Taiwan-based Aleees will provide its lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cathode manufacturing process technology for ICL Group’s US$400 million facility in Missouri, US.
Israel-based ICL’s LFP cathode manufacturing facility in St. Louis, expected operational in 2024, will be the first large-scale facility of its kind in the country.
ICL was awarded US$197 million through Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding for the project, subject to ongoing negotiations with the Department of Energy.
A total of US$2.8 billion has been granted by the federal department for building a domestic battery supply chain, as reported by Energy-Storage.news last month.
The 120,000 square foot facility will produce LFP material for the global lithium-ion battery market through two production lines capable of producing 15,000 tons of a year. Phase One in 2024 will see the first line open while full production from both lines totalling 30,000 tons is expected the following year.
Phil Brown, president of Phosphate Specialties and managing director of North America for ICL, said: “The US$197 million investment from the Department of Energy (DoE) is crucial to building a domestic manufacturer, which can compete globally while providing a much-needed safety net for American manufacturers in the EV, battery and energy-storage industries.”
Aleees and ICL signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) in July in which the Taiwan-based group granted licensed technology to ICL and agreed to provide the company with technical information to accelerate its project’s development.
A DoE publication on the winners of the grant money said that the location of ICL’s facility is in an area in significant need of investment to offset the loss of jobs in the automotive sector in past decades.
In October, Norway-headquartered battery manufacturing startup FREYR Battery announced an LFP cathode partnership with Aleees. FREYR will get licensing to produce and LFP cathode material based on the Aleees technology, starting at FREYR’s initial Giga Arctic gigafactory complex in Mo i Rana, Norway.
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