Expanded Li-S R&D Facility launched

Gelion (AIM: GELN), the Anglo-Australian battery innovator, announces new Lithium-Sulfur (Li-S) Research and Development (R&D) Facility designed to optimise development and accelerate market readiness of this technology by producing more advanced cell prototypes.

Based in Sydney, adjacent to Gelion's research and corporate office, the facility will allow the Company to advance prototyping toward cell development and to capitalise on the combination of Gelion's existing technologies with the intellectual property (IP) packages acquired from Johnson Matthey in March 2023.

Having achieved technical progress with sulfur cathode chemistry, this facility will enable Gelion to build multi-layer pouch cells (a soft battery design where battery components are enclosed in a pouch casing, like in a mobile phone or laptop), which are the industry standard for testing batteries and the form factor used for customer off-take.

The new facility is another milestone as Gelion continues to deliver against its go-to-market strategy and will bring a multitude of benefits to the Group, including:

• enabling researchers to more rapidly test promising research in multi-layer pouch cells;
• enabling Gelion to effectively participate in joint development agreements with anode developers; and
• enable the production of prototypes that can be supplied for preliminary third-party validation and safety testing.

The prototypes produced will be multi-layer pouch cells and further focused product development ahead of offtake with partners. The prototypes will also inform TRL 4 (Technology Readiness Levels) and are a key commercial proof point for Gelion's technology. The facility and its output will help underpin the winning of contracts and subsequent scale up to commercial manufacture.

Commenting on the new facility, John Wood, CEO said:

"The site has the capability to increase Gelion's prototyping toward cell development and the progressive commissioning of the capability commenced in late September 2023. The opening of this facility further evidences the steady progress Gelion is making on its path to commercialisation. We are incredibly excited to be opening this research and development facility to increase capacity to ensure we optimise development of Lithium Sulfur for the rapidly expanding market.

"Lithium-Sulfur is the next generation for electric mobility and has the potential to power the future of transport. Gelion has built a large IP moat, and, with its highly skilled team of specialists, we are working towards our goal of delivering commercially viable and scalable, next generation battery chemistries."

Corporate Finance Neil McDonald Seamus Fricker Fergus Sullivan ECM Barney Hayward