Andrew Draper met with the technological and business development drivers of Umicore’s North American expansion plans. They explained their aims on the sidelines of December’s Advanced Automotive Battery Conference.
Belgian battery materials company Umicore is looking to develop high lithium manganese (HLM) as a replacement for lithium iron phosphate (LFP) or lithium manganese iron phosphate (LMFP) for applications when cost is a factor. This is in mind as it builds a new cathode plant in Loyalist, Ontario, to produce precursor cathode active material (pCAM) and CAM. The eye is on mass market applications in North America like the EV market.
Production and use in a single region, with supplies from the region or a free-trade agreement country, means the plant’s production will qualify for inclusion in IRA tax breaks. The Canadian facility will be a 35GWh equivalent battery materials production plant at the heart of Canada’s automotive technology cluster.
Rohan Gokhale, applied technology manager for Umicore’s’ Rechargeable Battery Materials Division, told BEST that manganese-rich material is not new and a lot of work was done 15 years ago. But there is renewed market interest now due to advances in material technology, he said. It was once considered a replacement for high nickel, but expectations are now more conservative.
“Umicore now sees this material as a potential replacement for LFP or LMFP in the future for more entry- and mass-market kind of applications,” he said.
“So this is a more economical material with about 60-65% manganese and lower fraction of nickel and an excess of lithium. This material will be giving us more specific capacity.”
He said there is an advantage in terms of energy density over LMFP. And in terms of cost, the company sees some advantage outside China.
“So, the difference there when you compare…LFP is a more mature technology, but manganese-rich needs more optimisation. So we are working actively with customers to really optimise this material to incorporate HLM in their cells and packs.”
The aim is high capacity for the material but it must meet life cycle expectations too, he said. Voltage rate capability and voltage fade are challenges to be overcome. “So, there are some cell performance parameters that have to be optimised with this material, but looking at the progress that we are making, we are quite optimistic.”
Umicore is planning to bring products to market by 2026, he said. The 141-hectare plant is expected to create 1,000 jobs. Investment was €1.3 billion ($1.4 billion) – around half in non-refundable capital grants.
Robert Privette, the division’s North America business development manager said: “I would just say, in our work when we bring materials to the market, we don’t just, in a vacuum, develop materials and put them out on the market and see if somebody wants them. What we do is work very closely with the customers today. Many of those are OEMs, others are actual cell makers. And basically, tailor the materials to their specific specifications…to ensure that they get the performance they’re looking for.”
He added that HLM will present a “significant challenge” to LFP outside China. That, coupled with the fact it can be made on the same production lines as high nickel materials, is a bonus too. “You can’t do that with LFP or LMFP, where you would need a brand new, separate plant to make the LFP material. So that has implications on capex expenditures and depreciation of those facilities.”
Umicore is hoping to capitalise on the lack of cathode production in North America. It is also planning to establish a recycling facility there, probably at a different site, though it has not been selected yet.
