TENIX Battery Additive Moves Into Commercial Production

Ten-Nine Technologies is moving its TENIX battery additive into commercial-scale production as battery manufacturers look for ways to improve cell performance without replacing established manufacturing processes.

The Tulsa, Oklahoma-based materials company is accepting orders for 2026 and 2027 delivery while its technology undergoes evaluation with large battery manufacturers. Rather than introducing a new battery architecture, TENIX is designed to be blended into existing cathode materials during production.

The additive typically makes up between 0.5% and 2% of cathode weight, according to Ten-Nine. Its role is to limit chemical degradation at the cathode, one of the factors that can increase internal resistance and reduce usable battery capacity over repeated charge and discharge cycles.

For manufacturers, that approach could offer a shorter route to performance improvements than technologies requiring new cell designs, equipment or manufacturing lines. The bigger question is whether results recorded during testing can be reproduced consistently at commercial scale.

TENIX Targets Battery Cycle Life, Heat and Cathode Performance

Ten-Nine reports that third-party testing found batteries using TENIX achieved more than 75% additional charge-discharge cycles. Based on a 150,000-mile electric vehicle battery warranty, the company estimates that level of improvement could support more than 265,000 miles of battery use.

It also reports approximately 10% lower internal resistance and estimates that greater usable battery life could reduce lifetime cost per kilowatt-hour delivered by roughly 40%.

Those figures remain company-reported performance claims. Ten-Nine has not publicly identified the testing organization or released detailed test protocols alongside its commercial production announcement, so battery manufacturers will need to assess the material under their own cell designs, operating conditions and qualification standards.

Thermal performance is another part of the TENIX proposition. The company says batteries incorporating the additive can generate around 40% less heat over their operating life.

Lower heat generation could have implications beyond EV batteries. Stationary energy storage and data center backup systems also operate under increasingly demanding power and thermal conditions. Any reduction in battery heat could potentially affect energy losses and cooling requirements, although the impact at system level would depend on chemistry, pack design, duty cycle and operating environment.

Ten-Nine is also focusing on manganese-rich cathode chemistries. Interest in manganese has increased as battery producers consider chemistries that could reduce reliance on higher-cost nickel and cobalt while broadening raw-material sourcing.

The trade-off is that some manganese-rich cathodes face degradation issues during repeated cycling. Ten-Nine's technology is designed to address degradation through surface chemistry at the cathode.

If that approach can extend cycle life without creating meaningful penalties in energy density, cost or manufacturing complexity, it could make manganese-rich formulations more practical for a wider range of battery applications. That outcome, however, will depend on results from manufacturer qualification programs rather than laboratory performance alone.

Commercial Qualification Becomes the Next Test for TENIX

Ten-Nine currently reports production capacity of 100 tons of TENIX. Depending on additive concentration and pack configuration, the company estimates that volume could be used in roughly 50,000 to 200,000 typical EV battery packs.

The ability to incorporate the material into existing cathode manufacturing is central to its commercial strategy. Battery production lines are capital-intensive, and technologies that demand substantial equipment changes can face additional barriers to adoption even when laboratory results are promising.

TENIX is instead being positioned as an incremental materials change that could be introduced without redesigning the underlying lithium-ion cell.

Commercial adoption will still require extensive testing. Automotive, grid storage and other industrial battery applications operate under long warranty periods and strict reliability requirements, making qualification of new materials a lengthy process.

Ten-Nine says its additive is being evaluated by manufacturers that collectively represent more than half of global battery production volume. The company has not named those manufacturers or provided a timetable for completion of the evaluations.

The move into larger-scale production follows more than a decade of materials development. Chemist Paige Johnson founded Ten-Nine in 2014 after receiving an initial $100,000 investment to pursue the research independently. The company says it has since raised $45 million and secured 67 granted patents related to its cathode technology.

Commercial production shifts the focus from technical potential to repeatability. TENIX will now need to demonstrate that its reported cycle-life and thermal benefits hold across different battery chemistries, manufacturing environments and end-use conditions.

For battery manufacturers, that is the central proposition: gaining additional cell life through a relatively small change in cathode formulation rather than a wholesale redesign of the battery. The next stage of customer testing will determine how well that proposition translates from controlled testing into high-volume production.