Altech (ASX:ATC) show outstanding anode economics
Altech Batteries has returned an “outstanding” Definitive Feasibility Study for an 8000tpa plant producing its patented alumina-coated silicon battery anode materials into the European and US battery markets from its base in the German state of Saxony.
A move to all-silicon production late in the process expanded the DFS output eightfold to 120 gigawatt hours, a move which Altech expected to show up on the bottom line.
And with a capital investment of €112 million, that bottom line now shows its projects holding a NPV of €684 million, estimated to offer payback in less than two and a half years, with a full rate of production offering an estimated €328 million a year.
With an energy retention capacity tenfold compared to graphite, metallurgical silicon offers incredible upside as the preferred anode material for the next generation of lithium-ion batteries.
There were difficulties with silica, but problems Altech believe it solved at its lab in Perth with a coating of silicon particles, solving the expansion difficulties and offsetting the first-cycle losses holding silicon-made back as the anode of choice.
The silica anode market is already expected to grow at a rate of 18% CAGR through to 2035 despite still not being widely adopted by automakers.
But that could change with Altech technology, and industry eyes are on the Perth-based technologists as it finishes constructing a pilot plant for product qualification.
NDAs are already signed with four automakers and two battery companies across Europe and the US for commercial samples, and Altech expect to have a pilot plant running mid-way through next year providing larger-scale samples for an ascendent industry.
Proposed plant design
$0.011