EV manufacturers, page-3

Hi Dougalhousen,

Interesting ATC's QTR report has indicated ATC is has now moved to metallurgical grade silicon,
I don't believe any of the previous battery announcements have indicated ATC was going to use the lower grade silicon (Same as Tesla uses) to coat with HPA.

It will be interesting to see ATC's battery results, if it is as successful as Iggy implies, we might have a few EV manufactures looking at taking a stake in ATC.



QTR report

R&D WORK CONTINUES TO ADVANCE POTENTIALLY GAME CHANGING ALUMINA COATING TECHNOLOGY

During the quarter, Altech reported on the advances that the Company had made with its potentially game changing technology to enable metallurgical grade silicon to be combined with graphite as an anode material in lithium-ion batteries. The material has the potential to increase lithium-ion battery chargeability, life, performance and safety.

Tesla, at its 2020 battery day announced that the required step change to increase lithium-ion battery energy density and reduced cost, would be realised by the inclusion of more silicon in battery anodes. For this to be achieved, high energy capacity metallurgical silicon needs to be introduced into anode chemistry, as silicon has ten times the energy retention capacity compared to the incumbent anode material – graphite. In the words of Elon Musk, “this is the most promising anode material”

However, metallurgical silicon is currently not used in lithium-ion battery anodes due to two major technological challenges. Firstly, silicon expands up to 300% in volume during battery operation causing swelling, fracturing and battery failure. The second challenge is that silicon deactivates up to 50% of the lithium ions in a battery. Known as first-cycle-capacity-loss, lithium ions are rendered in-active by the silicon during the battery’s initial charge cycle, immediately reducing battery performance and life. Industry is in the race to resolve these technical challenges, as the prize for the first to succeed would be substantial.

Altech managing director Iggy Tan commented that “The Company believes that its nano technology which coats silicon particles with a fine layer of alumina will resolve both the swelling and first-cycle-capacity-loss problems that currently limit the use of metallurgical grade silicon in lithium-ion battery anodes. Research and development conducted by Altech has shown extremely promising results, initial battery testing was encouraging and further testing is ongoing. The Company is rapidly gaining confidence in its potentially game changing alumina coating technology. A video update can be viewed on the Company's web site www.altechchemicals.com”.

During the preceding quarter, Altech announced that it had established its own research and development laboratory in Perth, Western Australia. The laboratory, which was previously occupied by an environmental consulting business, was easily converted to meet Altech's requirements. With its own laboratory, Altech is now able to conduct a full range of research, development and test work (including battery tests) to refine its battery materials HPA coating technology, unhindered. Previously this work was being conducted at Curtin University (WA) and needed to be scheduled around laboratory availability, which did not always fit with Altech's requirements.