Li-S Energy completes dry room for battery production

Lithium sulphur battery development company Li-S Energy has announced the completion of construction of a Low Dew Point, Ultra Dry Room to house its 2MWh battery manufacturing facility at Geelong, Victoria.

The Phase 3 facility is the precursor to a 200MWh plant and ultimately a 10GWh+ gigafactory foreshadowed at the company’s recent annual general meeting by Chairman Ben Spincer.

The ultra dry room (pictured) was built over the past 12 months by dehumidification specialist Humiscope.

The dry room – one of the largest in Australia – provides a safe and stable environment for the manufacture of lithium batteries.

The dry atmosphere enables the automated anode production equipment and Li-S’ team to operate at full capacity without the restriction of inert gas enclosures or glove boxes.

According to Humiscope: “It has a complex external infrastructure, including a large external chiller that works in tandem with a desiccant dehumidifier to dry the atmosphere.

“The dew point remains consistently below -50°C and the dry air is circulated into the dry room through a maze of sealed ducting and filtration systems.

“The room includes a sealed airlock that enables the production teams to enter and leave the dry room while preventing the external atmosphere from contaminating the facility.”

Spincer told shareholders at the AGM that as the facility was nearing completion the company was turning its attention to the longer-term.

Spincer said: We have developed plans for a 200MWh or Phase 4 facility in the coming years, that will be able to produce commercial quantities of batteries for the first time and generate significant revenue.

“This is a significant standalone project that is not tied to the location of our Phase 3 facilities in Geelong and we anticipate leveraging support from governments and partners as we progress our plans further.”

Spincer said that into the long-term the company anticipated the construction of lithium sulfur gigafactories.

“However, it is increasingly evident that that scaling to a gigafactory is best served by partnering with existing battery manufacturers, licensing our technology and supplying the nanomaterials critical to production of our batteries.”

Li-S Energy is a spin out of technology development company PPK Group, and utilises technology developed in partnership with Geelong’s Deakin University.

Picture: Humiscope