Pilot To Produce Lithium-Ion Battery Test Cells
Lake Resources NL (ASX:LKE; OTC:LLKKF) has appointed respected Nova Scotia-based independent testing and development laboratory Novonix Battery Technology Solutions, to produce NMC622-based lithium-ion battery test cells using Lake’s battery quality lithium carbonate.
Under an agreement with Novonix Limited, lithium carbonate samples provided by Lake will be used together with commercial battery cathode precursor materials to form an NMC622 cathode and battery.
Novonix is currently developing ‘million mile’ battery technologies with revolutionary anode and cathode materials and has designed and manufactured, and sells high precision battery testing equipment to Tier 1 battery makers and OEMs in 15 countries including Panasonic, CATL, Samsung, SK Innovation, Apple, Bosch, Honda and Dyson.
Using Novonix’s pilot cell line and proprietary advanced diagnostic tools, the performance of Lake’s high purity, responsibly sourced lithium product will be evaluated for conformity with lithium-ion battery standards.
Lake’s Managing Director, Steve Promnitz, said that significantly, this data will allow potential users and off-takers of Lake’s product to make direct and relevant comparisons of its performance to familiar cell chemistries.
Lake recently appointed Colorado-based Hazen Research to produce lithium carbonate samples from the lithium chloride produced by Lake’s technology partner, Lilac Solutions, at its pilot plant in California, Lilac has previously produced 99.9% pure lithium carbonate from this lithium chloride using the conventional lithium carbonate process.
The first battery quality lithium carbonate samples are expected to be produced by Hazen within weeks.
Lake is confident that high purity lithium carbonate will be confirmed because the results obtained from the pilot plant are similar to prior benchtop testing.
The first batch of lithium carbonate will then be processed into NMC622 lithium-ion batteries by Novonix, which will take a minimum of four months, with the first results expected two months after the cathode material is produced.
“Novonix is a highly-respected and ground-breaking battery testing company spun out of Dr Jeff Dahn’s lab at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia. The team are known as world leaders in new battery technologies, as shown by the quality of their global client base,” Mr Promnitz said. “With EV makers accelerating their production plans, high-purity and responsibly sourced lithium is in increasingly short supply globally. We look forward to expediting the results from Novonix and providing samples to potential off-take partners as soon as possible.”
