Inside General Motors (GM) between 1991 and 2014, Dr Shawn Gayden got to see what was required to develop technologies as an R&D Lab Group Manager. As GM formed a joint venture in China, she then got to see how a business is developed and a brand is built. During a stay in Japan, she took stock of how Asian manufacturers built their battery cells. And in her next role at BP’s Castrol business, she saw first-hand the fossil-fuel related challenges facing a range of industries.
While at GM, Gayden had started ruminating on an idea to ‘rewrite the next generation’ of battery manufacturing with a cold plasma-based 3D printing technique. It is based on a concept of taking existing chemistry and material, and making them producible at mass scales, at low cost, while keeping the carbon footprint to a minimum. Gayden took the idea to her superiors at GM, outlining the potential it had. The response was that GM is a car company, and as such this would be out of its remit, but Gayden was encouraged to pursue it.
At this stage, Gayden had never considered going out on her own to set up a business and a role at BP provided an alternative next career step. It was merely a diversion on her journey. After just 18 months, Gayden left BP, with the company’s blessing, to establish Intecells.
Dr Shawn Gayden.
“We need to get out of the current process which limits our ability to make battery more usable and longer range while keeping costs down,” she tells TCT of her motivation. “Coming from industry, knowing what it takes to take a concept to commercialisation, I was very conscious beginning Intecells to find customers confirming my belief and my assumptions are accurate. Since day one, every car company, battery manufacturer, everybody loves the idea.
“They love the cost cutting element of this technology, and the cost is where I started, and also make it more flexible in terms of production footprint, your footprint naturally shrinks to a quarter of the size, which then allows you to move around the globe. If you want to put a battery manufacturing [facility] next to your current plant, you can do that. If you want to move it to Europe, Asia, to the US, you can do that.”
Gayden took a big step towards commercialisation when she discovered Plasmatreat, a German company whose plasma technology is used for surface cleaning in transportation, electronics, packaging, consumer goods and more. Striking a partnership to leverage this technology for her battery manufacturing needs, Gayden co-founded Intecells alongside Plasmatreat CEO Christian Buske in 2018. In 2019, the company procured venture capital funding and in the years since has built up a small team that will bring Gayden’s vision to the commercial world, alongside Plasmatreat and a select number of research groups.
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The technology that Intecells is introducing sees a robotic arm deposit powder that is then stuck together by plasma to form layers. The result is the creation of batteries with 3D topologies that are said to return significant improvements to electrode coating adhesion (10x), energy density and power density (both 2x), and reductions to manufacturing cost (93%), electricity consumption (50x) and carbon emissions (50%). With this process, Intecells is promising the printing of electrodes for any chemistry at any scale, while aligning with its customers to build battery cells according to their design. And, Gayden says, the design could look like anything.
“The form factor’s key for consumable wearables. So, our technology will not only make a smaller, thinner battery, we can make it a flexible, irregular shape,” she says. “The shape can be changed, can be conforming to your product form factor. That’s not possible today. From wearables to car batteries, the product is designed around the battery. The battery takes up prime real estate in your product. That is what we’re going to impact. Open up the space, the design options, design all kinds of shapes that are more attractive.”
Intecells is hoping to enable some of these new-look battery products at scale by 2024. The company views itself having a sizeable impact in the automotive space, though a lengthy testing process to ensure the batteries perform as promised in all seasons will delay its entry into this market. Instead, Intecells wants to first make its mark in the consumer products space.
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“It’s just easier. We can fully demonstrate all the benefits or attributes [of our battery technology] – form factor, cost, energy density – it’s a good platform to demonstrate the benefits of this technology for vehicle people to see the technology mature in electronic market. [Then,] they can imagine how this might benefit them. It’s a good entry. It makes sense, engineering wise, to walk before you run.”
Though its battery products won’t be installed in commercial vehicles for some time, such is the length of design and manufacturing cycles in automotive, Intecells is already working with customers in the industry, per Gayden. Meanwhile, discussions are also underway with electronics, wearable and other consumer goods companies.
The aim of Intecells, as Gayden sees it, is to ‘change the fundamentals and the DNA’ of battery manufacture. And this is where it starts.
“We are changing the trend because we are going to drive the industry towards a different manufacturing future where there’s low carbon, low energy consumption, low cost, helping the environment, eliminating the limitation for products for consumers,” she finishes. “Take batteries out of the cost equation because right now, battery costs a huge percentage. Minimise the cost and there’s a lot of new products that have yet to be imagined, that are not possible today. A lot of new innovation will come from this capability.
“We know it works, to some extent, but we don’t know how much we can do, how much more is possible. As a start-up, we’re at the beginning of that journey. I always tell my people I won’t be there when all these possibilities become real, we’re just getting started. But the potential is huge and people who work with us realise that this is the beginning.”
