Oxford, United Kingdom, 08 October 2024 – FluoRok, an Oxford-based start-up has secured a grant of £700k ($950K) to develop the UK supply of a crucial component of Lithium-ion batteries. The project will generate a detailed business plan based on a first-of-a-kind pilot manufacturing facility to support future investment in a new UK-based manufacturing unit for fluorine containing electrolyte salts (LiPF6), a key material in the Li-ion battery chemical supply chain. LiPF6 is the most commonly used salt in Li-ion battery electrolyte formulations and is of critical importance as it represents the majority of the electrolyte cost, CO2 footprint and a critical supply chain risk for Li-on batteries.
This grant is provided by the Advanced Propulsion Centre UK on behalf of the UK’s Department for Business and Trade as part of a multi-million-pound package of investment for the automotive industry looking into battery technologies and supply chain via the Automotive Transformation Fund.
Dr Andrew Schwarz, VP Business Development at FluoRok said, “FluoRok’s revolutionary sustainable fluorination technology offers an unparalleled opportunity to develop a UK based chemical supply chain for Li-ion batteries and move the country closer to its net-zero targets. In the long-term, this will support the national target of employing c.65,000 people in the battery supply chain and enable more robust supply-chain in the UK for battery electric vehicle manufacturing.”
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Note to editors:
About FluoRok: FluoRok is a deep-tech start-up company based in Oxford, UK and focused on fluorochemical manufacturing and licensing. It develops novel and transformational technologies to access fluorochemicals in an efficient, safe and sustainable way. Spun-out of the University of Oxford in 2022, FluoRok’s team has decades of cumulative experience in fluorination chemistry, and extensive manufacturing, commercial and business development expertise.
FluoRok’s proprietary technology directly employs fluorine-containing waste or naturally occurring fluorite mineral as raw materials, to access high value fluorochemicals that are key to the world’s energy transition, our global food supply, and our health. Its innovative solution reduces energy requirements, lowers CO2 emissions, enables reshoring of manufacturing due to intrinsic process safety and introduces for the first time the circular economy in fluorochemical production. Traditional barriers to entry such as high capital expenditure, regulatory challenges, and complex controls of hazardous operations, are circumvented, thus allowing for easy adoption and rapid scale-up of the technology.
Its market focus is Li-ion battery electrolyte salts and agrochemicals.
See: www.fluorok.com
About the Advanced Propulsion Centre UK: The Advanced Propulsion Centre UK (APC) collaborates with UK government, the automotive industry and academia to accelerate the industrialisation of technologies that support the transition to zero-emission vehicles and towards a net-zero automotive supply chain in the UK.
Established in 2013, the APC, with the backing of the UK Government’s Department for Business and Trade (DBT), has facilitated funding for 304 low-carbon and zero-emission projects involving 538 partners. Working with companies of all sizes, this funding has helped to create or safeguard over 59,000 jobs in the UK. The technologies and products that result from these projects are projected to save over 425 million tonnes of CO2.
With deep sector expertise and cutting-edge knowledge of new propulsion technologies, the APC’s role in building and advising project consortia helps projects start more quickly and deliver increased value, accelerating new technologies to market. The APC works to drive innovation and encourage collaboration, building the foundations for a successful and sustainable UK automotive industry.
In 2020 the UK Government established the Automotive Transformation Fund (ATF) to accelerate the development of a net-zero vehicle supply chain, enabling UK-based manufacturers to serve global markets. ATF investments are accessed through the APC and awarded by DBT to support strategically important UK capital and R&D investments that will enable companies involved in batteries, motors and drives, power electronics, fuel cells, and associated supply chains to anchor their future.
The ATF was created to accelerate the electrification of Britain’s automotive sector and protect its competitiveness in the global market. It enables the delivery of feasibility studies to investigate the viability of projects for scale-up and offers capital grants to help de-risk and unlock further private investment.
For media enquiries, contact:
FluoRok – Gabriele Pupo / Clare Simpson
info@fluorok.com