CHARLOTTE, N.C., June 30, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Albemarle
Corporation (NYSE: ALB), a leader in the global specialty chemicals
industry, announced today the opening of the company's Battery
Materials Innovation Center (BMIC) located at its Kings Mountain, North Carolina, site.
The BMIC is expected to be fully operational in July 2021 and will support Albemarle's lithium hydroxide, lithium
carbonate and advanced energy storage materials growth platforms.
It has been equipped to enable synthesis of new materials, material
properties characterization and analysis, material scale-up
capabilities, and material integration into battery cells for
performance testing.
The facility includes a dry room with a multi-layer pouch cell
line that can create cell-phone sized batteries to demonstrate
critical aspects of battery performance and accelerate transition
of new products to customers. The lab will also develop lithium
metal anode technologies that will increase battery energy density
by utilizing advanced lithium metal rolling to achieve lithium
foils 20 microns thin – about one-fifth the average thickness of a
human hair – or thinner. The team plans to demonstrate lithium
foils as thin as 3 to 5 microns using new technologies currently
being developed.
"The completion of the Battery Materials Innovation Center
provides us with realistic and relevant cell building capabilities
to generate meaningful data for next-gen battery material design,"
said Dr. Glen Merfeld, Albemarle
Lithium Chief Technology Officer. "With this new resource, we will
be equipped to optimize our lithium materials for a drop-in
solution for customers that help them deliver high-performing
cost-effective batteries for the rapidly growing electric vehicle
market."
Currently, Albemarle is the
only U.S.-based producer of lithium metal anodes; these and other
novel materials developed in the company's labs will enable the
next frontier of lithium-ion battery performance. In a June 14 roundtable discussion hosted by the U.S.
Department of Energy, Dr. Merfeld stressed that advancements in
lithium recovery and battery performance are critical to maximizing
the energy yield of every gram of active lithium material. Moving
from conventional graphite battery anodes to lithium metal offers
the potential to double energy density and reduce cost by as much
as 50%. Innovations that leapfrog current technologies and
encourage step changes in disruptive cathode and next-generation
anode manufacturing will make the future of high-capacity
lithium-ion batteries possible.
About Albemarle
Albemarle Corporation (NYSE: ALB), headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., is a global specialty
chemicals company with leading positions in lithium, bromine, and
refining catalysts. We think beyond business-as-usual to power the
potential of companies in many of the world's largest and most
critical industries, such as energy, electronics, and
transportation. We actively pursue a sustainable approach to
managing our diverse global footprint of world-class resources. In
conjunction with our highly experienced and talented global teams,
our deep-seated values, and our collaborative customer
relationships, we create value-added and performance-based
solutions that enable a safer and more sustainable future.
We regularly post information to www.albemarle.com, including
notification of events, news, financial performance, investor
presentations and webcasts, non-GAAP reconciliations, SEC filings
and other information regarding our company, its businesses and the
markets it serves.
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SOURCE Albemarle Corporation