Renascor Graphite Demonstration Plant Opening

The GPA team was incredibly pleased to attend the official opening of Renascor’s Graphite Demonstration Plant!

GPA has delivered the plant control system for the project, from development of the functional description through to PLC and SCADA development, Factory Acceptance Testing and final commissioning, using Rockwell Automation’s PlantPAx. The control system provides operators with a fully automated solution to efficiently monitor and control the plant operations.

The plant has now begun production of Purified Spherical Graphite (PSG), a critical material used in lithium-ion battery anodes. The milestone marks an important step in strengthening Australia’s downstream critical minerals processing capability, demonstrating our ability to produce higher value battery materials here in Australia.

The facility uses a hydrofluoric acid-free purification process to produce battery-grade graphite with a purity of 99.95% carbon. The flowsheet incorporates acid leaching, caustic bake and caustic leach stages, along with filtration, washing, water treatment and reagent recycling systems to efficiently produce high purity graphite while minimising environmental impact.

The plant has now entered an optimisation phase, with GPA providing ongoing site support over the next six months. Operational data and learnings from the facility will be used to support the design of the planned commercial-scale PSG facility at Bolivar, South Australia.