Gelion gets government grant for lithium-sulfur project

(Sharecast News) - Shares in Gelion surged on Friday after its OXLiD subsidiary was awarded a £533,000 government grant to advance its lithium-sulfur (Li-S) technology. The funding, awarded through the government's DRIVE35 Demonstrate programme which is designed to support advanced manufacturing in the UK, will support scale-up and independent validation of Li-S in so-called 'high-energy multi-layer pouch cells', incorporating Gelion's proprietary sulfur cathode active material (CAM).

This, Gelion said, is an "important step towards market readiness" as it moves towards commercial adoption in defence, aerospace and automotive markets.

Gelion will be working with QinetiQ to build and test the demonstrators incorporating CAM technology, validating performance metrics for these end-markets.

DRIVE35 Demonstrate, delivered through the Advanced Propulsion Centre UK, is putting up half the money for a 12-month £1.1m project, with Gelion's contribution primarily in kind through the provision of time and expertise.

"We are grateful for this government support via the APC to demonstrate how use of our breakthrough Sulfur Cathode Material with Lithium Metal anodes can deliver cells with not only ultra-high energy density but that are also a full set of the other additional performance attributes needed for application to strategic applications like defence and aerospace," said Gelion's chief executive John Wood.

"We are especially pleased to be implementing this alongside QinetiQ utilizing their sector specific experience and UK based cell fabrication capabilities."

Shares were up 13.1% at 21.5p by 0940 BST.