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Altech Chemicals upgrades alumina plant design, targets lithium battery sector

Published: 12:40 20 Oct 2017 AEDT

lithium ion batteries
Non-traditional industries targeted

Altech Chemicals Ltd (ASX:ATC) has finalised the design for the upgrade in capacity of its proposed high purity alumina (HPA) plant in Malaysia from 4,000 to 4,500 tonnes per annum.

Working in conjunction with its German engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor SMS group GmbH, Altech has completed optimisation of the plant process flow sheet.

The maximum plant output has been upgraded to 4,500 tonnes per annum HPA, with flexibility to balance the finished product mix.

The plant’s flexible product finishing line is designed to initially grind all HPA to an average particle size of less than 1 micron by wet milling using bead mills.

Upon the milled HPA achieving the designated particle size range it will be dried via a conventional spray drier.

The finely ground, dried HPA will then be aggregated in beads for heat treatment in a tunnel kiln; the finished product being HPA beads for use in the synthetic sapphire industry.

Alternatively, the finely ground HPA will be fed to a microniser to produce fine HPA powder for use in the lithium-ion battery industry.

Importantly, the consumption of HPA in non-traditional applications such as the lithium-ion battery sector is forecast to experience significant growth.

Electric vehicle manufacturers are increasingly demanding lithium-ion batteries with cathode and anode electrode separator sheets coated with 99.99% HPA for fire resistance.

Coincidentally, the particle size of HPA used as the coating for this application is ultra-fine, less than 1 micron.

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