Following laboratory trials Integrals Power, a next-generation battery nanomaterials company, has started production of its proprietary advanced cathode active materials (CAMs) at its pilot plant in Milton Keynes. This is one of the first of its kind in the UK and has been developed with localising the supply chain. All of the materials are sourced form European and North American suppliers.

Luxembourg-based OCSiAl has completed construction of a 3,000 tonnes/year facility for water-based single-wall carbon nanotube (SWCNT) dispersions in Serbia to support the manufacture of high-performance batteries. It is due to begin production in Q3.

Featuring cleanroom-operated production lines, this facility is an optimised version of the previous generation, with 15 times higher output. Much of the output is contracted with global electric vehicle producers and collaborations with the world’s largest lithium-ion battery cell manufacturers, the company said.

BASF has begun a six-week period of change negotiations at its precursor cathode active materials (pCAM) plant in Harjavalta, Finland. This may include layoffs for an indefinite period, potentially impacting all employees. The company added that it remains committed to driving pCAMs, which it will continue to do via its facility in Schwarzheide, Germany.

Orion has formally broken ground on a new plant at La Porte, southeast of Houston, to make acetylene-based conductive additives for lithium-ion batteries, as well as in high-voltage cables used for wind and solar farms. It will source the acetylene from Equistar Chemicals’ nearby site. Start-up is scheduled for Q2 2025

Under a new supply contract worth about $18.7 billion, LG Chem will supply  General Motors (GM) with over 500,000 tonnes of cathode materials from its new plant in Tennessee between 2026 and 2035. This equates to powering 5 million units of high-performance pure electric vehicles (EVs) with a range of 500 km on a single charge.

Lanxess and its German compatriot IBU-Tec Advanced Materials have entered into a research cooperation to develop advanced iron oxides for use in cathode material for lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) batteries. They aim to optimise the electrochemical properties of LFP batteries, such as energy density, charging speed and the number of charging cycles.

ICL has announced plans to invest $30 million to develop a customer innovation and qualification centre (CIQC) for the energy storage systems market in North America. This should become “a hub for ICL, its partners and its customers, as the company looks to make significant advancements in its battery materials R&D capabilities”, ICL said.