Mitra Chem and Sun Chemical Launch Joint LFP Project

Mitra Future Technologies, Inc. ("Mitra Chem"), a leader in innovation in lithium-ion battery materials, and Sun Chemical, a multinational specialty chemistry company and the world's largest pigment producer, have announced a joint project to develop North America's first iron phosphate series production capacity alongside Mitra Chem's lithium iron phosphate production. 

Mitra Chem and Sun Chemical will combine their unique and complementary expertise and innovative processes to produce battery-grade iron phosphate at large scale from domestic raw materials. Sun Chemical will leverage its 100 years of advanced particle engineering expertise, manufacturing and production efficiency, existing regulatory permits and comprehensive US manufacturing infrastructure. Mitra Chem will provide its state-of-the-art laboratory in Silicon Valley and an acceleration platform leveraging machine learning and automation to unlock high-efficiency development and materials testing at 10 times the speed of current industry practices. The companies have already obtained an iron phosphate proof of concept and are optimizing a waste-free process.

Russell Schwartz, President of Technology at Sun Chemical, stated, "Sun Chemical is excited to work with Mitra Chem as we have validated that state-of-the-art approaches to LFP design produce LFP with extraordinary properties. Additionally, close collaboration with Mitra Chem will help renew a manufacturing process for cost-effective LFP intermediates from locally sourced raw materials."

Mitra Chem CEO Vivas Kumar said, "This partnership marks a turning point in the US design, innovation and manufacturing of critical electric vehicle battery components." "Sun Chemical is a pioneer in high-quality pigment technologies for the automotive industry based on design and manufacturing processes similar to iron phosphate, and together we are ready to help the US maintain its leadership in the most advanced supply chain for next-generation vehicles and energy storage."

This groundbreaking partnership represents an important step in building a cleaner, safer, faster and China-independent, robust domestic electric vehicle battery supply chain. To date, 100% of battery-grade iron phosphate (FP) and lithium iron phosphate (LFP) is produced outside the United States and 99% comes from China. This situation forces battery and vehicle manufacturers to be excessively dependent on fragile supply chains often plagued by low environmental and safety standards. When Sun Chemical's existing equipment and co-precipitation scale-up expertise is combined with Mitra Chem's product optimization capabilities, it will deliver a localized supply chain meeting the technical requirements of cell and automotive customers for high energy density LFP. The co-location of Sun FP and Mitra Chem LFP production will provide additional efficiency gains.