Fluor awarded FEED contract for industrial-scale sodium-ion battery production facility

Fluor Corporation announced that its Advanced Technologies & Life Sciences business line has been selected by Altris AB to provide front-end engineering and design (FEED) services for the first industrial-scale sodium-ion battery production facility in Sandviken, Sweden.

The new facility will have the annual capacity to produce 2000 metric tonnes of Altris’ cathode material Fennac, enabling 1GWh of sustainable sodium-ion batteries to enter the market each year. (Earlier post.)

Fluor recognized the undisclosed contract value in the third quarter of 2023. The project will be managed from Fluor’s Farnborough, England office. FEED completion is scheduled for early 2024.

In June, Altris presented a pure Prussian White cathode material with a capacity of 160 mAh/g—making it the highest capacity declared to date. (Earlier post.)

Prussian White is a framework material consisting of sodium, iron, carbon and nitrogen (Na_xFe[Fe(CN)₆] with x>1.9). The large pores inside the material enable the capture and storage of a range of atoms or molecules making the compound highly interesting for a range of applications.

Altris, spun out of Uppsala University in 2017, has developed a patented low-temperature and pressure synthesis method to produce Prussian White in a form ideal for use as a positive electrode material in sodium-ion batteries.