Printing Batteries, how AM is changing Battery Manufacturing and Performance

Additive Snack · 15 May 2026 · 52m · Episode 32

What this episode covers

Karl Littau, CTO of Sakuu, explains how the company is disrupting the stagnant battery manufacturing industry by replacing wet, solvent-based slurry coating with dry powder-bed additive processes. Littau details how this shift eliminates toxic solvents, allows for powder reclaim, and significantly reduces the footprint and cost of equipment like long drying ovens. The conversation covers Sakuu's roadmap from initial electrode coating products to future bipolar designs that eliminate copper and aluminum, potentially enabling structural batteries and broader electrification.

Other shows on the same ground, closest first.

  • Advancing Battery Innovation for a Power Grid Under Pressure w/ Arwed Niestroj

    Arwed Niestroj, President and COO of Sakuu, explains why battery manufacturing is a complex material science problem where tiny defects cause failures, contrasting it with standard physical manufacturing. He details Sakuu's dry electrode coating technology, which eliminates toxic solvents and reduces facility footprint by 55%, enabling cost-effective Western production. Niestroj discusses how AI accelerates scaling and process control for these complex chemical reactions, and argues that this innovation allows for reshoring battery production to the US by lowering capital and operational costs.

  • Hardware to Save a Planet · 36m

    3D electrodes for Next Generation Batteries with Moshiel Biton, CEO and Co-founder of Addionics

    Moshiel Biton, CEO and Co-founder of Addionics, explains how his company creates 3D metal scaffold electrodes to improve battery performance regardless of chemistry. He details how this structure reduces internal resistance by 50% and theoretically increases capacity by 20%, effectively solving the trade-off between energy density and power. Biton discusses the company's use of AI-enabled structure optimization to design these electrodes for mass production integration with major automotive and energy storage players. The conversation covers the technical challenges of scaling this technology and the commercial hurdles of introducing new processes to a conservative battery industry.

  • Catalyst · 36m

    The world of battery recycling

    Dr. Dan Steingart, chair of the Earth and Environmental Engineering Department at Columbia University, explains the technical and economic realities of battery recycling, noting that current feedstock is dominated by gigafactory scrap rather than end-of-life batteries. He contrasts pyrometallurgy with hydrometallurgy, highlighting Redwood Materials' focus on securing feedstock, Ascend Elements' hydro-to-cathode process, and Li-Cycle's conservative approach to producing metal sulfates. Steingart argues that recycling is largely a low-margin tolling operation due to commodity price volatility, though he identifies direct recycling as a potential future pathway for LFP batteries.

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