Johnson Matthey is currently building a demonstration plant with a capacity of 1,000 metric tons to showcase its proprietary eLNO lithium nickel oxide battery material. The plant will be used for R&D and will also produce material samples. The company intends to use the facility to build its market presence and commercialize its eLNOs, which claim a higher energy density than NMC(622), NMC(811) and NCA materials. Johnson Matthey is also designing its first full-scale commercial eLNO manufacturing plant. Production there is scheduled to begin in 2021 or 2022.

“We benchmarked [eLNO] against NMC 811, 622 and, of course, NCA. The key differentiator for eLNO is that we’re able to have higher energy density at lower cost. So, if you think of that important ratio of dollars per kilowatt hour, we have the lowest total cost [on a] dollars-per-kilowatt basis than any of the other materials. But more importantly, we’re able to do that without sacrificing any of the other attributes,” says Johnson Matthey executive Alan Nelson.

“So, we’re equal to or better than the performance across 622 or 811. That’s the key differentiator here, that we’re able to offer better performance at a lower cost while not sacrificing recharge, power [or] safety. We’re able to maintain performance across all of the key performance factors.”

Source: ChargedEVs