Lyten Raises $200 Million In Equity Financing Round

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Lyten, a technology company based in San Jose, CA, recently announced raising $200 million in equity financing from multiple investors, including Prime Movers Lab, Honeywell, FedEx, and others. It was founded in 2015 and has raised a total of $410 million. The company develops advanced technology, and is perhaps most well known for being a pioneer in 3D graphene supermaterials. Graphene has been touted as a material that is quite strong, lightweight and potentially of greater abundance than some materials currently used in electric vehicle and energy storage batteries. It also might help future batteries store more electricity, cost less, and weigh less, thus improving electric vehicle ranges. Batteries with chemistries other than only lithium-ion might also be faster to charge.

Keith Norman, Lyten’s Chief Sustainability Officer, answered some questions for CleanTechnica.

What are the key benefits of using lithium-sulfur batteries rather than the battery chemistries already in use?

Li-Ion has been the incumbent chemistry to make EVs and energy storage possible, but that chemistry has limitations that put some real barriers in place if we want to achieve mass scale electrification across the planet. These barriers fall into the categories of cost, energy density, heavy reliance on mined minerals, and safety.  

Lithium-Sulfur battery chemistry has been known as an alternative to lithium-ion for decades because sulfur allows you to store more energy than lithium-ion. In other words, for the same weight, a sulfur-based battery can take you much further. The challenge with lithium-sulfur has been that sulfur cells have traditionally displayed a low cycle life, in other words, the battery has a limited number of times it can be recharged. 

This is where our innovative materials technology, Lyten 3D Graphene, comes in.  We are tuning the material to deliver two capabilities for batteries. First, we are designing the material to act like a scaffolding for the sulfur, essentially holding the sulfur atoms in place inside the battery so they don’t move freely, an effect called polysulfide shuttling. Second, the Lyten 3D Graphene is electrically conductive, helping the energy move in and out of the sulfur and within the cathode more efficiently. With these enhancements, we are producing Lithium-Sulfur batteries from our pilot line today in San Jose, CA.

The implications are significant. We are now targeting a battery that has greater than twice the energy density of lithium-ion and will be more than 40% lighter weight. Additionally, we can remove many of the mined minerals found in lithium-ion.  Lithium-Sulfur will not require nickel, cobalt, manganese, or graphite, all heavily mined minerals in short supply and with their own environmental and humanitarian impact. This dramatically simplifies the materials required and will ultimately allow the lithium-sulfur battery to be entirely sourced and manufactured domestically in the US and Europe. Adding all this together means a battery that will have 60% lower carbon footprint to manufacture compared to lithium-ion today and a clear pathway to an even lower footprint in the future.

We describe Lithium-Sulfur as the “electrify everything” battery, as it will break through price and weight barriers, enabling electrification to be far more viable for both industries where weight matters (aviation, aerospace, trucking, etc) and mass market adoption where price is a barrier. There are many new chemistries in development, but the majority of those chemistries present lower energy density than lithium-ion. They tend to solve issues like materials, supply chain, and cost, but not higher energy density required for mobility applications. The chemistry most commonly discussed for higher energy density are solid-state batteries, which will certainly have their place in the value chain in the future.

Lithium-Sulfur advantages versus solid state are that (1) Lithium-Sulfur are being designed to achieve higher energy densities, so they are lighter weight, (2) Solid State is still highly dependent on minerals like nickel and have a complex supply chain, and (3) we believe Lithium-Sulfur will more easily drop into existing lithium-ion manufacturing lines with only minor modifications. 

How many of these batteries will Lyten produce each year?

Today, we are producing Lithium-Ion batteries from our automated pilot line that opened in San Jose, CA in June 2023. This is a small line designed to (1) deliver commercial batteries to initial early adopting customers, which we plan to do by early 2024. (2) deliver cells for testing by auto OEMs as we work towards the performance required for EV applications, and (3) test equipment design to secure ordering for the larger scale battery manufacturing facilities we are actively progressing. This pilot line has a capacity of approximately 200,000 cells per year.  

We plan to break ground on scaled up Lithium-Sulfur manufacturing capacity in 2024. Our strategy is to build a “home factory” that is approximately 5 GW in capacity to fulfill demand from early adopting applications in areas like satellites, drones, aviation, and last mile transport, as well as feed smaller scale EV and trucking applications. Then, by the 2nd half of the decade we plan to ramp up a larger scale gigafactory to support broader EV applications. We have been seeing strong demand signals that may require us to look for ways to further accelerate lithium-sulfur battery delivery.  

 What are their applications, and who are Lyten’s customers for them?

We believe Lithium-Sulfur can apply across the energy storage space, and is really differentiating where weight and safety matters. Our plan is to expand as we continue to progress the chemistry forward and as we expand production capacity.  Early adopting customers, where our performance already delivers on their biggest pain points, are in applications where battery weight is not just important, but is fundamental to the application being successful. This includes applications like satellites, drones, eVTOLs, and other aerospace related applications, where we plan to deliver commercial cells in early 2024. As we continue to enhance the lithium-sulfur battery performance and scale manufacturing, we will expand further into mobility, with specific opportunities in the movement of goods, especially in last mile delivery applications. We also expect to deliver batteries into bespoke automotive applications before expanding into full EV production lines and eventually stationary storage applications.  

Our focus is squarely on identifying customers with acute pain points as our battery performance hits thresholds to be able to address their pain point. We are seeing very robust demand across a wide range of sectors. We are not able to share specific customers at this time. 

Why is it better to have EV and energy storage batteries with no NMC (Nickel, Manganese, Cobalt) or Graphite?

Nickel, Manganese, Cobalt, and Graphite have been critical minerals, along with Lithium, to enable high enough energy density batteries to meet EV and broad scale energy storage needs. This is problematic across a handful of fronts. First, these minerals are heavily mined and much of the supply and mining capabilities sit in locations with far less stringent environmental and ethical workplace standards.  

Additionally, if we look across the range of demand forecasts for batteries, the resulting supply requirements for NMC and Graphite are many multiples of what we are mining today. This means moving from a fossil fuel reliance to reliance on a small handful of countries that supply most of the world’s processed minerals for the battery industry. Bringing new mines online has traditionally been on the scale of a decade, not a year or two, so the price and supply chain risk for those core minerals is real and has a risk of slowing down EV adoption.

By far and away, China controls the current battery supply chain for NMC batteries and also LFP chemistry, which is emerging as a lower cost, but also lower energy density alternative for EV applications. China invested early and heavily in securing long term resource supplies and the required Intellectual property to cost effectively process the minerals necessary and produce NMC batteries. This single point of reliance creates geopolitical risk and price risks right at the time we need to be growing exponentially. From a supply chain risk standpoint, a cost standpoint, and an overall carbon footprint standpoint, identifying and scaling alternatives to NMC batteries is of critical importance. LFP battery chemistry is one avenue being pursued, but the lower energy density means they have a more limited set of potential use cases. Both private and public sector must be investing now, as bringing new chemistries online and at scale is very capital intensive and the timelines are long.   

 What is Lyten 3D Graphene™, and what are its advantages?

So let’s start with a touch of history. Graphene was discovered in 2004 and the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded in 2010 for its discovery because of the scale of the potential impact of an ultra-high performing material. Graphene is often described as ultra-high strength, ultra lightweight, and highly conductive, among multiple other superlatives. Since that time, scaling graphene development from the lab into commercial applications has been challenging for three primary reasons. (1) The manufacturing cost of graphene is high. (2) By definition, graphene is a two-dimensional planar sheet of bonded carbon atoms. Think about it like a sheet of paper.

The only way to chemically interact with the graphene is along the edges of that sheet, so the material does not interact or mix well with other elements or materials. (3) The 2D graphene sheet cannot be easily customized or tuned to deliver the right properties for a particular application. Essentially, you have to design your application around the capabilities of 2D graphene, often coming in the form of carbon nanotubes (i.e. roll your sheet of paper into a tube).

Lyten 3D Graphene addresses these barriers. Imagine taking that sheet of paper and crumpling it up and twisting it. That is 3D Graphene. Instead of only being able to bond with the material on the edges, you can now bond at every fold and crease, increasing its ability to interact with other elements on the periodic table by orders of magnitude. This means you can put 3D Graphene into many applications to increase strength, reduce weight, increase conductivity, and gain many additional capabilities. Second, 3D Graphene can be crumpled and twisted in an infinite number of ways, which means we can tune the structure to exhibit the properties needed for an application. Now, we can design the 3D Graphene material to fit the needs of the Application.

The other unique characteristic of 3D Graphene is the manufacturing process. We use methane, a greenhouse gas, and permanently sequester the carbon in the form of 3D graphene, preventing the methane or CO2 from entering the atmosphere. This is essentially a carbon capture process that also produces hydrogen as a bi-product. As we reach scale, we target for the 3D Graphene manufacturing process to be carbon negative, then we use the material to decarbonize the highest emitting sectors on the planet, through applications like lithium-sulfur batteries, lightweighted composites, next generation sensors and more decarbonizing applications to come as we scale.

What will your lightweight composites be used for, or are they already in use?

Batteries are really just one of a huge number of applications that can be improved with 3D Graphene. As we scale our manufacturing of the material, we need to stay very focused on which applications we go after first. Our mantra is “Net Zero Without Compromise.” We want to enable the highest CO2 emitting sectors on the planet to achieve net zero without compromising on performance, profitability, or customer experience. We want to build applications utilizing 3D Graphene that (1) deliver a disruptive performance impact relative to existing technologies, (2) deliver a significant decarbonization impact for the highest emitting sectors of the economy, and (3) #1 and #2 must be delivered profitably for our customers. In other words, the applications must make financial sense as that is how we can really scale the decarbonization impacts. In short: better and cleaner products for a better and cleaner environment. You can see how the lithium-sulfur battery application hits on all three of these criteria, which is why it is one of our first applications to roll out.

Based on these criteria, we are using 3D Graphene to create ultra-lightweight composites, really leaning into the high strength, lightweight characteristics of the material. Composites make up a huge portion of our infrastructure and Lyten has proven our ability to reduce the amount of plastics required and weight by upwards of 50%, depending on the application. To start, we are focusing our composites work on the mobility, aviation, and supply chain sectors. We are currently working with a customer that manufactures engineered cases made from polyethylene for use in industries like defense, supply chain, and construction. We have achieved a 30% weight and materials reduction and are working towards 50%, eliminating hydrocarbon use and delivering a lighter weight product bringing energy efficiency as it moves around the world.

We are also working with our investors to identify ways to lightweight aircraft, drones, and vehicles with our 3D Graphene enhanced composite systems. In each case, the existing materials performance serves as a barrier to further lightweighting and and electrification. Composites make up the backbone of much of our infrastructure and ultimately, we see an opportunity to lightweight a wide range of applications without sacrificing strength.

Who will be your customers for them?

Each of our strategic investors, including Stellantis, FedEx, Honeywell, Walbridge Albright, and the defense sector made their investment because they see the opportunity for Lyten’s applications to have a real impact on their industries and also support their net zero efforts while still delivering a high-performance product. We are working with our investors as we are developing our composite applications (and our other applications as well) to help ensure we deliver products that meet exactly what that industry needs. We are working towards bringing the first composites products to market by early 2024 and working to announce further applications using 3D Graphene in the near future.