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| Well, I've been there Credit: The Detroit News |
Federal regulators are investigating a chemical spill that happened over the weekend at Ultium Cells LLC's battery plant in Warren, Ohio, officials confirmed to The Detroit News.A slurry containing battery materials and a hazardous solvent leaked over the weekend, spilling a black substance on the ground around equipment in the plant's mixing department, according to photos and video of the incident obtained by The News.No employees were exposed or injured in the spill, Ultium said in a statement Monday. The company — a joint venture between General Motors Co. and LG Energy Solution — said area mixing operations have been temporarily halted and that it used a third-party company to help clean up and contain the leak.
I was surprised to see the full explanation:
The slurry contained n-Methylpyrrolidone (NMP), according to OSHA. NMP is a solvent used to dissolve polymer that combines battery materials such as lithium, aluminum, nickel and manganese for use in batteries.
I knew that organic solvents were being used in electric vehicle batteries, but I guess I was thinking it would be more glymes than anything else.
glymes (usually carbonates) would more be as an electrolyte solvent. NMP is the binder/powder slurry solvent that is eliminated when the electrode is dried and before the cell is constructed.
ReplyDeleteHell, there are injectable drug products that use NMP as a solvent...
ReplyDeleteI was going to say, I worked at a large CDMO and we had a client who had a very large component of NMP in their formulation, much higher than the advised amount in the FDA list, however, you're allowed to exceed those FDA limits if they've been in your formulation at those levels from tox. studies forward.
DeleteAlso had a different client with a pretty large amount of DMAc in their formulation, but iirc the upper allowable amount by the FDA is like 30-31% and they're weren't quite that high.