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can make a lower carbon product and we can make it as cost-effectively as the Chinese.” Q&A with Calix CEO Phil Hodgson ","we-can-make-a-lower-carbon-product-and-we-can-make-it-as-cost-effectively-as-the-chinese-can-qa-with-calix-ceo-phil-hodgson","article/we-can-make-a-lower-carbon-product-and-we-can-make-it-as-cost-effectively-as-the-chinese-can-qa-with-calix-ceo-phil-hodgson",{"_uid":557,"date":558,"tags":559,"editor":563,"content":573,"excerpt":755,"featured":50,"reporter":756,"_editable":760,"component":761,"seo_title":553,"categories":762,"visibility":771,"author_company":49,"featured_image":772,"seo_description":755,"author_full_name":49,"author_job_title":49,"formattedDate":777,"formattedArticleDate":778},"9a77b733-01bc-4975-b719-2e4e896b0e75","2023-09-14 00:00",[560],{"slug":561,"name":562},"qa","Q&A",[564],{"slug":565,"name":566,"content":567},"didi-bostock","Didi Bostock",{"job_title":568,"image":569,"bio":571,"linkedin":572},"Editor - Energy Transition & Economics",{"filename":570},"https://a.storyblok.com/f/287943243085208/512x512/2c5ca5c1a3/didi-bostock.jpeg","Didi is the Energy Transition & Economics Editor at Benchmark, covering a broad range of markets across the energy transition. His remit spans from downstream sectors such as BESS and EVs, through to midstream such as new technologies and battery production, to upstream critical minerals mining. He also leads on financial analysis across these supply chains, alongside in-depth policy analysis.\n","https://www.linkedin.com/in/didi-bostock-656342198/",{"type":574,"content":575},"doc",[576,583,598,610,623,628,633,638,643,650,655,660,665,670,675,680,685,690,695,700,705,710,715,720,725,730,735,740,745,750],{"type":577,"attrs":578,"content":579},"paragraph",{"textAlign":49},[580],{"text":581,"type":582},"Australia currently exports almost all of its lithium in the form of spodumene concentrate, which contains less than 6% lithium oxide. That is then processed in China into battery chemicals. ","text",{"type":577,"attrs":584,"content":585},{"textAlign":49},[586,588,596],{"text":587,"type":582},"But ",{"text":589,"type":582,"marks":590},"that situation is now changing",[591],{"type":592,"attrs":593},"link",{"href":594,"uuid":49,"anchor":49,"target":49,"linktype":595},"https://source.benchmarkminerals.com/article/will-midstream-go-mainstream-in-australia","url",{"text":597,"type":582},", with the construction of processing plants in Australia. ",{"type":577,"attrs":599,"content":600},{"textAlign":49},[601,603,608],{"text":602,"type":582},"One route is to produce battery-grade lithium hydroxide in Australia, but that requires ",{"text":604,"type":582,"marks":605},"considerable expertise and know-how",[606],{"type":592,"attrs":607},{"href":594,"uuid":49,"anchor":49,"target":49,"linktype":595},{"text":609,"type":582},". Another is to produce a “mid-stream” lithium product that is less challenging but still allows for more processing in-country. ",{"type":577,"attrs":611,"content":612},{"textAlign":49},[613,615,621],{"text":614,"type":582},"Last month Australian technology company Calix agreed to build a demonstration plant with miner Pilbara Minerals to process spodumene at the company’s mine site into lithium phosphate, using its electric kiln technology. The material can then be sent for further processing, producing lithium chemicals as well as phosphate for potential use in lithium iron phosphate (LFP) ",{"text":616,"type":582,"marks":617},"cathodes",[618],{"type":592,"attrs":619},{"href":620,"uuid":49,"anchor":49,"target":49,"linktype":595},"https://www.benchmarkminerals.com/price-assessments/cathode/portal/",{"text":622,"type":582},". ",{"type":577,"attrs":624,"content":625},{"textAlign":49},[626],{"text":627,"type":582},"The project aims to produce over 3,000 tonnes a year of lithium phosphate from around 27,000 tonnes of spodumene concentrate.",{"type":577,"attrs":629,"content":630},{"textAlign":49},[631],{"text":632,"type":582},"The technology could help reduce the carbon emissions associated with the current transport of spodumene to China, as well as the calcination of that material in China using a coal or gas-fired rotary kiln. ",{"type":577,"attrs":634,"content":635},{"textAlign":49},[636],{"text":637,"type":582},"It comes as Australian miner Mineral Resources also announced it would look at processing spodumene into a mid-stream product, in a deal with Lithium Australia. ",{"type":577,"attrs":639,"content":640},{"textAlign":49},[641],{"text":642,"type":582},"Benchmark Source sat down with Calix’s chief executive Phil Hodgson to learn more. Before joining Calix, Hodgson was a consultant, and before that he worked for Shell for 14 years.",{"type":644,"attrs":645,"content":647},"heading",{"level":646,"textAlign":49},4,[648],{"text":649,"type":582},"Can you explain how your electric kiln works?",{"type":577,"attrs":651,"content":652},{"textAlign":49},[653],{"text":654,"type":582},"So really, all we do is take a large tube. So in the case of the lithium, this will be about 1.8 metres in diameter to about 32 metres high. And we’ll have around the outside, we’ll have these electric elements. And they’ll be embedded in a sort of refractory material that sits around the outside of the tube. Essentially, it’s like adding toaster elements around the tube. ",{"type":577,"attrs":656,"content":657},{"textAlign":49},[658],{"text":659,"type":582},"And obviously, we run electric power through those elements. They’re resistive, they heat up, and they start to heat the tube up, to about 1,000 degrees centigrade. So it’s absolutely glowing red hot. And then the ultra fines [spodumene] are introduced at the top, basically just dropped. The analogy I use is to imagine holding a cup of flour in your hand and just dropping that to the floor. Just sort of watching all the particles just float there. That’s what we’re doing. ",{"type":577,"attrs":661,"content":662},{"textAlign":49},[663],{"text":664,"type":582},"The particles are floating down. And because the metal is glowing red hot, it just radiates heat into those particles. The particles never see a 1,400-degree flame. We can control it such that the temperature profile on the tube is so precise – we start hitting the particle really hard at the top and it starts to pop, and by the time we’re getting down to the bottom, we don’t want the sintering or melting to occur. We just want to finish off the popping as best as possible. So we may have a temperature profile that heats it hard at the top and then it falls away. We can set up any sort of temperature profile. We’ve had probably 30 zones of temperature control and the rotary kiln has zero – well, it’s got one. Maybe you can turn the flame down a bit.",{"type":644,"attrs":666,"content":667},{"level":646,"textAlign":49},[668],{"text":669,"type":582},"How did you choose to produce a lithium phosphate product or is that a result of the technology? ",{"type":577,"attrs":671,"content":672},{"textAlign":49},[673],{"text":674,"type":582},"We absolutely chose to produce lithium phosphate … lithium phosphate was chosen for a few different reasons. I think lithium hydroxide, which is I guess the gold standard battery-grade material … it’s quite an exact process, and we felt that the phosphate route was more robust in terms of the ability to produce it at a remote mine site. And also more robust in terms of our ability to transport that salt. Lithium hydroxide is less stable. So if you’re in the outback, and it’s 45 degrees, and you’re transferring bags and material around, the phosphate sort of stood up as a much more stable product. ",{"type":577,"attrs":676,"content":677},{"textAlign":49},[678],{"text":679,"type":582},"And lastly, we felt it just had better utility. In other words, the fastest growing lithium battery chemistry is lithium iron phosphate [LFP]. And so we’re transporting two molecules for the price of one. But in essence, it just brings two useful molecules into a chemical converter and the other thing is phosphate in and of itself is not easy. It’s not as widely available as some of the other reagents to make hydroxide and carbonates. And so if you’re a battery materials producer in Korea, you’d be getting phosphate pretty much from China. So you could argue there’s supplier risk. ",{"type":644,"attrs":681,"content":682},{"level":646,"textAlign":49},[683],{"text":684,"type":582},"Can any convertor accept this material? ",{"type":577,"attrs":686,"content":687},{"textAlign":49},[688],{"text":689,"type":582},"It’s a really good question. It is a new product to market. We’re not hiding from that fact. And so it will have a certain amount of commercial risk attached to it. Will people buy it? Of course, we tested the market before we made our final investment decision to go build this plant. And it was not just chemical converters and cathode makers – it was more participants in the battery chain right down to the end users. And the feedback that we got was highly positive. And so I do acknowledge there still a bit of commercial risk in the lithium phosphate, but we think it’s a low risk. ",{"type":577,"attrs":691,"content":692},{"textAlign":49},[693],{"text":694,"type":582},"We’ve already produced samples and given those samples to these potential customers. And it was the feedback that gave both us and Pilbara Minerals think that this was actually a fairly low risk in terms of the overall project. ",{"type":577,"attrs":696,"content":697},{"textAlign":49},[698],{"text":699,"type":582},"In the end we’re not trying to produce battery grade material – it’s a concentrated form of lithium in the form of the lithium phosphate salt. ",{"type":577,"attrs":701,"content":702},{"textAlign":49},[703],{"text":704,"type":582},"And so the interesting thing is, a lot of these chemical converters because of where lithium prices got to a couple of years ago, their ability to be flexible in their input acceptance of different lithium sources is quite remarkable. And so I don’t think there’s necessarily a large barrier in terms of infrastructure and processing capability to take these molecule in. I don’t see that as a big barrier.",{"type":644,"attrs":706,"content":707},{"level":646,"textAlign":49},[708],{"text":709,"type":582},"You say it can reduce reduce calcination carbon emissions intensity by between 80% to 90% compared to China, how is that achieved? Can you use renewable energy 24/7? ",{"type":577,"attrs":711,"content":712},{"textAlign":49},[713],{"text":714,"type":582},"So if you have a look at the carbon footprint of lithium derived from spodumene, it’s about twice that of the carbon footprint of lithium derived from solar brines in South America. And this is a big concern of the spodumene producers in Australia as carbon border adjustment mechanisms come into effect and those sorts of things. And one of the single biggest contributors to that footprint is the calcination step only – the heating up of the spodumene to crack it open to extract the lithium. ",{"type":577,"attrs":716,"content":717},{"textAlign":49},[718],{"text":719,"type":582},"And so, of course, if you can take that and reduce that to zero with renewable energy, then that’s the dramatic change in the carbon footprint that you can achieve. And then of course, there’s other savings. If you do that at the mine site, then you’re not shipping 94% waste. So all of those transportation carbon emissions per tonne of lithium into the final battery are also dramatically reduced. So once you add all those up, that’s where you get to a dramatic reduction. ",{"type":577,"attrs":721,"content":722},{"textAlign":49},[723],{"text":724,"type":582},"Now can you run 24/7? Obviously, if you connect straight into the solar panel grid, no, you won’t have any juice coming down. So you need some sort of storage for the energy, which is one method, and so whether that’s a battery or a heat battery or something like that, obviously that’s the option there. The other thing you can do, and in fact, this is what we’re doing with a couple of projects we’re developing in lime, is you build say double or triple the capital capacity you actually want and you just turn it on, when the sun’s shining and the winds blowing, and you actually just turn it off when it’s not. ",{"type":577,"attrs":726,"content":727},{"textAlign":49},[728],{"text":729,"type":582},"Anyone who has a traditional kiln would just be pulling their hair out that sort of concept because most kilns are made to start up and you run them 24/7 for as long as you can, because if you cycle them on and off and on and off, all of the internals and the refractory and all these sorts of things start to break down and really quickly. ",{"type":577,"attrs":731,"content":732},{"textAlign":49},[733],{"text":734,"type":582},"Our kiln, because it’s a steel tube, turning it on and turning it off is no issue. So that cycling is in fact not an issue. So what you have with an electric powered kiln is two choices. You can go for your electron storage and then use the juice to run it overnight. Or you go for extra capacity to run when you have the sun shining and the winds blowing and then all when electrons are cheap, you can be on the grid and just suck down really cheap electrons because you know. And when the power gets expensive, you turn it off. So these are the options available.",{"type":644,"attrs":736,"content":737},{"level":646,"textAlign":49},[738],{"text":739,"type":582},"Can you compete with China?",{"type":577,"attrs":741,"content":742},{"textAlign":49},[743],{"text":744,"type":582},"I think on both fronts, I think we can make a lower carbon product, the calcined spodumene product, and we can make it cost effectively as the Chinese can. A rotary kiln … There’s a lot of maintenance on it. It’s refractory-lined – you’ve got to reline every year to three years. And, you know, apart from carbon, those sorts of kilns are quite high [cost] in terms of maintenance. And these are hugely heavy things, they’re fully brick-lined and they’re rotating so they suck up a lot of power. We’re just basically blowing powder out of the top and dropping it. Powder is falling at less than a metre per second. There’s no wear and tear on the inside of the tube. ",{"type":577,"attrs":746,"content":747},{"textAlign":49},[748],{"text":749,"type":582},"We believe … that we will actually have a lower operating cost and a lower maintenance cost than the standard.",{"type":577,"attrs":751,"content":752},{"textAlign":49},[753],{"text":754,"type":582},"I think the the only other thing is, if the Chinese have very cheap natural gas, and you’re using renewable electrons and you’ve had to set up a solar farm and maybe you’re not getting access to behind the metre electrons, maybe you’re getting it through the network, your power costs could be higher. That’d be the only difference. However, you know, the advantage of being able to turn the kiln off if electrons get too expensive we think will outweigh that, so ultimately, we feel it will be a better solution, not just from a carbon perspective, but from a cost perspective.","Australia currently exports almost all of its lithium in the form of spodumene concentrate, which contains less than 6% lithium oxide. That is then processed in China into battery chemicals. But that situation is now changing, with the construction of processing plants in Australia. One route is to produce battery-grade lithium hydroxide in Australia, but […]",[757],{"slug":565,"name":566,"content":758},{"job_title":568,"image":759,"bio":571,"linkedin":572},{"filename":570},"\u003C!--#storyblok#{\"name\": \"article\", \"space\": \"\", \"uid\": \"9a77b733-01bc-4975-b719-2e4e896b0e75\", \"id\": \"\"}-->","article",[763,766,768],{"slug":764,"name":765},"critical-minerals","Critical Minerals",{"slug":767,"name":8},"lithium",{"slug":769,"name":770},"sustainability","Sustainability","private",{"id":49,"alt":773,"name":773,"focus":773,"title":773,"source":773,"filename":774,"copyright":773,"fieldtype":775,"meta_data":776,"is_external_url":51},"","https://a.storyblok.com/f/287943243085208/a84e69d03c/bm-calix-ceo-1.jpg","asset",{"alt":773,"title":773,"source":773,"copyright":773},"Sep 14, 2023","14th September 2023",[],[],1792773910684]