Star Plus speaks to Creation Care
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Local faith-based environmental group Kokomo Area Creation Care's March meeting included representatives from new battery manufacturer Star Plus Energy Kokomo’s joint venture. Environmental Health and Safety administrators Maria Milescu and Al Kirchoff came to explain the EV battery construction process, fielding several questions from meeting attendees about the plant's possible environmental impacts on the local area.
"The kind of level we'll be talking about the battery making process, broken down to three primary areas, electro manufacturing, and that involves making slurries or black mixes that we use, coating that on material and pressing it out," stated Kirchoff, Star Energy's environmental engineer.
Kirchoff continued with a description of the process, including the creation of a "slurry" to coat the base materials with that makes the batteries hold charges. When asked what the slurry consisted of, Kirchoff stated that the mixture was "proprietary."
"Our technology is taken from Samsung SDI" he stated.
Kirchoff noted that any extra slurry material would be recycled, and that there will be a company building recycling facilities close to the present Star Energy site.
Jaewon Industrial, a South Korea-based supplier of chemicals and allied products, announced plans to build a new chemical recycling plant in Kokomo to serve the lithium-ion battery manufacturer.
Kirchoff noted that if any of the proprietary chemicals were spilled, they would be contained on the plant premises to be trucked out later.
"We don't have our own (water treatment) plant,” said Kirchoff. “But if you look at the design of our facility, the plant is designed for containment. So, if there is a spill inside the plant, it would stay inside the plant. We have to pump it out.”
The group also questioned the environmental quality inside the plant itself, particularly with employees that had direct contact with both the process chemicals and the batteries themselves.
"In our plan, the workers that are handling batteries, chemicals and waste will be going through hazard analysis or job safety risk assessments," said Star Plus Energy Health and Safety Director Maria Milescu. "We are taking every task in the employee's job and considering all the health and safety risks. After that, we are implementing countermeasures."
The Star Plus Energy gigafactory will be the sixth battery facility to support Stellantis' conversion from internal combustion to electric vehicle batteries (EVB), and will create 1,400 new manufacturing jobs locally.
In May 2022, Stellantis and Samsung SDI, headquartered in the Republic of Korea, agreed to invest $2.5 billion in a joint venture for the first of two planned facilities. According to Milescu, the first facility is running test product now and will be reaching full capacity by 2027. The 2.4 million-square-foot facility is said to be key to partner Stellantis plans to reach 100 percent passenger car EVBs. The gigafactory is on track to being a carbon net zero corporation by 2028.
The April Kokomo Area Creation Care Meeting was Monday, April 8, featuring Master Gardeners Marian Cable and Carol Reed explaining the “Pollinator Pathways” program to enhance the habitat of birds and insects that contribute to the pollination of plants that are vital to human survival.
Kokomo Area Creation Care focuses on ways we can become better stewards of the earth by using our resources so future generations will be able to enjoy them, too.