Epsilon Advanced Materials and Finnish Minerals Group have agreed to set up a framework for assessing the possibilities of establishing an anode material production plant in Vaasa, Finland. The companies have signed a mutual Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to further this cooperation.
The European market for lithium-ion batteries and the necessary battery materials is expected to reach a value of $94.41 billion (€96 billion) by 2029, at a CAGR of 45.8% during the forecast period 2022–2029(*). The growing market brings new opportunities for companies to develop their operations and activities in Finland and Europe.
The partnership will initiate with the drafting of the EIA programme where the goal is to launch the EIA procedure by submitting it to the coordinating authority around the beginning of 2023. Epsilon has identified a suitable plot for the project in the GigaVaasa industrial site in Vaasa to build a production capacity of almost 50k tonnes of anode material per annum.
“The world is transitioning towards an electric ecosystem, and this is multiplying the demand for batteries. Globally, we expect to see an upsurge in investments across the battery value chain thereby increasing the trend towards localising battery manufacturing. Our partnership with Finnish Minerals Group comes at an opportune time and with their support, we hope to make Europe the hotspot for a sustainable and green battery ecosystem,” says Vikram Handa, Managing Director at Epsilon Advanced Materials.
The pre-feasibility study for analysing the economic and technical viability of the production plant will be started soon. In the initial phase, the analysis will be based on an anode material production capacity equivalent to a battery manufacturing output capacity of approximately 10 GWh which is enough for approximately 200,000 electric cars a year. In the second phase, it will be based on a battery manufacturing output capacity of 50 GWh corresponding approximately to 1 million electric cars a year.
“The current projection for battery cell production in Europe is approximately 1,200 GWh by the end of this decade, which creates a huge demand for battery material production. By partnering with Epsilon, we are set to be among the first in Europe to launch a project to produce anode materials for lithium-ion batteries. Our cooperation with Epsilon on anode materials will be an excellent complement to Finnish Minerals Group’s previously launched cathode materials projects,” says Vesa Koivisto, SVP, Battery Value Chain at Finnish Minerals Group.
“I am very pleased that the GigaVaasa region is developing as planned, as the value chain is completed with anode material production. The collaboration with Epsilon and Finnish Minerals Group has been productive and has worked extremely well,” says Tomas Häyry, Mayor of Vaasa.
This partnership will offer localised solutions for a low-carbon footprint manufacturing process thereby strengthening the value chain. It is Epsilon Advanced Materials’ vision to develop and manufacture innovative, high performance and quality carbon products for anode components of lithium-ion batteries, which they also plan to introduce to the European market.
