional lithium-ion batteries to next-generation high-performance batteries such as solid-state, hybrid liquid electrolyte and lithium-sulfur. Tim and Maciej met at Hatch, one of the foremost engineering companies in Canada. Tim is a serial entrepreneur in the lithium space, and Maciej brought the technological innovation – what started out as a series of interesting lunchtime and coffee chats in Toronto quickly gave birth to the concept for Li-Metal, which was technically developed and economically evaluated over the subsequent few months.”
“Now, Li-Metal is working at the forefront of the next-generation battery supply chain, developing and commercializing production technologies to help enable cheaper, cleaner, and better-performing batteries for electric vehicles (EVs) and other transportation applications, such as electric aviation. We are working to become a leading domestic battery anode supplier to battery developers and automotive OEMs and believe our ultra-thin, high-performance anode materials will play a key role in driving the next wave of battery-powered applications.”
Favorite Memory
What has been Dr. Godavarthy’s favorite memory of working for the company so far? Dr. Godavarthy reflected:
“When I came aboard as CEO of Li-Metal earlier this year, we really hit the ground running. On my first day on the job, we were granted our first patent. Shortly thereafter, Li-Metal likely became the first company in the world to successfully produce metal directly from lithium carbonate at our pilot plant in Markham, Ontario. This accomplishment was a metallurgical and scientific breakthrough, and I enjoyed being a part of it. This demonstrated our patented technology can produce this strategic material, which we will ultimately use to supply our anode business as we execute our vision to become a leading domestic supplier of lithium metal anodes.”
“Despite our successes to date, I think we are just getting started at Li-Metal, and I’m looking forward to continuing to build upon the strong foundation the team has established to take the company to the next level as we look to establish commercial scale anode production capabilities as soon as 2024.”
Challenges Faced
What challenges did Dr. Godavarthy face in building the company? Dr. Godavarthy acknowledged:
“Li-Metal is operating in an emerging area of technology where the future possibilities are endless, but, in many ways, we are in uncharted territory. Funding innovative solutions that aim to decarbonize the automotive industry is complex, especially in current markets.”
“Despite challenges, Li-Metal continues to pioneer a vertically integrated metal and anode platform for the battery industry that leverages physical vapor deposition (PVD) technology and a differentiated carbonate to metal lithium metal technology. This is what gets us at Li-Metal excited as we demonstrate our technologies behind the scenes at a pilot scale, with a strong commercial roadmap in front of our business.”
Core Products
What are the company’s core products and features? Dr. Godavarthy explained:
“Li-Metal’s vertically integrated process begins with lithium carbonate and ends with cost-effective, high-performance anodes ready to go into next-generation battery cells utilizing two core technologies: a lithium metal technology and a next-generation battery anode technology.”
“We are currently engaged with 27 automakers and battery developers, with 15 leading next-generation battery developers actively sampling our anode materials, as we continue to strengthen relationships with key players in the next-generation battery ecosystem. We have also secured a recurring commercial order for our anode materials, which, in addition to generating revenues, provides us with the opportunity to further validate our products and advance our anode business.”
“Li-Metal’s patented lithium metal technology is an environmentally friendly and cost-effective modular technology that produces lithium metal directly from lithium carbonate. The ability to produce lithium metal is a key differentiator for Li-Metal as it further enables the growth and development of our anode business by securing a reliable supply of feedstock for our operations.”
“Traditionally, lithium metal is made from lithium chloride (which is made by treating lithium carbonate), which produces approximately 5 tonnes of harmful chlorine gas by-product for every tonne of metal. Furthermore, there are only 3,000 tons of battery grade lithium metal produced globally per year, with 90% of that production concentrated in China.”
“Driven by the development of next-generation batteries, especially in North America, the demand for lithium metal is expected to increase by 10 to 12 times by 2030 to more than 40,000 tons per year (Source). Of note, to our knowledge, the conversion capacity to produce lithium chloride from carbonate is limited, and significant capital investment would be required to meet the added demand for lithium metal. In the lithium industry, these types of projects could take at least 4-5 years from design to production. This means that it is highly unlikely that traditional lithium metal production processes will be able to be scaled up quickly to meet the growing needs of the next-generation battery industry in North America and Europe.”
“By producing this specialty material directly from lithium carbonate, Li-Metal is able to both eliminate a costly conversion step and harmful chlorine gas by-product. Furthermore, in addition to eliminating the costs associated with converting lithium carbonate to lithium chloride, we don’t need to build and operate sophisticated gas treatment equipment to handle chlorine gas emissions. Instead of chlorine gas, our process produces an oxygen-enriched carbon-dioxide gas stream, which could potentially be recycled into lithium carbonate production or captured for other industrial uses at scale.”
“For our anode technology, we use an innovative roll-to-roll PVD technology to produce ultra-thin, lithium metal anodes without the need for graphite. PVD is a ubiquitous technology, and anything that looks metallic but is made of plastic is likely made from a PVD process, such as the shiny metallic coating inside a bag of potato chips. This technology, in other industries, has been able to produce millions of square meters of low-cost materials for decades, and we are revamping this proven technology platform to produce advanced anode materials for the next-generation battery industry.”
“Before Li-Metal, the existing technologies for producing next-generation anodes faced significant challenges as conventional anodes are typically made by extruding and rolling lithium metal into thick foils. To increase the penetration of EVs, the industry is focused on attaining cost and performance (range) parity with ICEs. The battery plays a major role in this, and, generally, the industry is targeting battery costs of $100/kWh. In Li-Metal’s experience and discussions, given the cost of lithium metal, the use of thick lithium foils as anodes makes next-generation battery technology more expensive, making adoption harder.”
“A core challenge with foil extrusion, as a production method, is that it is difficult to scale, especially as the foil gets very thin, which is a critical requirement to reduce the cost of anodes. Furthermore, because it is difficult to customize the thickness of foils, the energy density is reduced. To add to all of these challenges, excess lithium in the battery, as a result of combining traditional cathodes with thick lithium anodes, contributes to increased risk of fire, impacting safety requirements.”
“Our PVD approach to anode production is almost the opposite of the traditional approaches of squeezing, flattening or pressing a piece of lithium metal down to the thickness we want; instead, we build it up by depositing lithium metal directly on a copper substrate. In other words, using a vacuum environment, we apply vaporized lithium metal on a copper substrate to build these anode materials from the ‘bottom-up’ compared to other processes which build them from the ‘top down.’”
“By building these lithium metal films from the bottom up, we minimize the amount of lithium metal used in our process, which reduces excess lithium to improve safety. This also increases the cost-effectiveness of our process by limiting the waste of a highly valuable feedstock. Not only does our process allow us to minimize the amount of lithium used, it also allows us to co-deposit other materials to enhance the performance of our anode materials.”
Evolution Of Li-Metals’ Technology
How has the company’s technology evolved since launching? Dr. Godavarthy noted:
“The technology has certainly progressed since Li-Metal launched. It’s interesting as before inception, while Li-Metal Corp. was just an idea being discussed over lunchtime chats in Toronto between two former Hatch engineers, the concept was originally intended to address just the demand for sustainable lithium metal in the North American market.”
“As a key part of Li-Metal’s evolution, Tim and Maciej saw other opportunities arising from next-generation battery technologies under development, as they knew a dramatic reshaping of the next-generation battery supply chain would be required. This propelled the idea forward as it evolved into a more holistic vision to tackle both the lithium metal opportunity and the need for high-performance, low-cost anode materials. As we continue to focus on our scale-up efforts, the demand for lithium metal anodes for the next-generation battery industry has only accelerated.”
“As our technologies have evolved, in addition to our execution with demonstrating our modular and sustainable lithium metal technology can produce lithium metal directly from lithium carbonate, we have made significant progress on the anode side.”
“At our advanced anode pilot plant in Rochester, New York, we have proven our ability to produce lithium metal anode products with lithium thickness between 3 and 25 micrometers as we continue to be flexible to meet the needs of battery developers. Furthermore, through our work in Rochester, we believe we are operating one of the highest-intensity PVD lithium metal anode processes in the industry. As of June 2023, the team has produced more than 5,787 meters of sample lithium metal anode material, compared to 4,200 meters in 2022.”
“To support the growth of our anode business, we have a partnership with Mustang Vacuum Systems for the exclusive supply of high-performance PVD machines and services for the production of anode materials. This was a key development for Li-Metal as Mustang Vacuum Systems is a leading global manufacturer of industrial-scale PVD equipment. When it comes to PVD as a technology platform, the equipment plays a key role in the productivity of the technology, and securing the right equipment and partner to support us on the manufacturing side opens the door for us to really maximize the potential of our novel roll-to-roll PVD anode technology.”
“As we continue to advance our anode technology, my short-term goal is to approach 0.5 GWh of anode capacity as quickly as possible, or the equivalent of 4-5 million of meters squared of anode material per year.”
Significant Milestones
What have been some of the company’s most significant milestones? Dr. Godavarthy cited:
“It’s been an exciting journey for the team, but again, we are just getting started. Receiving our first patent for our lithium metal technology was certainly a momentous milestone for the Li-Metal team. Likely becoming the first company in the world to produce lithium metal from lithium carbonate in May of this year is also a noteworthy development for Li-Metal, but we believe it is key for our industry more broadly as well.”
“In between these exciting developments, Li-Metal had some key execution moments as the team commissioned pilot and R&D facilities in both Canada and the United States and signed a joint development agreement with Blue Solutions, the largest commercial manufacturer of solid-state batteries, to advance solid-state batteries for passenger EVs. Related to the Blue Solutions partnership, Li-Metal was also awarded a grant from Next Generation Manufacturing Canada.”
“More recently, securing our first sale of anode materials was a significant development for our business and to top it all off, in June of this year, we received non-dilutive grant funding from programs sponsored by the Government of Ontario to advance our modular and sustainable lithium metal technology.”
Customer Success Stories
Upon asking Dr. Godavarthy about customer success stories, he replied:
“As mentioned, currently, we have ongoing discussions with 27 battery developers and automakers, 15 of which are sampling our anode materials in next-generation batteries to qualify our technology. We have also secured a recurring commercial order for our anode materials. As protecting our customers is a key priority for Li-Metal, at this time we have not publicly disclosed many of the names of the battery industry leaders we are working with.”
“With that, as mentioned, we do have one publicly disclosed relationship with Blue Solutions. Blue Solutions, a subsidiary of the $15B French conglomerate Bollere, is the largest commercial manufacturer in the market, supplying an all-solid-state lithium metal battery for real-life applications running on every continent. Blue Solutions has been working on solid-state batteries for decades, and, most notably, their batteries power Mercedes-Benz electric buses in Europe. The partnership combines our technologies with the know-how of a proven battery solid-state battery producer to advance solid-state batteries for passenger EVs.”
Funding/Revenue
After asking Dr. Godavarthy about the company’s funding and revenue metrics, he revealed:
“To support our goal of becoming a leading domestic anode supplier to the next-generation battery market, Li-Metal has raised approx. $41.3 million to date, primarily through its public listing on the Canadian Stock Exchange. As part of the $41.3 million, in 2022, Li-Metal received a $1.9 million grant from Next Generation Manufacturing Canada as part of a $5.1 million joint development project with Blue Solutions. We also were awarded $1.4 million in non-dilutive grant funding in June of this year from various programs sponsored by the Government of Ontario to advance the development and commercialization of our lithium metal technology.”
Total Addressable Market
What total addressable market (TAM) size is the company pursuing? Dr. Godavarthy assessed:
“On the metal side, as mentioned, demand is expected to increase to 40,000 tons per year by 2030. However, we believe the greater market for lithium metal anodes is even larger.”
“In Li-Metal’s experience, just over the last year, we have seen that some of our customers have managed to develop liquid electrolytes, which work with lithium metal anodes. Previously, it was expected that lithium metal anodes would hit the EV market in mass in the late 2020s into the 20230s. However, this timeline may be getting pulled forward to as soon as 2026 or 2027. This shift is a driver for why Li-Metal is seeing an uptick in demand for our anode materials.”
“There are many promising next-generation battery technologies out there and several of them are focused on replacing graphite with a better material to increase energy density while reducing weight and volume for optimal performance and cost. However, all roads lead to ultra-thin lithium metal anodes, and by 2035, the lithium metal anode market is expected to exceed $40 billion. Other forecasts say that lithium-metal anodes could account for 22% of the anode chemistry mix for EVs by 2035.”
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates the company from its competition? Dr. Godavarthy affirmed:
“Li-Metal’s vertically integrated technology platform offers many distinct advantages for producing high-performance anode materials compared to traditional and alternative methods on the marketplace.”
“First, our ability to produce lithium metal ourselves is a key differentiator for our business, as it enables us to secure a reliable and sustainable domestic supply to feed our anode operations. We think that our modular and sustainable lithium metal technology will be a bonus for our anode operations and help give us a competitive edge.”
“For our next-generation battery anodes, by leveraging our highly flexible and scalable PVD technology platform, we are able to produce lithium metal anodes from the ‘bottom-up’ compared to the traditional or alternative ‘top-down’ approaches. This minimizes the amount of lithium metal used in our process compared to other processes, which reduces excess lithium to improve safety and limits waste. Furthermore, our PVD platform allows us to customize our anode materials to fit the specifications of our customers, which is a key advantage as we are able to be flexible to meet the unique needs of our growing customer base.”
“We have a huge jump start in the Western world as next-generation battery anode technology developers, as we believe we are really pioneering this innovative vertically integrated metal and anode platform with a PVD approach.”
Future Company Goals
What are some of the company’s future company goals? Dr. Godavarthy told me:
“As we continue to advance our anode business, as mentioned, my short-term goal for Li-Metal is to approach 0.5 GWh of anode capacity as quickly as possible, or the equivalent of 4-5 million meters squared of anode material per year. To support the growth of our anode business, we are evaluating options for the best location for a future anode facility in addition to government incentives to help us scale up faster to meet accelerating customer demand.”
“Long term, Li-Metal plans to be a reliable supplier of sustainable lithium metal and next-generation battery anode materials for in North America and Europe.”
“As we continue to develop our production technologies and approach commercialization, we are focused on several key near-term items. On the anode side, in the near term, we are focused on deploying our PVD technology at a commercial scale in line with customer scale-up requirements. Increasing anode material sampling and growing strategic and commercial partnerships is a key priority, as we are aiming to achieve commercial-scale PVD capabilities as soon as 2024. From there, we will be focused on developing second-generation anode products to position Li-Metal as the preferred anode partner for next-generation battery developers for the long term.”
“Additionally, as we continue to supply customers with sample anode materials and advance our technologies, we have uncovered an accretive opportunity for Li-Metal to reprocess scrap. We are currently installing and commissioning a pilot-scale lithium metal anode scrap reprocessing and casting facility and aim to demonstrate the process at a pilot scale. Eventually, we plan to scale up our process to support 40 tons per annum of anode reprocessing.”
“On the metal side, first, we are focused on completing our lithium metal pilot program and demonstrating continuous lithium metal production directly from lithium carbonate. An important milestone for our modular lithium metal technology scale up is advancing an engineering study for a 10-25 ton per year modular lithium metal plan. In the long term, we plan to build and commission a commercial lithium metal production capacity with up to 1,000 tons of production capacity per year.”
Additional Thoughts
Any other topics to discuss? Dr. Godavarthy concluded:
“Li-Metal is excited about what is in store for the future of battery technology and electric transportation more broadly. Next-generation batteries will unlock the potential for several applications and create new opportunities in transportation such as autonomous vehicles, air taxis, and electric flight.”
“We believe over the next decade, batteries will be lighter and more powerful and could have increased energy density from 250-280 W-h/kg in current batteries to more than 350-400 W-h/kg. As next-generation batteries continue to progress we could have EVs on the road that are able to travel 1000 kilometers on a single charge. What will be interesting to see is which battery chemistry takes over as the replacement to the conventional lithium-ion that will be used in EVs and other areas of transportation.”
“We are really excited for what’s next in electrification, as the previously unimaginable is unlocked. We are excited for our technologies and anode materials to play a part.”
