Crystal Battery Pioneer theion Opens Tech Centre in Berlin

­Berlin-based battery company theion has opened its new Tech Centre in the science and technology park, Adlershof, one of Germany’s largest tech clusters, where its game-changing crystal batteries are being developed. 

theion’s battery innovation is based on sulfur – a material available in abundance without harmful and intensive mining (received as byproduct in industrial processes) – and a highly effective and efficient substitute for cathode materials, which come with high processing costs and metal contents of nickel and cobalt. Sulfur is not only 99% cheaper to source than the cathode materials used in existing state-of-the-art lithium-ion batteries, but theion’s innovative battery cells also require significantly less energy to produce – from raw material to finished cell.

theion’s patented sulfur-crystal battery chemistry targets to triple the energy density, at just one-third of the cell cost and one third of the CO₂ footprint of current battery technology. This breakthrough enables lightweight, carbon neutral sustainable batteries to transform electric mobility and stationary storage.

The new tech centre laboratories include a fully equipped synthesis lab, glovebox lab and cycling lab, enabling theion’s experts to accelerate their revolutionary work to disrupt the battery industry with 1 MWh of semiautomatic cell assembly to provide customer samples.

“We are thrilled to move to our new labs, workshop and cell sampling areas,” said Martin Schaupp, CTO of theion; “The technical conditions are ideal for our team of experts, smart thinkers, and fast executers to operate on a skunk-works basis of small, highly effective teams capable of incredible results.”

Lukasz Gadowski, theion board member and CEO of Team Global – a major investor, said: “As an investor in frontier tech businesses I have witnessed thousands of start-ups, invested in hundreds and succeeded with dozens of breakthrough technologies.  theion’s crystal battery innovation has what it takes to revolutionize the battery industry, with an initial focus on electrified aviation they will have the expertise and credibility to move in to electrified automotive, handheld devices and grid storage.  Team Global’s strategy is to invest in and enable small, strategic and focused teams of dedicated and motivated entrepreneurial leaders, operating as highly impactful skunk-works-type units to create disruptive results.”   

theion recently announced a breakthrough with its patented lithium metal anode chemistry, achieving 2000 charging and discharging cycles under third party testing by a leading independent research institute in Germany, paving the way for safe and high energy density batteries with the capabilities for fast-charging.

In the current series A funding round, Enpal is one of the key investors, with the aim of combining PV installation with theion’s competitive energy storage battery. 

Henning Rath, executive at Enpal and Board member at theion, said: “Sulfur Crystal batteries have the potential to enable grid storage with safe and affordable batteries, which are resource and energy friendly to produce. In partnership we are on the mission to lead the energy transition to renewables.”