Dive Brief:
- Sodium metal chloride battery energy storage startup Inlyte Energy and steel shot and grit manufacturer Ervin Industries have reached an agreement to concoct new iron powder formulas, the companies announced Tuesday.
- Under the agreement, “Ervin’s engineering team will design processes and produce sample iron powders,” Inlyte CEO Antonio Baclig said in an emailed statement. “Inlyte’s engineering team will design target specifications and build and test iron-sodium cells with Ervin’s materials.”
- If the collaboration is successful, the new powder formulas would help improve Inlyte’s battery performance, expand the company’s domestic supplier base and reduce dependence on overseas materials, per the March 24 press release
Dive Insight:
Inlyte and Ervin will each invest in their own resources to carry out their “respective scopes, Baclig said.
“If the iron powders perform well and pass Inlyte’s qualifications, Inlyte will be able to secure supply of the iron powder from Ervin for Inlyte’s battery production scale-up, diversifying Inlyte’s existing iron powder supplier base with more U.S. suppliers,” the CEO said.
Ervin was established in 1920 and has three production facilities and over 30 shipping locations in the U.S., according to the company’s website. In addition to manufacturing steel shots and grits, the company specializes in metal powders, metallic abrasives, and amorphous metal particles. Ervin also utilizes recycled scrap metal to produce its metal products.
Critical minerals for batteries such as lithium, cobalt, nickel and graphite, have become harder to obtain due to trade policies. According to a 2024 report by the International Energy Agency, China accounts for well over half of global raw material processing for lithium and cobalt and has almost 85% of global battery cell production capacity. Meanwhile, the United States holds 10% or less of the supply chain for some battery metals and cells.
“China dominates production at every stage of the downstream battery supply chain,” the IEA report stated. “Over half of global raw material processing for lithium, cobalt and natural graphite occurs in China.”
With Ervin’s “century of experience producing high-quality iron materials,” the collaboration gives Inlyte a “powerful” foundation to scale its battery manufacturing and strengthen its U.S. supply chain operations, Baclig said in the press release.
“Energy storage is becoming critical infrastructure for the grid, and there’s an enormous opportunity to build this technology using the industrial capabilities that already exist in the United States,” Baclig said in a statement. “By building on existing, domestic terawatt-hour level supply chains of iron and sodium, this technology can scale rapidly to lower the cost of electricity across the country.”
Baclig said Inlyte is on track to bring domestically produced sodium battery systems to market, with commercial deliveries set to begin in 2027. Inlyte is in the final stages of selecting its first U.S. manufacturing facility location, with a decision expected sometime in 2026. The startup partnered with Italy-based sodium metal chloride battery maker Horien Salt Battery Solutions to accelerate the manufacturing scale-up of Inlyte's iron-sodium battery technology.
Baclig declined to comment on the company’s investment for the U.S. facility. However, Inlyte has a pilot plant located near Dearby, U.K.
