Sodium-ion battery company Altris has raised €9.6 million ($10.6 million) in Series A funding from EIT InnoEnergy Scandinavia and others, which it will use to scale up production of its cathode material Fennac and to continue sodium-ion battery R&D.

“Our new industrial manufacturing unit will ensure that Fennac-based batteries become a reality within two years,” said Altris CEO Adam Dahlquist.

Fennac is a cathode material designed for sodium-ion batteries. “The funding secures Altris’s production scale-up of Fennac, to 2,000 tons, enabling 1 GWh of sustainable batteries,” the company said.

Fennac is composed of sodium, iron carbon and nitrogen, and compared to alternatives, the company says its patented manufacturing method is low-cost and more environmentally friendly. Also, the company says Fennac-based batteries can be produced using existing lithium-ion manufacturing processes and equipment.

“Using only abundant materials, Altris’s technology provides strong economic and environmental benefits to enable the next generation of batteries that will initially accelerate the deployment of grid-scale storage applications,” said EIT InnoEnergy Scandinavia Investment Manager Markus Berglund.

Source: Altris