Material Cost Estimates

Actual material cost estimates for each battery component are not readily available from a battery supplier or from an automobile manufacture. Only the rough cost estimates for the battery s major components are avoidable, which might have significant errors between 10 and 15%. These cost estimates at least will demonstrate realistic trends in the component costs as well as in the overall battery pack cost. A comprehensive review of published technical papers and reports have allowed the author to summarize the current and future material costs for each discrete component used in a high-energy Li-ion battery pack, as shown in Table 4.10. Limited information on the materials used and their cost in each discrete component used in Ni-MH and Li-air battery packs is 

Component and Material Current Cost and Percentage of Total Cost Euture Cost and Percentage of Total Material  

The material prices summarized in this section are the prices for the materials only and do not include other expenses, such as incoming inspection charges, fees for compliance with quality control, verification of the quality and quantity of the material, cost of refining if needed, and return of the material shipment if the material did not meet the purchasing specifications. 

An examination of the tabulated parameters reveals that about 83% of the material costs are involved in buying materials for the cathode, anode, and electrolyte. Attempts must be made to use alternate materials with lower costs, provided that the performance, longevity, and reliability of the rechargeable battery pack are not compromised. It is interesting to see that materials purchased with lower costs in 2015 will still represent the same percentage of the materials for the same 

Base Element Price (US /lb.y Cathode Material Price (US /lb.y 

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Figure 21-13) clearly show that the HIP-processed material is superior to both commercial and laboratory conventional reheat-treated material. Cost estimates indicate that used blades can be rejuvenated at a fraction of the cost of a new set of blades. 

Product and raw material cost estimation. It is very important that price estimation and projections for raw materials and products be as realistic as possible. Current posted prices may not be representative of future conditions, or even the present value to be received from an addition to the quantities available on the market. A more realistic method is to use the average of the published low over the past several months. 

Most parts and materials that are used for preventive maintenance are well known and can be identified in advance. The quantity of each item planned should be multiplied by the cost of the item in inventory. The sum of those extended costs will be the material cost estimate. Consumables such as transmission oil should be enumerated as direct costs, but grease and other supplies used from bulk should be included in overhead costs. 

The material cost of a battery pack is strictly dependent on the energy level, electrical load, and battery capacity requirements. Suitable materials are required for fabrication and protection for the active cathode, anode, electrolyte, separator, cell, and pack container or housing. The latest material cost estimates for a typical high-energy rechargeable battery pack with 100 Ah capacity are summarized in Table 4.9 [7]. 

Materials costs (estimated) Lower Low Normal Higher... 

E. A. Peters, P. W. Johnson, Cost Estimates for Producing Mlumina from Domestic Raw Materials, Information Circular 8648, U.S. Bureau of Mines, Washington, D.C., 1974. 

Depending on energy and raw material costs, the minimum economic carbon disulfide plant size is generaHy in the range of about 2000—5000 tons per year for an electric furnace process and 15,000—20,000 tons per year for a hydrocarbon-based process. A typical charcoal—sulfur facHity produces approximately 5000 tons per year. Hydrocarbon—sulfur plants tend be on the scale of 50,000—200,000 tons per year. It is estimated that 53 carbon disulfide plants existed throughout the world in 1991 as shown in Table 2. The production capacities of known hydrocarbon—sulfur based plants are Hsted in Table 3. The United States carbon disulfide capacity dropped sharply during 1991 when Akzo Chemicals closed down a 159,000 ton per year plant at Delaware City, Delaware (126). The United States carbon disulfide industry stiH accounts for about 12% of the total worldwide instaHed capacity. 

Equipment Costs. Equipment costs include the purchased cost of process and materials handling equipment, storage faciUties, waste treatment equipment, stmctures, and site service faciUties. Installation costs such as insulation, piping, painting and finishing, foundations, process stmctures, instmmentation, and electrical service connections are estimated or factored separately. Actual quoted prices from suppHers are the best data, but these are not usually available when estimates are made. The quick, inexpensive cost estimates are based largely on personal cost files, internal company cost data, or pubUshed cost correlations. 

Factor Methods. A more detailed product cost estimation method is to relate manufacturing cost items to a few calculated items, such as raw materials, labor, and utihties by means of simple factors (1,2). Internal accounting groups often develop factors to use with this method. This factor method is very popular. 

Raw material costs should be estimated by direct computation from flow rates and material prices. The flow rates are deterrnined from flow sheet material balances. The unit prices are obtained from vendors, company purchasing departments, or the Chemical Marketing Reporter. For captive raw materials produced internally, a suitable transfer price must be estabHshed. Initial catalyst charges can be treated as a start-up expense, working capital component, or depreciable capital, depending on the expected catalyst life and cost. Makeup catalyst is frequendy treated as a raw material. 

Miscellaneous Direct Costs Estimates for the cost of maintenance and repairs, operating supplies, royalties, and patents are best based on company records for similar processes. A rough average value for the annual cost of maintenance is 6 percent of the capital cost of the plant. This percentage can vaiy from 2 to 10 percent, depending on the severity of plant operation. Approximately half of the maintenance costs are for materials and half for labor. Royalty and patents costs are in the order of 1 to 5 percent of the sales price of the product. 

Rapid Manufacturing-Cost Estimates Fixed manufacturing costs are a func tion of the fixed-capital investment and are independent of the production rate of the plant. Property taxes or rates depend on location. They may be taken as 2 percent of the fixed-capital cost of the plant in the absence of specific data. The cost of insurance depends on both location and the hazardous nature of the materials handled. This cost is normally of the order of 1 percent of the fixed-capital cost of the plant. 

Following development of the study direction, the evaluation describes the efforts of obtaining and validating process information, and then discusses equipment specifications and a cost estimate of the feasibility or budget type i.e., with plant costs factored from major material. Finally, project economics and financing complete the evaluation. 

In addition to being useful for side studies, the process specification sheets can be used as a file to capture the latest thinking for each individual unit of major material for cost estimation and final design. Vendor quotes are expedited if data is provided to them on standard-type process specification sheets. 

Seismic zone basis must be specified for structural design. Soil data is important, especially for cases where extensive use of foundation piling is required with major cost impact. Availability of aggregate or natural pond stabilization materials near the site will not be considered for early cost estimates, but can be kept in mind for future planning if the project is given the green light. 

Since the studies under discussion have cost estimates factored from major material, secondary systems at this stage have relatively smaller impact than later when more definitive cost estimates are done. At this stage, it is well to gain a feel for the completeness of the licensor s design with respect to secondary systems. 

Early in the life of a project, information has not been developed to allow definitive cost estimates based on material takeoff and vendor quotes for equipment. Therefore, it is necessary to estimate the cost of a facility using shortcut methods. The first step is to develop or check flow-sheets, major equipment sizes, and specification sheets as described in earlier chapters. From the equipment specification sheets, the cost of each piece of equipment is estimated, using techniques discussed later. Once the major equipment cost has been estimated, the total battery limit plant cost can he quickly estimated using factors developed on a similar project. 

Several rules of thumb have been developed for estimating operating costs. For instance, Grumer (Reference 3) suggests that the raw material costs can be estimated as a percentage of the sales price of the finished product. Correlations have been made that indicate the overall operating costs can be related to the lbs of products, i.e., the total operating costs are a constant cents/lb of finished product. This obviously will work only when history can be used to get the recent cost on a similar plant. 

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