CATL-SC battery plant first to achieve PAS 2060 carbon neutrality

First phase of CATL-SC battery production plant in Yibin, China Photo: CATL

Electric vehicle battery manufacturer Sichuan Contemporary Amperex Technology Limited (CATL-SC), a wholly-owned subsidiary of CATL, has received PAS 2060 certification for carbon neutrality.

This is reported to be the first ‘new energy’ factory to achieve zero-carbon status.

Carbon neutrality is defined by the British Standards Institution as not adding greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, or offsetting those emissions through carbon capture, reforestations and/or carbon credit schemes.

According to CATL-SC general manager Zhu Yunfeng, the plant was designed from the ground up to be a zero-carbon facility, covering energy utilization, logistics and manufacturing.

The first of six factory construction phases was completed in June 2021.

The plant is located near the Jinsha, Minjiang and Yangtze rivers. The plant uses hydroelectric power from each of these rivers, fulfilling more than 80% of its requirements. This eliminates 400,000 tonnes of carbon emissions each year.

Carbon neutrality is supported using a smart plant management network which shares system and equipment data to optimise low-carbon operations. For equipment with high energy consumption, an optimisation algorithm is used to calculate operating parameters which will achieve the lowest energy consumption.

The plant also features a central control and management system. Using a vision-based system supported by artificial intelligence with automatic learning, it can identify product losses across the production process. All waste produced across manufacturing is recycled, resulting in a precious metals recovery rate (nickel, cobalt, manganese) of 99.3%.

Where possible, transportation and logistics function are driverless, helping to reduce carbon production. Employees are also encouraged to ride share to further cut carbon levels.

Technologies featuring at the CATL-SC plant will go on to be rolled out across the 10 other plants operated by the parent company.