A cathode manufacturer from Candiac, who relies on technology developed at the time by the Hydro-Québec Research Institute (IREQ), thinks that Quebec must invest in its factory project to avoid seeing part of the cake slipping through his fingers.
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“Does Quebec want to be part of only 50% or 100% of the cathode market?” asks Sébastien Dakin, director of stakeholder mobilization at Nano One, which has its head office in British Columbia.
While 50% of the battery’s value comes from the cathode, a real race against time is launched to find the best recipe.
Provided by Investissement Québec
In Bécancour, EcoPro CAM Canada is banking on the nickel one, but Nano One thinks instead that the future of the cathode lies with lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP), used by Tesla.
According to Sébastien Dakin, iron and phosphate are less expensive than nickel and cobalt, which should not be neglected if we want to lower the price of electric cars.
Last year, nearly one in three electric cars in the world ran with this technology, he adds.
To position Quebec, Nano One wants to build a 25,000-ton factory to compete with China, which is almost the only one to produce it on a large scale.
Greener process
In Candiac, 170 kilometers from Bécancour, the white and blue Nano One demonstration plant is convinced of having found the right vein.
The Nano One demonstration plant is large.
Photo Francis Halin
By showing its facilities to NewspaperSébastien Dakin details the stages of manufacturing cathode materials which will go into car batteries.
Lithium, iron and phosphate are first mixed in large 20 cubic meter reactors, resulting in a paste. Then it is dried and baked in an oven.
“Our process uses much less energy and much less water,” he says.
“The only thing that comes out of the plant at the end is water vapor and LFP. We have no management of by-product waste,” he maintains.
IREQ innovation
At NewspaperSébastien Dakin recalls that the factory, which has changed hands several times in recent years, owes a debt of gratitude to Quebec genius.
Phostech Lithium (Quebec), Süd-Chemie (Germany), Clariant (Switzerland), Johnson Matthey (England)… and today Nano One (Canada, British Columbia) have owned it in turn.
He insists that it was the Hydro-Québec Research Institute (IREQ) and the University of Montreal (UdeM), which developed the first commercialized LFP.
Good recipe
Today, Nano One is worth $254 million on the stock market. Rio Tinto is one of the shareholders. She is interested in it because she could one day send there her iron powder produced in Sorel.
Vili Costin believes that Quebec has everything it needs to play in the big leagues.
Photo Francis Halin
“I’m on the fourth recipe. We make the same product. We are well positioned,” shares Newspaper Vili Costin, who has worked at the factory for many years.
First Phosphate, Arianne Phosphate… Nano One is not the only one wanting to produce it, so why would it be the best?
“We have a factory, an experienced team, and our patented technology. So it would be fair to say that we are more advanced,” concludes Sébastien Dakin.
– With the collaboration of Nicolas Brasseur