A trip to the Country"s First Lithium Battery Factory

UniLib, in La Plata, is Argentina's first plant to add value to this 'white gold,' currently exported as raw material. Led by UNLP (National University of La Plata) and Y-TEC, it will start production in January to supply homes and electric vehicles, marking a milestone in Argentine technological development.

Argentina is the second country with the most lithium reserves and the fourth producer globally. 'White gold' is found mainly in the salt flats of the provinces of Jujuy, Salta, and Catamarca. This product is used to create batteries for cell phones, laptops, and electric cars. It's both the present and the future: by 2025, it is projected to become the country's fifth-largest export complex.

Currently, all extracted lithium is exported as raw material. Until January 2024, when UniLib begins industrial-scale production, it will be the first plant in Latin America dedicated to the technological development of lithium cell and battery production.

Tiempo (Argentinian newspaper) visited the factory located in La Plata, currently in the equipment testing phase. This project is a joint effort between the National University of La Plata and Y-TEC, the technology company of YPF and CONICET (National Scientific and Technical Research Council of Argentina). UniLib will manufacture lithium-ion cells, the basic units for storing energy, which are assembled into the batteries used daily in various electronic devices. Once fully operational, it will have an annual production capacity of 15 megawatt-hours, equivalent to providing energy storage for 2,500 homes or 400 electric vehicles, according to Roberto Salvarezza, head of Y-TEC.

A Thousand Batteries

The plant covers an area of 1,300 square meters and is located in the Technological Productive Pole 'Jorge Alberto Sábato' in the Buenos Aires province capital. The project to add value to an essential raw material for energy transition comes after 12 years of research and a seven-million-dollar investment. Among the 70 installed pieces of equipment there are mixers, furnaces, cyclers, dehumidifiers, and two impressive 13,000-kilogram presses. About 50 workers, divided into three shifts, will produce a thousand batteries per year.

The same technology will be used in a second plant under construction in Santiago del Estero, scheduled to open in 2024. 'We are partners in a plant five times larger than this one, with a capacity of 75 megawatt-hours per year, equivalent to supplying energy for about 12,000 homes or 2,000 electric vehicles,' says Salvarezza. Only with these two public factories (plus a Chinese one in northwest Argentina), the country will produce 90 megawatts of lithium.

What will the batteries be used for?

UniLib targets several 'niches': supplying rural communities without electricity, including a project with the municipality of Berisso to install solar panels on Isla Paulino, where 70 isolated families live. They will also produce cells and batteries for communication equipment, radars, and drones used by the Armed Forces. On the other hand, they aim to supply the market generated by electric vehicles such as motorcycles, electric scooters, 'city cars,' and buses.

Step by Step

The production of cells is a complex process involving more than 15 steps, carried out in rooms specially controlled to maintain minimal humidity. Each cell contains two electrodes: a cathode (negative) and an anode (positive). Through an electrolyte solution, lithium ions transfer from the cathode to the anode, where they are stored as energy.

'The active materials that make up the cell, which are what can store energy within a battery, are mainly graphite in the anode and LFP (lithium iron phosphate) in the cathode,' explains Jorge Thomas, chemical engineer, Y-TEC technologist, and battery expert of the 'Mission Lithium.' He emphasizes the demanding production conditions in the plant: 'The rooms start with ambient humidity and progressively lower to practically zero percent humidity in the final stages of operation. The dust particulate within the rooms, which are clean rooms, is also very low.'

The process begins with mixing a paint-like substance in mixers. The plant operates in mirrored fashion in two separate rooms, one for positive and one for negative components. Once prepared, the mixture is spread onto a roll of copper (or aluminum). It is then dried in ovens before being pressed into sheets using a machine similar to a giant laminating machine.

The next step involves cutting, drying, and pressing the painted roll into sheets that will form the cell. Subsequently, the electrodes converge in a single machine, where the separator between each anode and cathode is carefully woven by robotic arms to prevent short circuits. Each cell consists of 20 anodes and 20 cathodes.

The final stage involves packaging in a 'pouch' or bag that will contain the battery, undergoing several processes such as electrolyte injection before final sealing.

'A 48-volt, 100-ampere battery, which is traditional for solar storage, requires 80 cells,' Thomas mentions. 'This can power a small house or a first aid room without connecting to the electrical grid.'

Originally published in Tiempo Argentino (Argentinian newspaper).