Altech Chemicals officially opens office and R&D workshop in Saxony as it fast-tracks HPA coating plans
Saxony state government officials have welcomed Altech Chemicals’ plans to develop a HPA battery material coating plant in the region.
Altech Chemicals (ASX: ATC) is a step closer in realising its commercial battery material coating plans with the official opening of its office and research and development workshop at the DOCK3 Industrial Development Centre within the Schwarze Pumpe Industrial Park in Saxony, Germany.
The company’s 75%-owned subsidiary Altech Industries Germany opened the facility with the support of many high-level state government and industry representatives.
Present were mayor of Spreetal Manfred Peine from Saxony, and mayoress of Spremberg Christin Herntier from Brandenburg.
ASG Spremberg managing director Roland Peine conducted the opening with the head state district officer Michael Harig also in attendance.
Altech Industries secured a three-year lease for the facility in May, which includes office space within a 12-bay workshop/warehouse complex.
The new R&D centre aims to further refine Altech’s HPA battery coating technology.
HPA coating plant strategy
A pre-feasibility study is underway for a high-purity alumina (HPA) battery material coating plant within the Schwarze Pumpe Industrial Park, which is well serviced by existing infrastructure including reticulated electricity, natural gas, rail and roads.
The park is also 120km from Berlin and 75km from Dresden.
Earlier this week, Altech revealed the study was making “solid progress”.
The company is evaluating the viability of a plant with capacity to coat 10,000 tonne per annum of anode grade graphite on a 14 hectare site within the industrial park.
Work on the process design has been completed, with the study now focused on preliminary process design criteria and sizing of required mechanical equipment.
According to Altech, the proposed plant has been welcomed by Saxony state government officials.
“Saxony is the state, which hosts production sites for Volkswagen, BMW, Porsche and Daimler, and the region is a leading engineering training ground and has excellent research facilities like the Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramics Technologies and Systems IKTS, a world leading institute in the science of battery materials,” Altech noted.