Automotive News Canada - April 2024 - 8

8
* APRIL 2024
One-upping China's supply chain
As demand for LFP battery
chemistry increases,
a Canadian company
is gearing up to provide
a competitive localized
source for materials
By DAVID KENNEDY
T ORONTO BUREAU CHIEF
BATTERY TECHNOLOGY STARTUP
Nano One Materials Corp. has developed
a new processing method to establish
itself in North America as a viable alternative
to entrenched electric vehicle supply
chain players in China.
" We can't copy what's happening in
China and expect to beat them, " CEO
Dan Blondal told Automotive News
Canada. " We have to innovate our way
around. "
Nano One, based in Vancouver, is
focused on cathode-active material, used
for the positive side of lithium ion batteries.
In 2022, the company purchased
one of North America's few operational
battery-material production hubs in
Candiac, Que., and has since retrofitted
the plant to use its " one pot " processing
technique.
" We are currently sampling materials
out to automotive and energy-storage
potential customers at the tonne scale, "
Blondal said.
Unlike many other battery material
producers setting up in North America,
Nano One's main focus is on lithium-iron-phosphate
(LFP) chemistry. This
has become the leading battery type in
China's EV market and is catching on in
North America.
A MATERIAL DIFFERENCE
Battery makers in China didn't invent
LFP batteries. That distinction belongs to
U.S. battery pioneer John Goodenough,
with an assist from researchers at
Hydro-Quebec. Goodenough, a Nobel
Prize winner for chemistry, died last
year at age 100.
Recent advances in China have
allowed the technology to make up
ground on more traditional nickel-manganese-cobalt
(NMC) batteries.
According to the research firm
BloombergNEF, LFP cells were on average
32 per cent cheaper than their NMC
counterparts in 2023.
LFP is safe, it's
reliable, it's
inexpensive, and it's
leveraging rawmaterials
supplies
that are more
abundantly available
than NMC. "
Dan Blondal
CEO, Nano One
Materials Corp.
Dan Blondal
" LFP is safe, it's reliable, it's inexpensive,
and it's leveraging raw-materials
supplies that are more abundantly available
than NMC, " Blondal said.
In acquiring the Candiac site, Nano
One also took on the " most experienced
LFP team outside of Asia. " That group
has a track record of validating battery
material for the auto sector, Blondal said.
" That's not to be trifled with, " he said.
" It can take years to get that level of qualification.
Having a team there that knows
how to do it shortens that by a factor of
10, probably. "
Nano One has about 130 employees
in Canada, roughly split between its
research hub in Metro Vancouver and
its newly integrated production site in
Candiac, a Montreal suburb on the south
shore of the St. Lawrence River.
AN EDGE ON COMPETITION
With updated production lines running
in Quebec, Blondal said, Nano One
has a head start on other LFP producers
in North America. It produced about 200
tonnes of battery material at the roughly
nine-acre (four-hectare) property in 2023,
but that's only a start.
Nano One is working to expand output
to at least 2,000 tonnes per year in
Candiac, and even that is a fraction of the
demand it expects.
By 2030, more than 200,000 tonnes of
LFP material will be needed to feed battery
cell plants in the United States that
are being planned, the company said.
There are about 130 Nano One employees in Canada, roughly split between its
research hub in Metro Vancouver, pictured, and its newly integrated production site
in Quebec. PHOTO: NANO ONE
Essentially, no material production
capacity exists in North America and little
globally outside China.
Tesla Inc. and Ford Motor Co. are
among the prominent auto companies
using LFP batteries in vehicles, and
a laundry list of others from BMW to
Volkswagen are known to be working
with the chemistry.
" With all of those parties coming
online, as you get to battery manufacturing,
they're going to want localized sources
of these materials for all of the geopolitical
reasons and the security-of-supply
reasons that are well-known in the industry
right now, " Blondal said.
CHINA CHALLENGE
There are other considerations with
leapfrogging China's manufacturing technology.
A
Nano One worker packages battery materials at the Quebec plant, which was
purchased in 2022. " We are currently sampling materials out to automotive and
energy-storage potential customers at the tonne scale, " CEO Dan Blondal said.
PHOTO: NANO ONE
" We have much more stringent environmental
standards, and that requires
the removal of water waste and physical
waste streams related to sodium sulfate. "
This creates an opening for Nano One,
whose one-pot process eliminates several
steps in typical cathode material production,
both cutting cost and waste, Blondal
said. In fact, one of the first changes the
company made at the Candiac plant was
to decommission the waste processing
equipment not needed in its production
method.
The next step is building a commercial-scale
plant that will raise annual
capacity to tens of thousands of tonnes
from thousands.
By expanding at Candiac, Nano One
could produce up to 25,000 tonnes a year,
Blondal said, but it's also studying locations
in Quebec and Ontario for a larger
plant. The company aims to have its site
selected by the third quarter and then get
to work on financing.
Getting the plant built will likely
require an agreement with a customer
committed to buying product from the
plant, Blondal said. The company has
partnerships with mining companies -
such as Rio Tinto Group, Umicore and
Sumitomo Metal Mining Co. - as well
as battery companies and automakers
but has not firmed up a supply deal yet.
Many in the industry, Blondal added, are
still " weighing their bets. "
Once it has proved out its one-pot process
in a full-scale plant, Nano One plans
to use technology licensing to expand further,
as opposed to building a network
of corporately owned plants. Using this
model, battery material producers would
pay royalties for the right to use Nano
One's intellectual property and replicate
the setup of its initial plant.
" That becomes a cookie cutter that can
be stamped out in various places around
the world, " Blondal said. - ANC
Nano One's Quebec plant uses a technique for making lithium-iron-phosphate
battery materials that eliminates several steps in typical cathode material
production, cutting cost and waste. PHOTO: NANO ONE
Automotive News Canada - April 2024

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