A giant leap forward in battery manufacturing
A giant leap forward in battery manufacturing
Towards a Battery Valley in the Hauts-de-France region
Committed to building a low-carbon future, France wants to promote clean mobility in favor of energy sobriety.
Committed to building a low-carbon future, France wants to promote clean mobility in favor of energy sobriety. To achieve this, it needs to win the battle for autonomy and produce batteries on its own soil to power electric vehicles.
This is the birth certificate of a Battery Valley in Hauts-de-France.
The region is home to several mega-plant projects dedicated to the production of lithium-ion batteries made in France. These gigafactories - a term coined by Tesla when it built its first very large factory in Nevada to manufacture batteries for its electric vehicles - will see the light of day in Douai, Douvrin and Dunkirk.
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Advanced technology on a surface area of around 150,000 m² are the sine qua non for the competitiveness of these plants. Sandrine Cheminaud, Process Industry Market Development Director at Equans France, comes back to the imperative nature of a European industry: "At the technological level, we will have to build a European process equipment manufacturing ecosystem."
“ In terms of technology, we need to build a European process equipment manufacturing ecosystem. ”
Solutions integrator
Thanks to its expertise in the design, installation, maintenance and operation of multi-technical facilities, as well as the accumulation of strong specific expertise in the European gigafactory market, Equans has developed a series of dedicated solutions. And in particular for the heart of these mega plants, anhydrous cleanrooms.
These battery manufacturing areas are highly complex, highly technical and require excellent control of dust and humidity levels. This is imperative in view of the risks involved: the slightest dust or droplet of water could impair the use of a battery in a vehicle, degrade its performance or even cause a fire.
This clean concept is one of Equans' key areas of expertise. The company not only designs and builds these rooms, but also offers electrolyte storage and distribution solutions, electrical engineering and fire safety services.
Equans has also developed packaged solutions for stripping, storage, distribution and recovery of N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP), a solvent widely used in the manufacture of Li-ion batteries.
A dedicated team and a single point of contact follow the project from start to finish with a turnkey, tailor-made approach. Right from the start of the project, they analyze the risks with their customers and suggest ways of optimizing them. The use of BIM at all stages facilitates the handling of the entire project lifecycle via 3D tracking and a concerted vision in real time.
"We define and imagine systems that are at once more efficient, more autonomous, more robust and more energy-efficient," analyzes Bilel Kaabeche, Operations Director at Equans France.
Our expertise is also illustrated by our ability to embrace projects of this size, with ultra-tight schedules."
“ We define and design systems that are more powerful, more autonomous, more robust and more energy-efficient. ”
Our experts testify
Energy performance with Vincent Waeber, Project Manager
Once up and running, and with the support of Equans' Digital division, gigafactory customers, who are all aiming for Industry 4.0, make use of hypervision systems favoring real-time production analysis.Equans' expertise is further formalized by its ability to mobilize the many resources required for these very large-scale projects.
They can include up to fifty draughtsmen, and as many engineers in the back office, supervisors on site, and between 700 and 1000 people on site. Whether for projects in the Hauts-de-France region or in countries such as Sweden, Norway, Italy or Germany, Equans is one of the few players capable, as Jacques Marneau, Project Director at Equans France, points out, "of assuming responsibility for projects of hundreds of thousands of square meters and several hundred million euros. It's a real organizational challenge."
TARGETTED EXPECTATIONS IN A VERY DEMANDING WORLD
Gigafactory builders expect their contractors to rise to major challenges. It's up to the contractor to master the management of the ultra-complex environment of the anhydrous rooms, and to equip them with state-of-the-art equipment. It will also have to demonstrate its ability to develop solutions adapted to areas with explosive atmospheres, avoiding the associated risks, especially during electrolyte distribution.
In addition, manufacturers want to optimize their plant's installation costs and energy expenditure, reduce the environmental footprint of buildings and activities, and facilitate equipment maintenance via the integration of good operating practices right from the design phase. So many requests to which Equans provides precise and relevant answers.
Feedback on the AESC project
Testimony of Alexandre Frati, Assistant Construction Manager, AESC
- NMP IN WORDS
N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) is used as an organic solvent during the production of lithium-ion battery cathodes. This volatile organic compound (VOC) cannot be released into the environment, so Equans has developed a virtuous NMP recovery process, tailored to each installation and based on an innovative, protected condensation design. With one key objective: to reuse this solvent later.
Our experts testify
- CLEAN CONCEPT, INDISPENSABLE EXPERTISE IN A GIGAFACTORY
Battery manufacturing requires a specific, controlled environment: rooms that are both clean, under a controlled atmosphere, and anhydrous, i.e. totally free of dust and humidity. The slightest contamination could cause a fire, damage the production process, or alter the battery's operation.
- EQUANS, THE FOUNDATIONS OF DIFFERENTIATING EXPERTISE
Equans France has been designing and implementing anhydrous cleanrooms for over twenty-five years. In 2012, the company joined forces with one of its long-standing customers, semiconductor specialist Batscap, which was keen to invest in the lithium micro-battery sector. Equans set up its first large-scale anhydrous room, covering some 1,500 m². This initial experience was reinforced in 2018, when the company embarked on an unprecedented adventure, that of gigafactories, which today makes it the only design-build company capable of handling all the technical batches of a mega-plant. And this, for customers as diverse as Asian companies looking to set up in Europe, start-ups attracted by the innovation linked to this growing market, historical niche battery players extending their activities to the electric vehicle market, and carmakers wishing to internalize battery production.
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