36Kr First Release | Sodium-ion Cathode Material Manufacturer Completes Tens of Millions of Yuan in Financing, Thousand-Ton Level Production Capacity to Be Further Expanded

Ask AI · How does NFPP technology optimize the cost structure of sodium batteries?

Author | Qiao Yujie

Editor | Yuan Silai

Hercy has learned that Xingrong Xinyuan (Xiamen) Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Xingrong Xinyuan”) has recently completed a multi-hundred-million-yuan angel round of financing, jointly invested by Blueprint Venture Capital and Xiamen High-tech Investment. The funds will mainly be used for R&D investment and capacity expansion.

Founded in 2022, Xingrong Xinyuan is headquartered in Xiamen. The company is dedicated to the research, production, and sales of sodium-ion battery cathode materials. Centered on the composite sodium iron phosphate (NFPP) technology route, it has built systematic material design and process capabilities.

The company’s technological advantages are mainly reflected in material design and process innovation. The company adopts a proprietary composite carbon coating technology, which significantly improves the electronic conductivity of NFPP materials; through optimization of the formulation system and refined process control, it suppresses the generation of impurity phases, further enhancing the structural purity and consistency of the material; by designing nano-scale particles and introducing the grading theory, it fully releases the material’s capacity and significantly increases the product’s tap density.

On the process side, Xingrong Xinyuan uses ultrafine grinding and precise grading processes to improve grinding efficiency, achieving accurate control of the slurry particle-size range and ensuring uniform mixing of nano-scale particles. Combined with spray drying technology, the precursor prepared has higher sphericity and a narrower particle-size distribution, further improving the material’s tap density.

（Image source / company）

Currently, a complete industrial chain has been formed domestically, ranging from upstream battery-grade sodium carbonate, hard carbon anodes, and electrolytes, to midstream cell manufacturing, and then to downstream applications. According to ICC Xinluo’s sodium-ion battery database, in 2025 China’s sodium-ion battery production will be 3.45GWh, representing a year-on-year increase of 96%. From the perspective of technical routes, the poly anion (NFPP) route is gradually establishing a dominant position by 2025, accounting for about 70%.

The founder of the company, Liu Hongyang, said that although the layered oxide route has advantages in energy density, when pursuing even higher energy, it still cannot get rid of reliance on rare and precious metals such as nickel and cobalt, and it also has potential safety and long-term stability risks. The Prussian blue route is difficult to achieve industrialization due to structural defects and issues related to crystal water. NFPP has inherent advantages in safety, cycle life, and raw-material costs, and it does not require rare metals, making it more suitable for the long-term needs of the energy-storage market.

Regarding product differentiation, Liu Hongyang said that Xingrong Xinyuan achieves fine control over material phase purity through its own synthesis pathway. During NFPP’s industrialization process, impurity phases are easy to form, which directly affects capacity release and tap density. The company has currently successfully controlled the main phase to around 99%, ensuring both capacity release and high tap density. In terms of the carbon coating process, Xingrong Xinyuan uses a composite carbon-source coating technology, combined with self-developed process optimization, reducing the carbon coating ratio from the industry’s typical 1.8% to 1.1%, effectively optimizing the cost structure.

Specifically, with regard to product consistency and yield, Liu Hongyang said that from 2023 to 2024, Xingrong Xinyuan systematically refined equipment parameters and process details, gradually moving away from the ideas of early lithium iron phosphate processes. Energy consumption in the upstream grinding and downstream sintering steps has already dropped significantly. The company’s current product yield and batch consistency are stable between 97% and 98%.

Currently, Xingrong Xinyuan’s annual production capacity has reached 5,000 tons. Entering 2026, downstream customers have already locked in more than half of the company’s full-year order volume in advance. In the future, the company will start the construction of a Phase II 20,000-ton production line, which is expected to further release capacity starting from the first quarter of 2027. The company has already formed long-term strategic cooperation relationships with multiple leading enterprises, laying a foundation for future market expansion.

As for the team, founder Liu Hongyang graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). During his time in the United States, he had multiple entrepreneurial experiences and possesses mature corporate management and industrialization experience. The company’s co-founder and Chief Scientist, Professor Huang Ling, is a professor in the Chemistry Department at Xiamen University and a doctoral supervisor. Since 2017, he has been developing sodium-ion cathode materials and is among the first in China to have experience in sodium-based poly anion systems.