Missing the forest for the (bat)trees

Hello and welcome to the Strawman. Like your favourite Starbucks Barista, we give you the good stuff. And yes, we remember your name. Enough small talk - today we’re talking about wood and batteries.

Allotrope, a UK based startup producing battery materials from biomaterials such as wood, has raised $6.7m of investment from Suzano Ventures. There’s a lot to unpack here. Let’s get plugged in.

Firstly, batteries from wood? I’m confused, so let’s be a little more specific.

In their own words, Allotrope develops high-rate battery material using biodegradable inputs. In order to develop this technology, they needed to improve the capability of high-rate carbon anodes to improve charging times. Carbon anodes are a positively charged receptor that attracts electrons and carries electrical charge. I know you might be positively confused but give us a sec.

So how do they do this?

Essentially, Allotrope extracts high carbon materials from biodegradable inputs and refines them to ensure that they are of the required quality. One of the most promising materials is Lignin which makes up around 30% of trees. They then use this material in the battery making process meaning that they don’t need materials such as cobalt, nickel, and other rare earth metals. These inputs are some of the most controversial components of electric batteries today.

There are multiple potential inputs that could work for Allotrope. One of the other interesting parts of that this round is the fact that it was led by Suzano Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of Suzano. Suzano is a Brazilian company, and one of the world’s leading producers of paper and pulp. In addition to this investment, Allotrope will be focusing on using Suzano pulp by-product as a key input for their batteries.

So where are all the paper batteries?

Most of this technology is still in the very early stages of being commercialised. Despite early successes in proving the technology, many researchers are still sceptical, arguing that the difference in performance and cost compared to traditional options is not significant enough to make an impact.

That said, the environmental impact is clearly there. As rare metals become rarer and in higher demand, it’s likely that there will be a cost impact too. Before too long, these new and improved batteries could be everywhere.

Until next time,

The Strawman