Project Synopsis
Develop a preliminary process design for a battery manufacturing plant utilizing superior charge cycle life formulation technology.
Project Summary
BATTERY CHEMICALS PLANT FEL-0/1 PRELIMINARY PROCESS DESIGN
Process Engineering Associates, LLC (PROCESS) was contacted by the client to execute a preliminary process design of a Battery Chemicals Manufacturing Plant. The client has developed a new formulation for battery cathode and anode materials with superior charge cycle life performance. These nanoparticles and organometallic materials have been produced at a lab-scale, and the client wished to scale up this process into a production plant capable of producing commercial scale quantities of both the cathode and anode material.
Specific project tasks included:
- Process Design Basis development, which involved the development of the baseline information that governed subsequent process design tasks. This included capacity requirements, performance requirements, feed stock physical and chemical characterizations, and product specifications.
- Process Simulation / Mass and Energy Balance preparation, which involved creating a process simulation model of the plant based in part on laboratory information generated and provided by the client. The process simulation output included a comprehensive mass and energy balance for both the cathode and anode processes. This included stream flow rates, compositions, temperatures, pressures, and physical/chemical properties.
- Block Flow Diagram and Preliminary Process Flow Diagrams preparation, which involved utilizing the mass and energy balance information generated in the preceding task to prepare both a high level Block Flow Diagram (BFD) and Process Flow Diagrams (PFDs) for both the anode and cathode manufacturing processes.
- Preliminary Major Equipment List preparation, which involved the development of an equipment list that shows the major process equipment that is required. This list contained the process engineering requirements and preliminary sizing information for each piece of equipment.
- Conceptual Equipment General Arrangement Sketch preparation, which involved generating a preliminary equipment layout drawing of both the anode and cathode production processes. This drawing depicted, in plan view, the approximate locations of, sizes of, and spaces between the primary process unit operations. This drawing provided a reasonable estimate of the process facility footprint size but was not drawn to scale.
- Preliminary Process and Safety Risk Assessment, which involved PROCESS providing an evaluation of the potential process risks associated with the new design. PROCESS conveyed information to both qualify and quantify the perceived process risks. A safety risk assessment was also performed that identified areas of the process that may represent significant challenges to protecting personnel and equipment from harm.
Industry Type
- Battery Manufacturing
Utilized Skills
- Preliminary process design
- Process scale up