Graphene Manufacturing Group, a Brisbane-based company, has begun providing its lithium-free battery cells, known as G CELLS, to customers for early-stage testing and evaluation. This marks a significant milestone in the company’s 2026 battery roadmap and the first time the novel lithium-free chemistry has been made available to real end users.
The delivery of G CELLS to customers comes twelve days after the Battery Innovation Center of Indiana completed test data showing the cells had run 1,000 six-minute cycles without degradation, outperforming lithium titanate oxide (LTO) reference cells by a tenfold margin.
Lithium-Free Chemistry
G CELLS avoid the problem of lithium metal plating onto graphite anodes, which can cause thermal runaway, by using an aluminium metal anode instead. The cathode is a graphene-based material developed with the University of Queensland, enabling fast intercalation and de-intercalation of aluminium-chloride complex ions.
The electrolyte used in G CELLS is a chloride-free, non-corrosive hybrid electrolyte, which resolves the historical failure mode of aluminium-ion battery programs. This design choice has resulted in G CELLS running 4 degrees C above ambient temperature during six-minute cycling, compared to 19 degrees C for the LTO reference cell.
The internal resistance of G CELLS also differed significantly from the LTO cell, measuring approximately 5 milliohms versus 30 milliohms for the LTO cell. This ratio explains much of the thermal advantage of G CELLS.
Performance and Supply Chain
The figures from BIC Indiana show that G CELLS delivered 58 watt-hours per kilogram (Wh/kg) at a six-minute charge rate, with zero measurable capacity reduction after 1,000 cycles. This performance is significant, especially considering the supply chain advantages of G CELLS, which require no lithium, cobalt, or rare earth elements.
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Aluminium, the primary material used in G CELLS, is the most abundant metal in Earth’s crust, with established global smelting and refining infrastructure. Graphene, the other key material, is produced by GMG using a process that decomposes natural gas directly into carbon, yielding graphene and hydrogen as a co-product.
This production route is not geographically constrained by mining deposit location and requires only a natural gas feedstock and GMG’s proprietary plasma reactor. The hydrogen co-product represents a secondary revenue stream that changes the economics of graphene production compared to mined graphite.
The elimination of copper in G CELLS’ all-aluminium electrode architecture also removes a significant supply chain dependency. Standard lithium-ion cells require copper foil as the anode current collector, which is subject to supply concentration and price volatility.
G CELLS were built by BIC Indiana using graphene materials developed, manufactured, and supplied by GMG. The cells were assembled at BIC Indiana from the same supply of Brisbane-produced graphene, providing third-party independence to the cycle-life data.
Bob Galyen, GMG director and former Chief Technology Officer of CATL, emphasized the importance of customer testing in determining the requirements for G CELLS.
The first batch of G CELLS has been delivered to companies in the defense and heavy mobile equipment sectors, with no specific recipient companies named. These cells are pre-commercial evaluation samples not approved for use in commercial products.
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GMG is targeting small commercial production in 2027, backed by BIC Indiana and Rio Tinto. The development agenda before that milestone includes pushing past 1,000 cycles toward the 10,000-cycle target and improving energy density at the ten-times-normal charge rate.
Craig Nicol, GMG’s Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, framed the evaluation program in terms of what the company expects to learn from customer testing, rather than what it has already proven.
The current evaluation is designed to generate application-specific performance data and feedback to guide GMG’s development priorities before small commercial production begins. Whether G CELLS will mark the beginning of a commercialization path or the latest chapter in graphene battery history will be determined by what evaluating companies report back over the coming months, with the company aiming to deliver over 100 cells before the end of 2026.
The company aims to scale cell format beyond the current 1.5 Ah pouch. Characterizing performance across ambient temperature ranges and completing formal safety validation are also priorities.
The company’s methane-pyrolysis graphene route addresses the supply chain problem, and BIC Indiana’s manufacturing infrastructure addresses the production process question. Whether these advantages translate to a commercial cell at competitive cost by 2027 is the question the current customer evaluation is designed to answer.
Next Steps for G CELLS
Craig Nicol emphasized that customers will test cells against their own requirements. The company expects to learn from this testing and shape its next development priorities.
