Harper International, world leader in thermal processing solutions for advanced materials, is pleased to announce they have been chosen by Westwater Resources, Inc. to conduct engineering scale-up and front-end engineering design for production scale thermal purification as part of the Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) on the Coosa Graphite Project located in Alabama.
Harper International specializes in the design of complete thermal processing solutions and technical services essential for the production of advanced materials. Westwater previously selected Harper International to pilot thermal purification of graphite in an ultra-high temperature furnace system operated by Harper’s Technology Center, co-located within the company’s Buffalo, New York Headquarters.
Westwater’s Definitive Feasibility Study will pave the way to scale up their battery graphite production with anticipated production in 2023. Phase I will build and operate a full-scale 7,500 metric ton per year battery graphite processing plant. Phase II will expand the capacity to produce 15,000 metric tons. The DFS will address both Phase I and Phase II of the commercial-scale plant.
Christopher M. Jones, President and CEO of Westwater, said “This is another major step for Westwater as we plan for battery graphite production in 2023. We anticipate that the ongoing market growth of the electric vehicle, consumer electronics and grid energy storage markets will support the demand for our battery graphite products. The technical team we have on board, including Samuel Engineering, Dorfner Anzaplan, Harper International, Thompson Engineering and Benchmark Intelligence promises great work on this important study.”
“We are thrilled to use our expertise in ultra-high temperature, continuous furnaces to introduce an energy efficient thermal purification system as part of Westwater’s proprietary process. The piloting conducted in Harper’s Technology Center will contribute significantly to the engineering design and economics in support of the DFS,” says Dr. Peter Witting, Senior Process Technology Engineer at Harper International.