BASF breaks ground on North American Li-ion cathode plant
27 October 2010
BASF broke ground on a $50+ million facility in Elyria, Ohio to produce advanced cathode materials for automotive lithium-ion batteries. (Earlier post.) The new production facility in Elyria is being built with the help of a $24.6-million grant from the DOE under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
BASF is one of only two licensed suppliers of the Argonne National Laboratory’s (ANL) patented Nickel-Cobalt-Manganese (NCM) cathode materials, which employ a combination of lithium and manganese-rich mixed metal oxides. The license covers the broadest scope of NCM chemistry that can be used in today’s lithium-ion batteries. The plant is due to come online in 2012.
Since 2005, BASF has invested significantly in lithium-ion cathode materials research and development. In 2009, BASF and ANL signed a worldwide licensing agreement under which BASF would mass produce and market ANL’s patented lithium-stabilized NCM cathode materials for use in advanced batteries that have higher energy density, are longer-lasting, and offer improved safety due to higher temperature stability.
As part of its long-term strategy to invest in cathode materials, BASF will continue to further lithium-ion battery application development at its research facilities in Beachwood, Ohio, and Ludwigshafen, Germany.
Excellent. This is has strong partnership potential. BASF has the global reach and capacity to manufacture very high volume batteries. Let's hope their chemistry scaled up can meet their lab results.
More batteries mean lower cost and higher energy density worldwide.
Posted by: Reel$$ | 27 October 2010 at 06:10 PM