It meets the desire to have the complete battery supply chain within a jurisdiction.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nCurrent production methods of high purity alumina<\/h3>\n Currently, the main route for producing high purity alumina is using the alkoxide process. The alternative technology that has been proposed is the USBM alumina process. The former process utilises high purity aluminium as the starting material, reacts it with an alcohol, and then reacts the alkoxide with water to produce the alumina. The feedstock is expensive as the aluminium metal is refined to a higher purity than typical aluminium metal and also carries with it the significant carbon and environmental footprint associated with the Bayer and smelter processes. This method can produce all purities of HPA up to 6N; however, it cannot produce aluminium salts.<\/p>\n
The USBM process, which has been known since the 1940s, utilises a much lower cost feedstock in the form of clay or other low-value aluminous minerals. Several proponents of this technology use kaolin as a feedstock to the USBM process to produce HPA. The process is based on the change in solubility of aluminium chloride in hydrochloric acid; as the acid concentration increases, the solubility decreases. The kaolin is mined, beneficiated, and leached in hydrochloric acid at 80-105\u00b0C.<\/p>\n
After filtration, the leach solution has hydrogen chloride gas injected to increase the acid concentration and precipitate aluminium chloride. The leach residue is neutralised and disposed of. The slurry is then filtered, and the aluminium chloride is re-dissolved in clean water. The filtrate is treated to regenerate the HCl gas for use within the process.<\/p>\n
This cycle of precipitation and redissolution repeats until the impurities have been removed; generally, at least three cycles are required for 4N purity. The final aluminium chloride product is filtered and calcined, typically in two stages.<\/p>\n
The first stage operates at 800\u00b0C and separates the chloride from the aluminium producing a gas stream composed of HCl and steam, and an aluminium oxide. The gas stream is treated to recover the HCl, which is recycled within the process. The aluminium oxide is then heated to 1200\u00b0C to change it to the alpha crystallographic form that battery manufacturers require. It is believed that the USBM process will struggle to make the higher purity products due to a significant increase in the number of purification cycles needed.<\/p>\n
The cost of the USBM process is primarily centred around the recycling of the gaseous hydrogen chloride. The plant must be sufficiently large to benefit from the economy of scale within the very energy-intensive HCl regeneration process to achieve economic success. This, combined with the necessity to construct the plant using expensive chemically resistant materials, result in a high CAPEX. At this time, the USBM process is not in commercial production.<\/p>\n
The future of high purity aluminium<\/h3>\n ChemX Materials aims to be one of the most responsive manufacturers of high purity aluminium products and will be engaging with the technical leaders to translate new ideas into a commercial reality. There is a clear trend toward higher purity materials being used in both batteries and sapphire. Thus, the capability to produce 5N and 6N will become increasingly important.<\/p>\n
Other advances include coating the cathode and\/or anode material with nanoparticles of HPA to improve battery performance by notably reducing the drop in capacity after the initial discharge. The size, morphology, and porosity of the HPA in batteries is also an area with significant developments.<\/p>\n
The HiPurA\u00ae<\/sup> team is already developing methods to produce novel materials at a small scale (2-5kg\/day) utilising a dedicated micro-plant, allowing the more innovative consumers access to relatively large volumes of developmental materials to trial before large scale adoption. The flexibility of the HiPurA\u00ae<\/sup> Process means that existing plants may be modified to produce novel materials.<\/p>\nOptimising the high purity alumina process for end-users<\/h3>\n ChemX is focused on developing materials for new and developing technologies for use in the energy transition and decarbonisation processes.<\/p>\n
The HiPurA\u00ae<\/sup> technology has been developed to produce HPA in a scalable process that can expand production as demand requires. The additional benefits of being capable of producing battery cathode precursor aluminium salts and boehmite provide a wide range of materials for the lithium battery supply chain. The product\u2019s flexibility also allows access to other markets presently limited by the purity and\/or morphology.<\/p>\nThe modularity of the process allows production to be co-located with the end-user facilities; combining this with the use of locally sourced feedstocks and reagents will significantly reduce the length of the logistics chain, reduce the potential of supply disruptions, and reduce carbon footprint. This also allows for the specific product specifications for the co-located facilities to be optimised to the end-user, ensuring greater quality continuity.<\/p>\n
ChemX will have its micro-plant operational in Q2 2022, producing up to 5kg per day. The larger pilot plant will be developed within 12 to 18 months. ChemX is currently working with HPA, aluminium cathode precursor salts, and boehmite buyers to create products with the unique specifications required for their process.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ChemX Materials Ltd on supplying high purity materials to the energy transition and the decarbonisation markets. ChemX Materials Ltd (ASX:CMX) currently has three projects that are under development regarding high purity materials and decarbonisation efforts: The HiPurA\u00ae High Purity Alumina (HPA) processing technology. This proven innovative technology produces >99.99% (4N) HPA for lithium batteries and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":21134,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[596],"tags":[649,24203,610,24335,24134,24355],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
The contribution of high purity materials to decarbonisation<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n