HPQ Silicon and its partner Apollon Solar, enter into discussions with Li-ion battery manufacturer

Montreal — HPQ Silicon Resources and its partner Apollon Solar SAS, acting as one party, have signed a non-disclosure agreement (“NDA”) with a manufacturer of Li-ion batteries for the purposes of exchanging technical information and sending testing materials.

For industry competitive reasons, the name of the battery manufacturer will remain confidential.

MEETINGS WITH INDUSTRY PARTICIPANTS LEAD TO NDA WITH BATTERY MANUFACTURER

In its’ press release dated August 19, 2019, HPQ announced it would be meeting with industry participants and end-users in H2 2019 about our unique capacity to produce high purity Silicon (Si) in one step. The NDA is a result of the manufacturer showing an interest in evaluating porous silicon wafers made using Silicon (Si) produced by HPQ PUREVAP™ Quartz Reduction Reactor (“QRR”) and Apollon Solar patented process. Specifically, the cased use is to explore using our porous silicon wafers as the anode for their next-generation Li-ion Si batteries.

“We are very happy to be in discussions with an innovative Li-ion battery manufacturer and look forward to now having more substantive technical discussions. More than four years of great technical work culminated in the assembly of a world-class technical team in 2019 to demonstrate the potential of silicon materials produced from the PUREVAP™QRR as high-capacity anode materials for Li-ion batteries” said Bernard Tourillon, President and CEO HPQ Silicon.

“Silicon’s potential to meet energy storage demand is undeniable and generating massive investments, as well as, serious industry interest, so our timing could not be better. Suffice it to say, we are very pleased to have attracted such early interest. However, I must caution investors that although this agreement does signal the interest in our products, we are still at the very preliminary stages and there is no guarantee that anything, of any commercial value, will materialize from these efforts. It does, however, demonstrate the potential for new and exciting advances by HPQ and partners in the silicon energy space,” added Mr. Tourillon.

GLOBAL ENERGY STORAGE MARKET READY TO EXPLODE

A recent report projects that energy storage deployments are estimated to grow 1,300% from a 12 Gigawatt-hour market in 2018 to a 158 Gigawatt-hour market in 2024. Meanwhile, at current growth rates of 2% per year, global energy consumption will be an estimated 125,000 Terawatt-hours, which is 800,000 times more than the estimated storage capacity. An estimated US$71 billion in investments will be made into storage systems where batteries will make up the lion’s share of capital deployment. Research suggests that replacing graphite materials with Silicon anodes in Li-Ion Batteries promises an almost tenfold (10x) increase in the specific capacity of the anode, inducing a 20-40% gain in the energy density of Li-ion batteries.

About Silicon

Silicon (Si) is one of today’s strategic materials needed to fulfill the renewable energy revolution presently underway. Silicon does not exist in its pure state; it must be extracted from quartz, one of the most abundant minerals of the earth’s crust and other expensive raw materials in a carbothermic process.

About HPQ Silicon

HPQ Silicon Resources Inc. is a TSX-V listed company developing, in collaboration with industry leader PyroGenesis (TSX-V: PYR) the innovative PUREVAPTM “Quartz Reduction Reactors” (QRR), a truly 2.0 Carbothermic process (patent pending), which will permit the transformation and purification of quartz (SiO2) into Metallurgical Grade Silicon (Mg-Si) at prices that will propagate its significant renewable energy potential.

HPQ is also working with industry leader Apollon Solar to develop: Porous silicon wafers manufacturing using PUREVAP™ Silicon (PVAP Si) that can be used as anode for all-solid-state and Li-ion batteries; and a metallurgical pathway of producing Solar Grade Silicon Metal (SoG Si) that will take full advantage of the PUREVAPTM QRR one-step production of high purity silicon (Si) and significantly reduce the Capex and Opex associated with the transformation of quartz (SiO2) into SoG-Si.

HPQ focus is becoming the lowest cost producer of Silicon (Si), High Purity Silicon (Si), Porous Silicon Wafers and Solar Grade Silicon Metal (SoG-Si). The pilot plant equipment that will validate the commercial potential of the process is on schedule to start in 2019.