Nano One LFP commercial plant FEL2
Commercializing an innovative cathode active material process for LiFePO4 (LFP) production.
Nano One Materials Candiac Inc.
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Candiac, Quebec, Canada
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2023
Novel process for LFP synthesis
One-pot process
Scale-up from pilot to commercial production
Hatch partnered with Nano One to help turn innovation into industrial reality. Through a Front-End Loading (FEL2) pre-feasibility study at Nano One’s Candiac, Québec facility, Hatch helped define a scalable, cost-efficient pathway to expand lithium iron phosphate (LFP) production. Leveraging Nano One’s patented One-Pot™ process, the study lays the foundation for sustainable growth—advancing plant design, cost certainty, and a repeatable “design-one-build-many” model that supports North American supply chains and the accelerating demand for electric vehicles and energy storage.
Challenges
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Nano One Materials Candiac Inc engaged Hatch to support the scale-up of its novel LFP cathode active material process from an existing pilot plant in Candiac to a commercial operation with two parallel production lines. The first priority was selecting the right equipment to support commercial-scale production of LFP.
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Meeting the required production throughput while working within a strict, predefined land footprint. Fitting two parallel process lines onto the available site demanded creative, efficient layout development.
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Numerous process elements and equipment types had to be considered simultaneously, ensuring that no critical components were overlooked.
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Balancing space limitations with process performance was a key technical and logistical hurdle.
Solutions
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Hatch collaborated closely with Nano One to explore all viable layout and scale-up options. This included identifying adjacent available spaces on-site for potential temporary storage and strategically reallocating functions to optimize the main site.
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Scale-up assumptions and equipment selections were developed in partnership with the client, ensuring realism, feasibility, and alignment with their process vision. Hatch and Nano One collaborated to outline the equipment configuration, flow strategy, and spatial arrangement required to bring the commercial-scale process to life within the constrained footprint.
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The client requested that Hatch conduct a breakpoint capacity analysis to optimize production throughput for a specific production line.
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Based on assumptions derived from test work and used as the study basis, sensitivity analyses— combined with value engineering improvements—were carried out to evaluate variations in key process and equipment parameters influencing CAPEX and OPEX estimates. These analyses identified potential cost savings, contingent on test work confirming that the proposed process assumptions were achievable.
Highlights
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The study was completed on time and on budget.
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Hatch proposed a detailed commercial-scale process design.
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Breakpoint capacity analysis was used to determine the maximum capacity per line, enabling increased throughput within the same footprint. This optimization ultimately improved projected production output and strengthened the project's economic potential.
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Value engineering and sensitivity studies demonstrate potential savings of 25% versus initial CAPEX estimates, contingent on test work confirming that the proposed process assumptions are achievable.
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A cost-competitive process for LFP production using the One-Pot process was demonstrated.
“We selected Hatch for this project based on their experience in engineering, scale-up, piloting, and commercialization of process technologies. They also have experience in the design of relevant plants from precursor cathode active materials (PCAM) to cathode active materials (CAM) focusing on production optimization, equipment selection, and the production of battery grade feedstock materials.”
Project Numbers
- Largest Western-world LFP production plant
- 25,000 tpy of LFP, produced from 2 lines of 12.5 ktpy lines each.