🏭 More CAM coming

Good morning. All kinds of electric-vehicle-driven news for you today.

From the condenser:

· Umicore's cathode materials deal

· Domo's polyamide 6 plans

· MOTD: lithium hydroxide

Umicore landed a CAM deal

Metals technology company, Umicore, has announced that Automotive Cells Company (ACC) has signed an off-take agreement for the cathode active materials (CAMs) produced at its new site in Nysa, Poland.

Some context:

CAMs are typically a combination of lithium hydroxide (which turns out to be today's MOTD) with precursor metal oxide powders (PCAMs). If you vary the types of metals used in PCAMs (nickel, manganese, and cobalt) you'll get different types of CAMs (NMC, NCA, and LMO). CAMs are sold as dark grey powders to battery makers where they convert them into cathodes, which are then used to make lithium-ion electrochemical cells (batteries).

Spelling it out:

Umicore's site was first announced back in 2018 and started-up at the end of last year. ACC is jointly owned by French oil & gas giant, TotalEnergies (33%), and a bunch of automotive companies (67%). They are planning on making a lot of electric cars, so they need a lot of batteries, so they need a lot of CAMs.

One thing to note:

Umicore mentioned that they would be supplying ACC with "next-generation high nickel cathode materials". This is referring to that metal ratio mentioned a couple of paragraphs ago. That nickel-manganese-cobalt ratio has been trending towards nickel and away from the latter two for a while now. Apparently, the ratio used to be 1-1-1 and now we're pushing 8-1-1.

Domo is gonna make more Technyl

German chemical company, Domo Chemicals, has announced plans to expand its polyamide 6 production in Jiaxing, China.

A little history:

Back in the 1930s, a man named Wallace Carothers invented a new material by the polycondensation of hexamethylene diamine (HMD) and adipic acid while working for DuPont. This polymer is polyamide 6,6 and has been marketed by DuPont as Nylon ever since. Shortly after Nylon hit the market, German's IG Farben came up with polyamide 6, which never got a super trendy name.

Some more context:

About 5 years ago, Solvay tried to sell its polyamide 6,6 (same polymer, but doesn't get the Nylon name) and polyamide 6 (which Solvay called Technyl) businesses to BASF. The EU forced Solvay to divest some of it to Domo Chemicals instead, and so Domo ended up with a bunch of assets in Europe and the right to the Technyl name.

So, what's going on here?

Domo was already making polyamide 6 in China, but they now get to sell it as Technyl. BASF is marketing the polyamides it got from Solvay as Ultramid. So now, after the "first year of TECHNYL® in China under the DOMO brand name", Domo is planning to more than double the site's capacity by 2023—with the primary purpose of becoming components in EVs.

Some more headlines:

• BP is earmarking up to $20 billion in the UK's energy system

• Shell is buying a Indian solar and wind company called Sprng Energy group

• Air Products is investing $900 million to supply gases for semiconductors in Taiwan

• Air Liquide is going to separate air for EZZ Steel in Egypt

• Ineos is trying to buy Chelsea FC for about $5 billion

Molecule of The Day:

Today's MOTD is the one you've been dreaming about… lithium hydroxide.

Lithium hydroxide got its big debut during the Cold War as an intermediate in the production of tritium to produce nuclear fusion weapons. The US became the primary producer of lithium hydroxide between 1950s-1980s, but things have changed since then.Today, most lithium hydroxide is produced from the lithium carbonate that lithium brines give us. It's companies like Ganfeng, Albemarle, SQM, and Livent that are making all of that lithium hydroxide (and doing it primarily in Australia and Chile).Nearly all of the lithium hydroxide produced is used to make the cathode materials in lithium-ion batteries (such as lithium cobalt oxide and lithium ion phosphate), but the stuff can also be used in a few other ways.

In case you're interested:

• Book: Admittedly, Perry's Handbook isn't cheap… but nobody has ever regretted buying this thing.*

• Learn: The Column gets its name from the separation unit processes. Check out this course to learn why mass transfer operations are the core of the industry.*

• Podcast: Check out this episode featuring Dr. Tina Tosukhowong of PTT Global Chemical on her career and stance on sustainability.

• Guide: If you’ve been looking for a breakdown of biobased fuels, then look no further.

The bottoms: