Altech Chemicals completes design for battery materials coating pilot plant
Altech Chemicals’ pilot plant in Germany is designed to produce up to 120kg of anode-grade coated battery material per day.
Altech Chemicals’ (ASX: ATC) subsidiary Altech Industries Germany GmbH (AIG) has completed the preliminary design for a pilot plant to demonstrate the company’s proprietary battery materials alumina coating technology.
The plant will be built in Germany with a production capacity of up to 36,680 kilograms of anode grade coated battery material per year (or 120kg per day).
It will be installed across 300 square metres of floor space within the Dock3 facility adjacent to AIG’s designated site at the Schwarze Pumpe Industrial Park in Saxony.
Processing areas
The plant’s design has been separated into two processing areas – precursor production, and battery material coating and calcination.
Precursor production equipment will be manufactured using fluoropolymer and ceramic materials and will be operated in batch mode, producing approximately 10kg per batch.
Production is expected to be sufficient to feed the downstream anode material coating stage for approximately 30 hours at a time.
The coating and calcination section has been designed to operate continuously with minimal shutdowns to ensure consistency of product.
Altech said final purity had been the major consideration when selecting process equipment and the materials to be used during construction.
Production from the battery material processing area will be used to confirm the Altech process consistently achieves product purity requirements, while producing qualification samples for potential joint venture offtake partners and end users.
Onsite laboratory
An analytical laboratory has also been planned adjacent to the pilot plant to allow for the rapid assessment of product purity and to monitor physical parameters which will enable processing and operational setpoints to be modified as required.
The Dock3 space has existing utilities connections and includes office space for Altech’s project and operations team.
AIG (which is 75% owned by Altech and 25% owned by Altech Advanced Materials AG) is in the final stages of selecting an engineering contractor for the project, to manage detailed design, equipment procurement and installation.
AIG holds exclusive rights for the use of Altech’s battery materials coating technology within the European Union.