Solution for electric cars

Very Small Particle Company (VSPC) boss David MacInnes says their nano-scale lithium ion phosphate (LFP) will enable electric vehicles to be re-charged in about the same time as it takes to fill a tank of petrol.

"Instead of taking eight hours to fully charge an electric car battery, you can charge our battery in about four minutes. About the time it takes to drink a cup of coffee at the service station," he said. "I could imagine in six months a lot of vehicles will be using this, especially in China."

VSPC has developed a process to make the material in the cathode part of the battery much smaller than before, giving it far greater efficiency because of the increased surface area.

"If you think of the size of a basketball compared with the world, then our particles are about that size compared with a basketball,"  MacInnes said. "We don't grind the particles down to that size like other producers. We make ours with a special chemical process.

"Our material can be used in many battery applications, but the electric vehicle is what we are focusing on because of the growth and value."

VSPC has received $2.09m from the Federal Governments Green Car Innovation Fund to help perfect the product and process. "We hope to scale up and build the equivalent of 2000 tones (of cathode particle material) per annum at our Wacol factory in less than two years," MacInnes said.

"Our powder is already being tested in batteries that could be used in electric vehicles. "Other technologies can be quite dangerous. The thing that makes ours special is the quick charge and discharge ability without any explosive danger."

MacInnes said they plan to build their own electric vehicles to demonstrate the technology."Ideally we will take an Australian car and electrify that," he said.

A battery consists mainly of a cathode and anode with the cathode representing about 40 per cent of the value. MacInnes said their technology had already received significant international attention from the automotive industry and battery manufacturers, but he would not disclose any names.