Estonia, December 17, 2025 – UP Catalyst, a European deep-tech company converting captured CO₂ into critical raw materials, has demonstrated that its CO₂-derived graphite meets battery-grade performance requirements for lithium-ion batteries.

The material reached 99.95% purity, a discharge capacity of 361 mAh/g, and ~90% first-cycle coulombic efficiency — meeting and exceeding key benchmarks for high-performance lithium-ion batteries.

In simple terms, this means UP Catalyst’s graphite is efficient to be used not only in electric vehicle batteries, but also in consumer electronics such as smartphones — where purity and efficiency requirements are much stricter than in EV batteries.
UP Catalyst can now produce high-quality graphite at a cost comparable to fossil graphite — offering a secure, locally produced battery material to meet accelerating demand, while reducing reliance on geopolitically concentrated imports.

“Our results show that CO₂ can be converted into high-performance graphite, and we are now moving into validation with battery cell manufacturers,” says Rait Maasikas, CEO of UP Catalyst.

Earlier this year, independent testing confirmed that UP Catalyst’s carbon nanotubes deliver 65% lower electrical resistivity than commercial reference materials. Battery cell tests by a major European manufacturer showed this translates into improved fast-charging performance, with equal or higher capacity at 1C and up to 10% higher capacity retention at 2C. In practical terms, batteries using UP Catalyst’s CNTs maintain performance even under fast-charge conditions.

“The achieved performance for both materials is an outstanding way to close the year. They show that CO₂-derived carbon materials have now reached the purity and quality level of the best fossil-based materials — and can even outperform them in demanding battery and consumer electronics applications,” adds Dr. Sebastian Pohlmann, CTO of UP Catalyst.