Altech Chemicals Limited has provided an update on its joint venture with Fraunhofer IKTS for the CERENERGY® battery project.
Altech signed a Joint Venture Shareholders’ Agreement with Fraunhofer on 14 September 2022 to commercialise CERENERGY® Sodium Alumina Solid State (SAS) battery. Altech hired prominent German business Leadec Automation & Engineering GmbH (Leadec) as the principal engineer for the Definitive Feasibility Study for its CERENERGY® 100MWh battery project on 26 October 2022. Altech stated on 7 November 2022 that it had created and launched the CERENERGY® SAS 60 KWh battery pack (ABS60) for the renewable energy and grid storage markets.
Since then, according to Altech, the CERENERGY® project has made remarkable progress and advancement.
During this time, two crucial expert workshops were held in Altech’s Schwarze Pumpe, Germany, on 13-14 October 2022, and 8 December 2022. Altech employees, Leadec’s process and automation engineering team, and the Fraunhofer CERENERGY® expert battery team all attended the workshops. The workshops aim to develop specific design requirements and efficient industrial production plant design. The team was able to finalise the design basis for the 100MWh battery by producing 1,666 60-kilowatt hour (KWh) ABS60 battery packs every year. Fraunhofer experts were involved in technical knowledge transfer to enable an optimal manufacturing process and thermal modelling of the 60 KWh ABS60 battery packs to optimise the battery pack case design and battery management systems.
According to Altech, Leadec is now drafting technical requirements on which potential suppliers can bid. The battery plant’s preliminary layout and site layout have been finished. Significant milestones have been met in a relatively short period of time.
Potential Fraunhofer-recommended equipment vendors were invited to present their offers in terms of technical capabilities, cost, and timescales at the workshops. The essential equipment vendors have now been selected and integrated into the various project teams. During this time, Altech also contracted ARIKON Infrastruktur GmbH (Arikon) to oversee the CERENERGY® SAS battery facility’s approval process, site infrastructure requirements, and balance of plant. Arikon will coordinate the application process and collaborate with key regulatory organisations to secure all project approvals. This entails obtaining the essential permits and licences, coordinating with local authorities and organising utility connections. Arikon will also be responsible for designing the site’s infrastructure requirements.
Managing Director Iggy Tan stated, “We have moved very quickly on the opportunity and managed to close the joint venture Agreement with Fraunhofer and incorporated two companies in just two months, with one month being the August holidays in Germany. Since that time, we have raced to get the project moving with several commencement workshops. We have also appointed key engineering companies like Leadec and Arikon. We have also launched the design for the 60 KWh battery pack for the renewable energy storage sector. To date, all plant and equipment suppliers have been selected. On the marketing front, the team have been having discussions with potential interested off take parties. I am very pleased with the team we have assembled, and the outstanding progress made thus far”.
