Belgian start-up SOLiTHOR, a spin-off from research company Imec, which is developing its own promising solid-state battery technology, is expanding its scientific staff to move toward the final commercialization, aiming at vehicles and aviation, defense, and maritime applications.

Among them, Belgian Dr. Matthieu Moors, returning from Tesla Giga Berlin, where he was Senior Staff Engineer in battery cell manufacturing, and where he played a significant role in developing the 4680 Tesla cell technology. He started in April as Head of Design, Process, and Upscaling at SOLiTHOR.

International team

With him came – from Russian origin – Dr. Sergey Yakovlev. According to the press release, he is “an accomplished electrochemist and material scientist with a twelve-year track record of research and development”.

Joining from InoBat (Slovenia) lately, he used to be a lead scientist for eight years at the British, Southampton-based, solid-state pioneer Ilika Technologies Ltd. The latter specilizing in large solid-state batteries for transportation and micro-batteries for health care applications.

The third to join the Belgian battery start-up is French Dr. Ali Darwiche, who will be responsible for components and cell design. He brings with him more than ten years of experience in research and development of materials chemistry.

Until now, he worked as a researcher at the Center of Excellence in transportation, electrification, and energy storage, of Canadian Hydro-Québec, a global player in hydropower.

European Center of Excellence

SOLiTHOR’s R&D center and labs are based at the Thor site at the former coalmine of Waterschei in Genk (Belgium). Hence the ‘THOR’ in its name. It has worked on solid-state battery technologies for automotive, aviation, and maritime for several years.

In December 2022, it concluded a 10-year contract with Punch Powertrain to establish a European Center of Excellence for solid-state lithium batteries at Punch’s factory in Sint-Truiden. It will set up production for the first demonstrator batteries and commercial production there.

Cheaper manufacturing

SOLiTHOR developed a unique electrolyte for lithium-ion cells that starts as a liquid and becomes solid in the production process, which promises easy and cheaper manufacturing. The company says that the liquid-to-solid process results in a ‘drop-in’ solid electrolyte, which does not require an expensive rebuild of classic cell production lines.

Technically, it’s called “a nano-Solid Composite Electrolyte (nano-SCE), which is neither a sulfide, an oxide, nor a polymer and does not need high operating temperatures to reach high lithium-ion conductivity combined with a lithium nano-anode”.

Regional aviation and air taxis

In February, Belgian aerospace company Sonaca announced that it is joining SOLiTHOR to develop solid-state batteries for regional aviation and future air taxis (VTOLs). Solid-state batteries are lighter, have more energy density, and are considered safer than current lithium-ion batteries with a fluid electrolyte.

SOLiTHOR will be responsible for cell research, development, testing characterization, format design, and production in a rented production hall at Punch Powertrain in Sint-Truiden. In Gosselies (Charleroi), Soneca will develop the battery packaging, including all related aviation management systems, to certify the battery system.