Operating costs are lower than at all other competitors
Shortly before the commissioning of its 25,000 tpa product qualification facility in Perth, EcoGraf Limited (ASX: EGR; FSE: FMK; OTCQB: ECGFF) has once again secured independent confirmation that its HFfree™ purification process for anode graphite for Li-ion batteries is also economically competitive with established purification processes.
The global engineering and construction consulting firm engaged by Ecograf was asked to evaluate the capital and operating costs and associated risks for a plant in the United States (USA) for its modeling. The study concludes that the HFfree™ process offers clear cost advantages over the other cleaning methods. The operating costs are lower than at all other competitors (see Figure 1). Added to this is the fact that only minimal hazardous waste is generated during production. The waste streams consist mainly of benign or inert residues. The study also confirms that the process is scalable and can be used in battery production centers.
Figure 1: The alternative purification processes investigated included high-temperature chlorination, ultra-high temperature chlorination and hydrogen fluoride-hydrochloride (HF-HCL) treatment. In terms of operating costs, the HFfree™ cleaning process clearly came out on top.
To calculate the capital intensity, the engineers used a production capacity of 25,000 tons per year, which corresponds to the size of the plant that EcoGraf designed and built for its planned first commercial plant. Ecograf is extremely encouraged by the results of the benchmarking study as they confirm the efficiency of the Company’s patented, proprietary purification process in the U.S. and build on the recent excellent technical results of EcoGraf’s proprietary HFfree™ purification, which achieves 4N 99.99% ultra-high purity carbon.
The company announces that it will provide an update on the progress of the commissioning of its own product qualification facility shortly. For reasons of confidentiality, Ecograf is deliberately refraining from publishing images of the plant at this time.
Conclusion: The results of the independent study once again confirm the disruptive potential of Ecograf's HFfree™ purification process. If the U.S. or Europe are really serious about becoming less dependent on supplies of Chinese battery raw materials, there is really no way around new technology for processing anode graphite from an economic and environmental perspective. Plants with a capacity of 25,000 tons of battery graphite per year may seem tiny in view of the Chinese overcapacity in this area. However, they are not a lost cause; on the contrary, they have what it takes to be real game changers for the industry.
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