Altech Chemicals believes the commissioning of its Silumina lithium-ion battery anode pilot scale plant in Saxony, Germany is destined for the third quarter of 2023. The front-end wet plant has finished construction and is currently in the commissioning phase, whilst the back-end dryer and calciner are being built in South Africa and are due to be installed prior the final commissioning of the facility.
The company’s patented high-capacity and high-purity alumina coated silicon and graphite anodes are designed for use in lithium-ion batteries. Its pilot plant is due to be scaled up to a 10,000 tonne per annum production facility following a Definitive Feasibility Study, or “DFS” which is progressing in tandem with the pilot plant.
Currently, the pilot plant is being constructed in an existing building and its required infrastructure such as the power supply, laboratory and front-end wet circuit are nearly completed. Once it shifts into production the 120kg of silumina anodes produced per day by the pilot plant will be distributed to selected battery makers for product testing.
The company’s plans on building its full-scale production facility on the same site alongside the pilot plant.
Altech plans on using product from the pilot plant to assist with the qualification process for the use of its silumina anodes. An earlier preliminary feasibility study for the pilot plant completed by the company showed a net present value of US$507 million.
Kuettner Engineering have completed the process design for use in the current DFS for the full-scale production facility. The work is being undertaken in parallel with the pilot plant construction and commissioning to reduce the time to full scale production. Altech said the mass and energy balance calculations have been done to allow for factory layouts to progress and sourcing of production-scale equipment to commence.
The company is also holding a shareholders vote on 21 February to approve a change of name to Altech Batteries Limited that managements believes better reflects the direction in “Meeting a battery storage future”.
Altech’s siluminaanode product is one of three battery focussed projects and products the company has in its pipeline. Its Cerenergy batteries are claimed by the company to be the game-changing grid power storage alternative to lithium-ion batteries. The battery uses table salt and nickel and is lithium, copper graphite and cobalt free. Finally, Altech is in a joint venture with Fraunhofer to develop a 100MWh battery plant at Altech’s site in Saxony Germany. Altech’s high-purity alumina project will deliver feedstock for lithium-ion and future solid-state batteries.
With plenty of irons in the fire, Altech Chemicals has its foot to the floor as it looks to allow its bleeding edge technology to take advantage of the white-hot battery technology market.
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By Matt Birney
