EIC Accelerator Winner FluoRok and the Battery Salt Race

Lithium hexafluorophosphate, LiPF6, is the salt most commonly dissolved in lithium-ion battery electrolyte, and making it starts with hydrogen fluoride, a toxic and corrosive gas produced by heating fluorspar with sulfuric acid. FluoRok, a 2022 spin-out of the University of Oxford, says it can skip the hydrogen fluoride step entirely. Its route grinds calcium fluoride with a phosphate salt to make a fluorinating reagent, and uses that reagent to make LiPF6 under mild conditions, according to the Advanced Propulsion Centre's project page and the company's website.

The EIC Accelerator selected FluoRok's project, SUS-SALT-BAT, at the 6 May 2026 cut-off as a grant-only award. CORDIS records an EU contribution of €2,499,828.72, an agreement signed by the Commission on 8 September 2026, and a project running from 1 October 2026 to 30 September 2028. The company announced the €2.5 million grant on 2 July 2026. The project is a month old, so this article sets out what was promised and what can already be checked.

A route around hydrogen fluoride

The science behind the company was published in Science in July 2023 by Véronique Gouverneur's group at Oxford. The team ball-milled acid-grade fluorspar with dipotassium hydrogen phosphate to make a powder it called Fluoromix, and used it to make more than 50 fluorochemicals with yields of up to 98%, per the University of Oxford release on EurekAlert and the accepted manuscript. The same release says the research led to FluoRok. A Communications Chemistry commentary quotes Gouverneur calling the work a first step towards a circular fluorochemicals economy.

The paper made organic fluorochemicals in the laboratory, not battery salt at scale. The step from Fluoromix to LiPF6 is described in the company's grant applications: the APC page says FluoRok uses calcium fluoride and phosphate salts to create a fluorinating agent it calls FluoRok-Beta, and the CORDIS objective says the process can use fluorinated waste streams instead of mined minerals. No peer-reviewed paper on the LiPF6 route, and no purity or cell-test data, could be found on 4 November 2026.

Grants first, then a 2024 round

FluoRok started with £3 million from Oxford Science Enterprises in 2022, per an Innovate UK Business Connect case study, which matches the £3,000,000 share premium in the 2023 and 2024 accounts. On 23 September 2024 the company announced a £7.7 million round led by BGF, with Green Generation Fund, the battery investor Volta Energy Technologies, its existing investors and Excellis Holding. The case study dates that round to July 2024 and gives £7.8 million; Companies House records a share allotment on 23 July 2024, and the share premium rose to £10,597,628 by June 2025.

UK public money came in smaller pieces. The case study lists £770,000 from the Faraday Battery Challenge in January 2024 and £690,000 from the Automotive Transformation Fund in September 2024, plus two £50,000 awards. In August 2025, Coventry University and the North East Automotive Alliance reported nearly £1.5 million from the government's DRIVE35 programme for a UK demonstrator plant, with CPI and Coventry University as partners. FluoRok then announced a £1.5 million DRIVE35 grant on 10 April 2026 to enhance the planned demonstrator, and a £750,000 DRIVE35 grant on 5 June 2026 for a feasibility study of a first commercial plant. The APC lists two separate FluoRok projects, Demo-Fluor-Bat and ENHANCE-FLUOR-BAT, but neither page gives an amount, so which announcement belongs to which project is not public.

What the accounts show

FluoRok files small-company accounts without a profit and loss account, so its revenue and annual losses are not public. The balance sheets show the rest. Accumulated losses grew from £734,562 at June 2023 to £1,883,408 at June 2024 and £3,680,877 at June 2025. Cash fell to £926,245 before the 2024 round and stood at £5,450,354 a year later. Lab equipment, computers and a leasehold property took fixed assets to £1,094,256. The average workforce went from 3 in the first period to 10 and then 15.

The going concern note in the 2025 accounts, signed on 6 November 2025, is the most direct statement of the company's position. The directors wrote that cash flow forecasts showed reserves "could extend until October 2026", that a further funding round was planned for mid 2026, and that existing shareholders had expressed their commitment to it. The same note gives net assets of £6.87 million, while the balance sheet shows £7,206,772; the accounts do not explain the difference.

The filings since then follow that plan. A written resolution of 14 January 2026 authorised shares to be issued on conversion of a convertible loan note with Oxford Science Enterprises, BGF and others. A resolution of 15 July 2026 authorised series A preference shares and adopted new articles, and Companies House records share allotments on 27 July and 24 August 2026. The size of the round and the investors in it have not been announced.

What the EIC is paying for

The CORDIS objective sets three goals for SUS-SALT-BAT: validate the process at industrial scale, build a small facility with up to 45 tonnes a year of capacity, and win early revenue by qualifying the product with industry partners. Its stated aim is for FluoRok to become the first LiPF6 producer based in the EU. CORDIS names no site, and neither does the company's EIC announcement. FluoRok is registered in Oxford, and the UK demonstrator the APC funds is described as UK-based; where the EU facility would be built has not been published.

1. LiPF6 without hydrogen fluorideLab and pilotThe fluorspar chemistry is published in Science; the LiPF6 route is described only in grant pages and company releases.
2. Industrial-scale validationNot startedThe EIC project starts on 1 October 2026.
3. Facility of up to 45 tonnes a yearPlannedNo site or construction has been announced.
4. Product qualified with industry partnersLetter of intentA non-binding letter with Green Energy Origin, subject to qualification and commercial terms.

One named counterparty

On 3 December 2025 FluoRok announced a letter of intent with Green Energy Origin (GEO), an electrolyte producer with offices in Germany and production in the Czech Republic, for "kilotonnes-level" LiPF6 supply. The release says GEO intends to use the salt in its electrolytes subject to qualification, regulatory approvals and agreed commercial terms. No announcement from GEO about the letter could be found; trade press does report GEO's December 2025 deal for Mitsubishi Chemical electrolyte plants, which confirms it is an electrolyte manufacturer. In 2024 BGF's Dennis Atkinson spoke of "significant early demand from customers worldwide", and FluoRok said it was attracting potential customers in electrolyte salts and agrochemicals, but neither named one.

Why Europe wants this salt

Fluorspar, lithium and phosphate rock all appear on the list of critical raw materials in Annex II of the EU's Critical Raw Materials Act (copy of the list). For LiPF6 itself, no official production figure was found. The most specific estimate comes from a party in a trade dispute: in a US petition filed on 5 March 2026, the producer Orbia put China's share of global LiPF6 production at about 95%, per its law firm's release and a petition summary. FluoRok's own EIC announcement says supply is concentrated in Asia-Pacific.

That is the case the project makes: the CORDIS objective presents a first EU-based LiPF6 producer as a way to reduce Europe's reliance on Asian supply, and the company's June 2026 release says its route lowers CO2 emissions, plant capital costs and operating costs compared with the incumbent technology. No cost or emissions data has been published to check those claims.

The reporting is based on publicly available sources, listed below.