Resources for engineers and procurement teams.

XNO® is a proprietary mixed niobium oxide active anode material developed by Echion Technologies. Unlike graphite — the standard anode in most lithium-ion batteries — XNO® is designed for fast charging, long cycle life, and high safety simultaneously. Unlike LTO, XNO® delivers approximately twice the energy density, enabling smaller and lighter batteries for the same performance.

XNO® is designed for industrial and commercial applications where fast charging, high cycle life, and operational reliability take precedence over maximum energy density: mining and off-highway equipment, data centre UPS and energy storage, rail traction, maritime propulsion, warehouse robotics and AGVs, and industrial energy storage. XNO® is particularly well-matched to applications currently using LTO batteries.

XNO®-based cells support symmetric 10C continuous charge and discharge — equivalent to a full charge in approximately 6 minutes. This is maintained continuously, not as an occasional peak, and without accelerated degradation.

At optimised cycling conditions (20–80% SoC, 5C/5C), XNO® cells are predicted to exceed 50,000 cycles to 80% capacity retention. Under deeper cycling typical of real-world industrial use, demonstrated cycle life exceeds 15,000 cycles — more than double LFP and significantly exceeding NMC.

XNO® is the safest commercially available lithium-ion anode chemistry. It operates at approximately 1.6V vs Li/Li⁺ — above the threshold at which lithium plating and dendrite formation occur. Under nail penetration testing at 100% SoC, XNO® cells show no fire and no explosion. Thermal runaway onset is delayed to over 4,500 seconds — more than twice as late as graphite-anode cells.

XNO® charges and discharges reliably from −30°C to +60°C without derating or restricted operating windows. At high charge rates, Joule self-heating actively warms the cell in cold conditions — at 7C and −30°C, cell temperature rises toward 0°C, approaching room-temperature performance without external pre-heating.

+

LFP charges at approximately 1C — a full charge takes around 60 minutes. XNO® charges at 10C continuously — approximately 6 minutes. XNO® also offers significantly longer cycle life and operates reliably at low temperatures where LFP cannot charge.

XNO® is in commercial production and available now. Echion operates a 2,000 tonne per year production facility in Brazil — approximately 1 GWh of cell capacity annually. XNO® anode material is available directly to cell manufacturers. Complete engineered battery products are available through Echion Solutions.

An independent LCA by Ghent University (peer-reviewed, 2023) found XNO® has 51% lower global warming potential than LTO at the material level and 61% lower on an energy-delivery basis. XNO® does not rely on cobalt, nickel, or other environmentally contentious feedstocks.