Fibenol and UP Catalyst team up to develop energy storage using lignin

In Estonia, Fibenol and UP Catalyst are expanding their collaboration to develop lignin-derived hard carbon and high-surface-area activated carbon for energy storage applications, including sodium-ion batteries and supercapacitors. Building on joint research that began in 2022, the two companies have now formalised their work through a Memorandum of Understanding aimed at long-term collaboration and industrial-scale development of battery anode materials originating from Estonian woody biomass.

In collaboration with UP Catalyst, Fibenol’s Lignova®, a high-purity lignin powder designed as a building block for new materials, now extends into energy storage. Through a high-temperature process, this lignin is transformed into hard carbon, a material used in sodium-ion batteries, where its microscopic pores store sodium atoms during charging and discharging cycles.