The Center for Materials for Electronics Technology (C-MET) has invited Expressions of Interest (EoI) from interested parties for collaboration with the Center of Excellence for rechargeable battery technologies (Pre-cell).

The interested parties would include public sector units, private industry, and consortia. They would participate as second co-funding industrial partners to support the creation of the Indian cell manufacturing ecosystem through local and cost-effective manufacturing technologies suitable for small players.

The last date for submission of the proposal is September 30, 2020.

The scope of work for interested parties includes a partial funding commitment of ₹40 million (~$546,015), including the design and development of the below-mentioned machinery related to Lithium-ion (Li-ion) and Sodium-ion (Na-ion) battery cell manufacturing at C-MET, Pune.

The prospective co-funding party should have prior experience in battery manufacturing, along with the necessary infrastructure and machinery. They should also have experience in research in association with government departments and should be in the field of regeneration of cathode and anode of battery cells.

The co-funding party will be working towards Li-ion and Na-ion battery cell manufacturing, machinery design, and transfer of end-to-end indigenous technology for cell manufacturing in India.

The co-funding party will also get the proportionate share in the revenue generated from the know-how and intellectual property rights developed from the collaboration activity.

C-MET is a registered scientific society under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), and it works towards the development of viable technologies in electronic materials.

It has developed indigenous cathode and anode materials and established a prototype fabrication and testing facility for lithium-ion cells. The capacity of the developed cells is comparable with that of commercially available cells, according to C-MET.

According to the society, it had already developed cost-effective domestic technology for various chemistries of Li-ion battery (or materials for cathode and anode), including commercially relevant chemistries. C-MET has also developed alternative anodes such as spherical hard carbon using cost-effective techniques. The cathode and anode material making technology is suitable for the Indian environment, added C-MET. It also developed an indigenous cathode material technology showing a comparable capacity to commercially available cells and stability up to at least 500 cycles.

However, the technology still requires end-to-end machinery development and IPR protection for full commercialization. Though the knowledge about electrochemistry of Lithium systems is present in India, there is a lack of experience and know-how in the techno commercial aspects of commercial exploitation.

Through this EoI, the body aims to support the creation of the Indian cell manufacturing ecosystem through its indigenous cost-effective manufacturing technologies suitable for small players.

The government also issued a proposal to set up a national mission on transformative mobility and battery storage initiatives last year. The Cabinet has also approved the creation of the Phased Manufacturing Program to support the development of large-scale, export-competitive integrated batteries and cell-manufacturing giga-scale projects in India.