Producing multiple anode particulates, including: a) dispersing an electrically conducting material, multiple porous primary particles of an anode active material, an optional electron-conducting material, and a sacrificial material in a liquid medium to form a precursor mixture; b) forming the precursor mixture into multiple droplets and drying the droplets; and c) removing the sacrificial material or thermally converting the sacrificial material into a carbon material to obtain multiple particulates, wherein a particulate comprises a plurality of porous anode active material particles having a pore volume Vpp and a solid volume Va, an electron-conducting material, and additional pores having a volume Vp, which are encapsulated by a thin encapsulating layer having a thickness from 1 nm to 10 μm and a lithium ion conductivity from 10-8 S/cm to 5×10-2 S/cm and the volume ratio Vp/Va in the particulate is from 0.1/1.0 to 10/1.0 or (Vpp+Vp)/Va ratio is from 0.3/1.0 to 20/1.0.