Gelion (LSE:GELN) has agreed a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the National Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR), formerly NREL and a US Department of Energy facility based in Golden, Colorado, marking the sulfur battery company's formal entry into the US energy storage market.
Under the agreement, Gelion and NLR will use Gelion's Nano-Encapsulated Sulfur (NES) Cathode Active Material to validate an all-domestic supply chain for advanced lithium-sulfur batteries, covering materials development, pouch cell prototyping and testing, with a target to reach battery cell manufacturing qualification within 12 months.
The collaboration also tasks Gelion's US subsidiary, Gelion U.S., with building and operating a pilot-scale cathode active material plant sourced entirely from domestic resources, with validation results to be reported across multiple federal agencies for potential US government and defence procurement.
"This collaboration goes beyond technology development; it will demonstrate that our high-energy sulfur platform can be manufactured using all-domestic resources," said John Wood, CEO of Gelion.
The CRADA is structured as a binding collaboration and funding agreement, positioning Gelion alongside existing prototype programmes in Japan and the UK as it targets the US battery market, where domestic critical mineral supply chains have become a federal policy priority.
