Canada’s Elcora Advanced Materials has selected Lab 4 for the design and testing of Elcora’s planned vanadium pentoxide plant in Morocco, according to a company statement released last week. Elcora’s Ermazon Vanadium Project aims to use extracted vanadium to produce vanadium pentoxide, an industrial chemical used as a catalyst in the production of redox flow batteries — a type of battery that is being studied and deployed globally for large-scale grid storage projects.

What Lab 4 is doing: The company will work in three stages, with an eye to launch pilot operations in Canada in 1Q 2024. The first phase will look into the technical processing of vanadinite, the second will look at the economic feasibility of the project, and the third will involve the design and construction of a pilot plant at Elcora’s facility in Canada, the statement explains.

About Lab 4: Lab 4 is a minerals and materials processing company that also offers mining engineering and exploration support, as well as battery metal processing and recycling services.

How do redox flow batteries differ from the more widely used lithium-ion batteries? Despite redox flow batteries being larger, heavier, and having a low energy-to-volume ratio compared to lithium-ion batteries, they may be more suitable for grid storage given their ability to store power over significantly longer periods, according to FutureBridge. Flow batteries also have a lifespan of over 25 years, compared to an average of 7-10 years for lithium-ion batteries. Another major plus is their higher safety features and ability to operate in hot temperatures without the need for ventilation or air conditioning.

High costs are standing in the way of wide-scale deployment: The average price of vanadium flow redox batteries is USD 500 per kWh, compared to USD 350 to USD 400 per kWh for a lithium-ion battery for grid-scale stationary storage, Capital 10X writes.

Vanadium flow batteries are the most common type of redox flow battery: Vanadium flow batteries have shown to have a higher number of charging cycles than other types like zinc bromine flow batteries, which are more prone to degradation. Zinc bromine batteries can have 1k-10k cycles, while vanadium flow batteries operate over more than 10k charges, FutureBridge finds.

Vanadium flow batteries have a high potential to reduce carbon emissions: In a study published in iScience exploring the role of vanadium metal in enabling the energy transition, researchers found that vanadium has saved 185 mn metric tons of CO2 annually. The study estimates emissions savings for China to be 1.15% and 0.18% for the EU.

They are easier to recycle than lithium-ion batteries: When vanadium redox flow batteries need to be replaced, the vanadium electrolyte can be easily repurposed in other batteries since the electrolyte is already separated from the rest of the battery system, Capital 10X explains. It is very challenging and currently uneconomic to extract lithium from lithium-ion batteries.

A brief look at the global market for flow batteries: According to FutureBridge, the Asia-Pacific region is likely to dominate the flow battery market as it has multiple operating flow battery projects in place, mainly in China, with high power ratings — the equivalent to power capacity for energy systems. The redox flow battery market is projected to reach USD 310 mn by 2026.

Elcora’s plans to extract Manganese from Morocco: Earlier this month, Morocco granted Elcora a license to extract and process Manganese in a 16 sq km mining concession. Manganese is an essential component of EV batteries.