Sud-Chemie Begins Construction in Canada for Lithium Ion Plant

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Sud-Chemie AG (Munich, Germany) began construction in October last year on a lithium iron phosphate (LeFePo4) plant, the first of its kind in Canada.

The estimated $78 million facility will be located in Candiac, Quebec, and will operate under the name Phostech Lithium Incorporated. It will produce approximately 2,500 tons per year of high-grade lithium iron phosphate (LFP), using a wet chemistry synthesis. LFP is an energy storage material used as a cathode in rechargeable batteries for electric vehicles. Sud-Chemie is expecting the annual production volume to supply 50,000 all-electric automobiles or 500,000 vehicles with hybrid drives to the Canadian automotive industry each year.

Socanin Incorporated (Quebec, Canada) was selected to provide construction management services for the new plant. Kingston Byers Incorporated (Quebec, Canada) is providing contractor services. Construction is scheduled to be completed in the latter part of 2012.

LFP is already being produced at Sud-Chemie's manufacturing plant in Moosburg, Germany, which has a capacity of approximately 300 tons per year.

Sud-Chemie AG is a specialty chemicals company which operates two divisions: Absorbents and Catalysts, mostly in Asia and the Middle East. The Sud-Chemie Group has approximately 6,500 employees worldwide.

DuPont (NYSE:DD) (Midland, Michigan) began construction in December last year on its first lithium ion battery separator unit, which will be located at its synthetic fibers manufacturing site in Richmond, Virginia. The new unit is said to be the first in the world to produce nanofiber-based polymeric separators using Energain technology. These battery separators will be used in rechargeable batteries for electric and hybrid vehicles to increase battery power and lengthen the performance of lithium ion battery life by an estimated 20%. Fluor Daniel Incorporated (Richmond, Virginia) was selected as the contractor for the new unit, which is scheduled to be complete in the spring of 2011.

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