Oxford, UK, August 3, 2023 – Nexeon today announces that it has secured a site for its first commercial volume silicon anode material plant in Gunsan, South Korea, utilising existing available land adjacent to OCI’s facilities. Alongside this, an agreement has been signed with OCI, with whom Nexeon has also secured a binding long-term supply of monosilane - a critical raw material required for the production of its Generation 2 silicon anode materials.
Through this contract, OCI will supply monosilane to Nexeon from 2025. Nexeon's first commercial facility will be established on land adjacent to OCI’s Gunsan plant, securing Nexeon’s ability to deliver tens of thousands of tonnes of silicon anode material annually. Supply of commercial material begins in early 2025, initially fulfilling the recently announced binding supply agreement with Panasonic.
This infrastructure provides an advantage in cost competitiveness as it uses a by-product gas produced during the manufacturing of polysilicon for semiconductors at the Gunsan plant. It also enables both companies to take advantage of avoiding complex and expensive logistics operations and equipment associated with transporting gas chemicals.
OCI will deliver the raw material through a dedicated and direct pipeline between both facilities (otherwise referred to as a ‘fence-line’ infrastructure) on the Gunsan site, and as Nexeon expands production capacity to meet customer demand and a rapidly growing market, OCI has the capability to increase supply lines in parallel to enable production of silicon anode material in the tens of thousands of tonnes per year.
“The collaboration with OCI is a significant milestone that will help rapidly scale our operations. Between securing a strong supply chain of raw material and our supply agreement with Panasonic,we are one step closer to delivering the best performing and cost-efficient silicon anode materials – a vital enabler of more energy dense batteries” Scott Brown, CEO of Nexeon
Nexeon’s advanced silicon-based anode material has the potential to catapult the energy density of lithium-ion cells by up to 50%. The Generation 2 ‘drop-in’ material, allows cell manufacturers to use a much higher percentage of silicon in lithium-ion cell anodes when compared with first generation materials such as silicon-oxide, without requiring critical changes to the cell manufacturing process or significant capital investment.
"We expect that high-tech materials company OCI, and Nexeon who have the leading silicon anode material technology, will maximize their strengths to produce products with quality as well as price competitiveness," said Kim Taek-Joong, vice chairman of OCI.
OCI is a leading global supplier and developer of chemicals and advanced materials for the semiconductor, automotive and battery material markets. With over 60 years of chemical and material development experience, and annual sales of over $3.6bn, they are perfectly positioned to innovate and grow in the battery materials space.