Electric cars drive Süd-Chemie to build new chemical plant
13 Jul 2010
Munich, Germany – Speciality chemicals maker Süd-Chemie AG is investing around Euro60 millionto build its first industrial-scale plant for the production of lithium iron phosphate (LFP) – an energy storage material used in batteries for electric vehicle drives and other applications.
The Munich-based group is constructing the LFP plant on the new site of its Canadian subsidiary, Phostech Lithium Inc., of Candiac, Quebec. The plant will employ a patented wet chemistry process that can provide high-grade LFP of stable and consistent quality.
Commercial production will start in 2012, with the Canadian facility slated to reach an output rate of around 2,500 tonnes per year. Süd-Chemie can currently produce around 300 tonnes of LFP based on its new wet chemistry production process. Production is based at its site in Moosburg, Germany.
The new capacity, said Sud-Chemie, will support the production of about 50,000 all-electric automobiles, or up to 500,000 hybrid drive vehicles, per year. It also sees significant application opportunities for its LFP in high-performance storage batteries, power tools, starter batteries for passenger vehicles, and electric scooters in Europa, Asia, and North America.
Compared with other cathode materials for lithium ion batteries, Süd-Chemie claims that its LFP product offers higher energy density, better safety of the material, longer service life. The wet-chemistry derived product is also said to offer a better manufacturing cost profile, and more reliable charge/discharge characteristics even in long-term use.
According to Süd-Chemie chairman Günter von Au, chairman of Süd-Chemie AG: “Our LFP will establish itself as a storage material for large high-performance batteries, thus enabling electromobility to achieve an overall breakthrough in the automotive industry. This is particularly due to the high performance as well as the superior safety and the long-life cycle as well as the stable charging characteristics facilitated by our LFP.”
Süd-Chemie director Hans-Joachim Müller added: “With this investment, we are now significantly expanding our production capacity in this market of the future, which will allow us to meet the heavily increasing demand from our strategic customers in the automotive and battery industries.
“Our outstanding patent situation, high-quality manufacturing process and our already strong LIFE Power product brand put us in an excellent position in the fast-growing market for battery materials.”
