Industry leaders’ insights on the future of battery materials supply and production
At The Battery Show (Oct. 6–9; Detroit, Mich.), all eyes were on the supply chain, with wide-ranging panel discussions covering everything from emerging technologies to reduce the reliance on certain metals and the importance of supporting startup companies, to the absolute criticality of adopting long-term investment strategies in battery manufacturing at a federal level to support competitiveness on the global scale.
Obviously, continuing innovations in materials science and novel battery chemistries seem poised to help alleviate some supply-chain challenges and help expand battery production. But advances in manufacturing, including the deployment of high-performance robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) will also be critical.
Keynote panelists at The Battery show
LFP supply chain expands globally
A common theme at The Battery Show was the diversification of raw-material supply in the wake of China’s significant dominance and restrictive trade activities. China has traditionally been seen as the only mainstream producer of precursors for lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cathode materials, but LANXESS AG (Cologne, Germany) entered the LFP market in 2024, becoming the first Western producer of key LFP precursor materials, which can be used for two different LFP production processes.
While its iron oxide battery grades are already used in industry, LANXESS has started to build up new production capacities for iron phosphate. The aim is for greater independence and secure supply to the European and American markets with sustainable materials of local origin.
“There’s really no Western supplier for iron oxide and iron phosphate battery grades outside of China with sufficient capacities to serve the market. Our precursor materials are complete free of Chinese value chains because we are sourcing and supplying all the raw materials locally for our sites in Europe and Brazil. Our iron phosphates and iron oxides are already field-proven, and so is the alternative route for the manufacture of LFP. We believe that both materials will have their own position or standing in the market, because they generate LFP with different performance properties for the end customer,” says Murat Gürsoy, head of innovation at LANXESS.
LANXESS’ significant advantage in LFP supply chain is its global manufacturing network, especially for iron oxide products. LANXESS currently operates a world-scale synthetic iron plant in Germany, which feeds the iron phosphate and iron oxide production infrastructure. This enables liberation from traditional supply-chain concerns, as well as the use of a unique production method that enables the production of higher-performance LFP grades without the common supply concerns.
“The mainstream iron phosphate manufacturing process used in China generates 1 ton of neutral salts for every ton of iron phosphate, and they have to get rid of these waste salts. Since our process starts with metallic iron rather than iron salts, and we can use our existing iron-oxide manufacturing assets, we can generate nearly zero waste. The only byproduct we are generating is hydrogen offgas,” explains Gürsoy.
LANXESS’ foray into the LFP supply chain started about three years ago with some publicly funded research and development work in Germany to produce LFP based on different iron oxide materials at the lab and pilot scales. “We had to evaluate the LFP on an electrochemical level to determine which properties were most important for our precursor materials, and we had to look at how iron oxide can be processed in the LFP manufacturing process,” notes Gürsoy.
LANXESS’ slate of iron oxides suitable for cathode active materials span a range of particle geometries (octahedral, spherical and needle) across the spectrum of iron oxide compounds. “With our synthesis methods, we can deliver a range of morphologies. Different shapes have different advantages within the LFP manufacturing process,” he adds.
For the next generation of cathode active materials, LANXESS plans to tackle end users’ raw-material security concerns by investigating the use of waste streams in the manufacture of iron products. “For example, for the synthesis of the iron oxide grades, we can use iron scrap coming from the automotive industry. It’s really challenging to use iron scrap, because the automotive industry covers the iron with zinc as an anti-corrosion inhibitor, and we are developing solutions to offer precursor materials with 80% recycled content. These are ongoing investigations related to our precursor materials that we are carrying out,” says Gürsoy.
Advanced chemistry for safer batteries
In its exhibit at The Battery Show, Dow (Midland, Mich.) highlighted the safety needs of batteries, including new products for thermal management and fire protection.
Silicate (mica) minerals are frequently used in thermal-management and fire-resistance products for batteries and electronics, but the industry is seeking lower-cost and more durable mica alternatives. Dow has developed unique fire-resistant coating products utilizing silicone in place of mica, aiming to improve battery safety and performance. “The unique properties of silicones mean that the moment the coating gets very hot and a fire begins, it ceramifies. And when silicon ceramifies, it keeps its dielectric properties, which is essential in a battery fire event. It also releases no harsh vapors or gasses. This technology addresses many issues, from a handling perspective, by eliminating mica sheets,” explains Jeroen Bello, Dow’s global marketing director for MobilityScience. In the fire-protection category, Dow also showcased silicone encapsulants, foam sheets, gaskets and seals.
On the thermal-protection front, Dow has teamed up with thermal-materials startup Carbice (Atlanta, Ga.) to integrate carbon nanotubes into thermal pads designed for heat dissipation in electronics. “Basically, we’re combining vertically aligned carbon nanotubes with silicone wetting on the pad. It can be used on a semiconductor or the power electronics of an inverter, or in a module of printed circuit boards to dissipate intensive heat. These types of pads are extremely thermally conductive,” says Bello. Thermal management is of paramount importance in the electronic components of EVs — not just the batteries, but also the user-interface screens and internal computers.
According to Bello, this type of technology is completely new in the marketplace. To construct the pads, silicone wax is inserted among vertically aligned carbon nanotubes that are grown on an aluminum substrate. “The silicone-wax wetting ensures perfect connectivity between the heat sink and the heat source. For every little gap of air, there’s no heat connectivity, which means serious problems when hot spots form. The wetting and tubes are elastic, so you can apply a lot of pressure, and they will always go back their original shape, meaning that you still maintain the correct connectivity even under thermal expansion. We have a pipeline of customers who are currently testing and adopting this technology,” he notes.
The approach of growing the carbon nanotubes in a vertical orientation patterned by Carbice — distinguishes it from other integrated products that dispense the nanotubes within a matrix. “We’re working to further optimize the key technology bringing together the carbon nanotubes and silicones,” he adds.
New battery-production paradigms
One of the most promising areas of innovation in the battery industry is the emergence of dry-coating technologies for electrodes, which offer a number of benefits over traditional solvent-based coatings processes. Arkema S.A. (Colombes, France) has invested significantly in accelerating the adoption of dry-coating technologies, and recently inaugurated its dedicated Dry Coating Laboratory in Normandy. In the traditional coating process, a solvent is used to coat the cathode active material to the electrode, usually through the creation of a slurry with a solvent like N-Methylpyrrolidone (NMP). The solvent, however, must be evaporated, which demands a great deal of energy and a very large equipment footprint. “The principle of the dry process is that you can form the electrode without the solvent by mixing different powders together using a specialized binder. You can then form the electrode without any solvents, eliminating the drying step. So it’s producing electrodes with reduced energy in a more economical way,” says Woldemar D’Ambrieres, global market manager for batteries at Arkema. “Basically, you can save around 10 to 20% in the investment of the gigafactory itself, as well as similar numbers in OPEX, in terms of costs to actually produce the battery and savings on CO2 emissions and energy,” he adds.
The new facility in Normandy is helping battery makers design specific materials to enable process scaleup for battery dry-coating, as many battery makers are still at the pilot stage for these technologies. “For Arkema, the goal is to develop specific binders that allow for this dry process to be scaled up. it’s not so complicated to actually form a battery with a dry process like that. What is hard is to actually scale up this technology and to scale it up at the proper speed to have the proper productivity. You need to go at tens of meters per minute in terms of production, while keeping a perfectly homogeneous electrode in order to have a good production yield,” explains D’Ambrieres.
Other areas of investment for Arkema include sodium-ion batteries through its partnership with the French startup Tiamat, and battery applications for ionic liquids via its acquisition of a majority stake in startup Proionic.
“Sodium-ion technologies, of course, allow you to get rid of lithium, but in terms of performance, you can actually develop very high C rates [a measure of how quickly a battery can charge and discharge], so you can actually achieve very high power in this type of battery. This means it’s very relevant for uninterrupted power supply for data centers, because it enables you, in the event of a grid failure, to react very, very quickly in a fraction of a second, because you can discharge electricity at a very, very high rate,” says D’Ambrieres.
And with ionic liquids, there are several potential avenues for application in next-generation batteries, especially when looking at the semi-solid-state realm. Semi-solid-state batteries typically replace the electrolyte in a liquid or all-solid battery with a gel that is composed of an ionic liquid, a plastic like PVDF (polyvinylidene fluoride), and a salt, such as LiFSI (Lithium bis(fluorosulfonyl)imide). “There are two main technologies for forming the gel polymer. Either you produce the gel, basically as a film with ionic liquids, PVDF and an electrolyte salt to enhance the conductivity. There is another technology called in situ polymerization, where you actually formulatea liquid with an ionic liquid and some specialty acrylic monomers, as well as curing agents, such as organic peroxides. Then you can wet the cell, and the polymerization is actually happening inside the cell,” explains D’Ambrieres. The in situ method is of particular interest for larger-scale manufacturing because it is more analogous to traditional manufacturing and can be seen as a nearly drop-in system that would use the same equipment.
“Arkema already has an expansion plan for ionic liquid production. At the moment, we have a small plant or a large pilot, depending on how you see it, but it’s already producing and serving some other markets. But we could increase that production up to the scale needed for the battery customers, in terms of volume, as well as economics. And while it’s true that ionic liquids have a reputation as an extremely expensive product, we actually managed to find ways of working on the value chain and the recipe to develop something that would fit better for scaling up in the battery market,” says D’Ambrieres.
Next-gen smart manufacturing for gigafactories
As EV battery manufacturing continues to expand to the gigawatt-scale, advanced automation and artificial intelligence are crucial to help minimize waste and increase throughput. “About a year ago, we launched a new manufacturing platform, which will work for any type of manufacturer, but our first few projects have been with EV battery manufacturers. Panasonic is one of the largest EV battery manufacturers in the world, so we have, as a company, expertise in that area, and we built this manufacturing solution to help EV battery companies optimize what they’re doing within their factory environment,” explains Eric Symon, VP of smart manufacturing solutions at Panasonic Connect (www.connect.na.panasonic.com). The platform, called SyncoraDMP, has been adopted by a couple of large manufacturers who are nearing launch of their systems at scales of nearly 30 GW capacity — and smart manufacturing optimization comes into play in every step of the battery manufacturing process.
“If you’re producing EV batteries, you have numerous materials and steps involved in the process. You mix them, you coat them on a big coil. Manufacturers need a system to manage the whole manufacturing process, and that’s really what we do. When we put the system into a factory, we will run all the manufacturing operations, and we’ll talk to the machines and other enterprise systems, gather data and control mechanisms, so it becomes part of a kind of a whole systems infrastructure,” explains Symon.
Clearly, strengthening the digital manufacturing infrastructure supports all pillars of EV battery production, including concerns about traceability, visibility and workforce upskilling.
“One of the big issues in EV battery manufacturing is traceability. Once you get to the end of the process and the cell has gone through formation, if there’s any kind of quality control problem that hasn’t been caught earlier in the process, you need traceability all the way back to the chemical cell and all the materials and where they came from. We built all that into the system. To trace a battery cell back to a mixing tank is really tough,” says Symon.
The SyncoraDMP platform integrates automatic gates and controls that will check for product quality and can help users to stop or adjust a process quickly in reaction to quality discrepancies.
On the workforce front, the industry has seen a shortage of workers with the skills to run large EV battery plants, particularly in North America, says Symon. “The more that you can automate things in a smart system, the better. It’s not that you don’t need the talent, but you have a system that can really help people. There’s now also a heavy emphasis on making sure that the right training and education is provided for the new workforce.” ♦