EDITOR ' S LETTER
Battery bonanza
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Two issues ago , I devoted this column to an idea whose time seemed to have come : green ( and blue , and grey and yellow ) hydrogen . It seemed that suddenly everyone was getting involved . This month , the same pattern is happening again . Batteries , above all for electric vehicles ( EVs ), rely on chemistry and material science and there has been plenty of investment in the field before , but we are perhaps approaching a tipping point for chemical companies to decide if they can commit the resources needed to compete . Recently , Johnson Matthey ( JM ) became one of seven UK-based organisations to sign a memorandum of understanding to develop prototype solid-state battery ( SSB ) technology , targeting automotive applications . SSBs are described as “ the Holy Grail of battery solutions ”, with “ significant potential advantages over conventional lithium-ion batteries ”. It may not be entirely coincidental that the company is also considering exiting healthcare JM is also scaling up OnTo Technology ’ s Cathode Healing process for the direct recycling of Li-ion battery scrap . This restores the coating material for use in new batteries , avoiding energy-intensive refining . Scrap rates are high and Li-ion batteries will grow massively whatever happens with SSBs , so recycling is a hot topic . In the same vein , Porsche ’ s Cellforce Group joint venture selected BASF as cell development partner for its next generation Li-ion battery . BASF will supply high-energy HED NCM cathode active materials ( CAMs ) to Cellforce ’ s facility in Germany , which is due to begin operations in 2024 . The choice was made in part because of BASF ’ s ability to recycle battery materials at the prototype plant it is building in Schwarzheide , eastern Germany , which will start up in early 2023 . Also advancing in recycling is Solvay . Together with Veolia , it has demonstrated proof of concept for a process that involves using Veolia ’ s chemical extraction process from shredded battery cells , followed by Solvay ’ s hydrometallurgical technique to purify metals for reuse in new batteries . They are now moving on to a demonstration phase . Meanwhile , also in France , Arkema has invested “ several million euros ” in Verkor , a start-up in battery technology . This will help to build Verkor ’ s innovation centre near Grenoble , France , then launch the first gigafactory is expected to start in 2023 Albemarle , the only US-based producer of lithium metal anodes , has opened its Battery Materials Innovation Centre in North Carolina , Japan ’ s Daikin Industries and OCSiAl , the world ’ s largest producer of graphene nanotubes , have signed a cooperation agreement to produce them for next-generation Li-ion batteries and fluoropolymers . Meanwhile in Korea , the scale of it all is bigger still . Posco Chemical , a maker of secondary battery materials , will build a 60,000 tonnes / year CAM plant in Pohang at a cost of around € 4.3 million . This will give it 160,000 tonnes / year of capacity at its three sites , with 110,000 more to come in the US , Europe and China by 2025 . SK Materials and Group14 Technologies are to build its $ 52million factory for lithium-silicon battery materials in South Korea . This should open in 2022 . SK claims that its SCC55 technology , “ delivers dramatically more energy density per volume ”. Finally , LG Chem plans to spend about € 78 million on shifting its whole portfolio for sustainable growth , with battery materials at the heart of this . Tangible results from this are expected from 2H 2021 .
Dr Andrew Warmington
EDITOR – SPECIALITY CHEMICALS MAGAZINE
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