Battery materials firm Altris has signed a deal to build a 2,000 metric tonnes per year sodium-ion cathode facility in Sweden.
The new facility, called ‘Ferrum’, will manufacture enough of the Swedish start-up’s cathode material Fennac to supply 1GWh of sodium-ion batteries each year.
Work on the 1,800m2 Ferrum facility is due to begin this spring, with the first output expected early next year.
The factory will be housed at metals firm AB Sandvik Materials Technology facility in Sandviken.
The site was selected due to the availability of infrastructure and onsite expertise, which will facilitate the Altris’ installation and ongoing support needs.
The site also allows for upscaling of production.
Sandviken becomes the third of Altris’ locations, joining the company’s head office and research laboratory in Uppsala and sales office in Guangzhou, China.
New battery material
Fennac is high sodium content Prussian White powder that can be used as a cathode material for the next generation sodium-ion batteries.
Composition is NaxFe[Fe(CN)6] with x>1.9.
The material can be paired against anode materials that do not contain sodium.
Fennac uses iron as a source of electrons, and completely filling the material with sodium provides a theoretical capacity of 170 mAh/g and average voltage output of 3.2 V versus sodium, say the firm.
Fennac is manufactured using Altris’ patented method that uses low temperature and ambient pressure.
