Altech Chemical invests in ‘highly positive’ feasibility plan to produce Silumina Anodes

Altech Chemicals has arranged for a particular feasibility study for its battery materials coating plant urging the company to allot US$507 million for their proposed plant in Germany.

The company describes the study to be ‘outstanding’ and ‘highly positive’.

Covered by Altech’s exclusive license, the plant when active will produce silicon-grade anode materials called Silumina Anodes.

The company declared that this specific study has revealed that a capital investment of US$95 million would be needed to develop a 10,000 tonne per annum capacity silicon-graphite alumina coating plant in Saxony. 

Europe’s Electric Vehicle (EV) Market has taken shape in the past few years and with the ever-evolving market, the demand for Silumina Anodes is skyrocketing. 

Altech’s plan is very much dependent on public demand. It is being foreseen by economists that the company’s regular performance might return the base capital in 3.1 years while bringing in a net cash amount of US$63 million per annum.

If the production rate is 10,000 tonnes per annum then the total revenue estimated comes at US$185 million each year.

Though according to Altech’s managing director, Iggy Tan, the company mainly focuses on its high purity alumina (HPA) plant in Johor, Malaysia, the Silumina Anodes plant represents “an exciting downstream opportunity” since its ready to utilise its HPA coating technology.

“We are pleased and excited about the results of the 10,000tpa Silumina Anodes pre-feasibility study.

Due to the attractive economics of the study, a decision has been made by (our subsidiary Altech Industries Germany’s) board to immediately progress to a definitive feasibility study for the project”, said Mr Tan.

Since the land has already been acquired in Germany to construct the plant, therefore the definitive feasibility study will “commence immediately”.

“We believe the production of Silumina Anodes materials could be a game-changing technology for the lithium-ion battery industry,” Mr Tan concluded.

Altech also announced that it had cracked the silicon code only last year.

Silicon has an energy retention capacity 10 times greater than graphite, still, it was being avoided till now for two main flaws; one is, it swells 300% upon being charged thus fracturing the battery and making it invalid. The second challenge faced in this innovation is that silicon deactivates lithium-ions in a battery cell, in time reducing its performance ability and life.

Anyhow, Altech has come up with unique tactics to alleviate the above-stated challenges and boost energy retention in lithium-ion batteries by 30%. It also has improved battery life and the product's cycle.

This scientific breakthrough was only achievable with the intermingling of treated silicon particles and the company’s patented High Purity Alumina coating technology. Graphite treated by the same quality HPA is used in bonding with the silicon.

Silumina Anode is the product extracted out of this extraordinary amalgamation.

High Purity Alumina serves as a protector against excess heating or expansion of materials within the battery.