European-focused Altech Batteries has engaged a group of suppliers with extensive backgrounds in automation and robotics to help power its move into the next phase of plant construction as part of its Cerenergy battery project in east Germany’s State of Saxony.
Management says the design of the plant is aimed at completing one battery cell every 45 seconds as the project’s definitive feasibility study continues to gather momentum.
Altech Batteries managing director Iggy Tan said: “The level of excellence exhibited by the German plant unit suppliers we have brought together is truly remarkable. They possess extensive expertise in manufacturing plants that prioritise automation and robotics as essential components of the design. Our objective is to manufacture battery cells from the ground up, encompassing the production of ceramic solid-state tubes, full cell assembly, and conducting quality and battery performance checks at a rate of one every 45 seconds.”
The chosen suppliers will cover all areas of the plant’s construction, including ceramic mixing systems and battery management systems, in addition to plant electrics and control systems.
Altech is pitching its Cerenergy batteries as a game-changing grid storage alternative to lithium-ion batteries.
The company has two key products – the ABS 60 battery pack and its bigger ABS 1000 grid-pack. Management says they are fireproof, boast all-weather applications and have lower storage costs when compared to lithium-ion batteries.
The company has a trinity of battery-focused projects, including its Cerenergy project that is focused on sodium chloride solid-state batteries, which are made with common table salt and nickel rather than lithium-ion, in addition to copper, graphite and cobalt and which is perhaps closest to commercialisation.
The company also has a 4500 tonnes per annum high-purity alumina project in Malaysia to deliver feedstock for lithium-ion and future solid-state batteries and a battery material coating plant.
Altech’s battery technology is a product of its long-running partnership with German battery institute, Fraunhofer IKTS. The pair have a joint venture (JV) agreement, with plans to construct a 100MWh production facility on Altech’s land in Saxony.
That plant will produce Cerenergy battery modules to provide grid storage solutions to the market.
The JV’s ABS 60 will weigh 800kg and measures 500mm by 2330mm by 1100mm. It will have a nominal energy capacity of 60KWh, a nominal voltage of 600V DC and a voltage range stretching from 4120V DC to 670V DC.
It has 24-hour cycle capability, a design lifecycle of longer than 15 years and ambient operating temperatures of between minus-40 degrees C and 60 degrees C. Its target market is commercial applications.
Altech’s ABS 1000 is the 1MWh GridPack aimed at larger-scale operations such as industrial power back-up and grid storage. It comprises 18 batteries that make it the size of a 6m-high sea container and it weighs less than 17 tonnes.
Altech’s stock was up 3.45 per cent during today’s intraday trading and changed hands at a high of 9 cents.
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By Steve Kaless
