Graphite anode intensive production, silicon carbon helps break through 300Wh/kg specific energy

Benefiting from the rapid advancement of global automobile electrification, the demand for lithium battery negative electrode materials is growing rapidly. Previously, industry organizations predicted that the global demand for power battery negative electrode materials will be about 280,000 tons in 2020; by 2025, the demand for power batteries in China alone will reach 310GWh, and the corresponding demand for negative electrode materials will reach 260,000 tons, which means the market space is huge.

Graphite anode production is accelerating  

Posco Chemical recently said that the electric vehicle secondary battery market is expected to grow from 194GWh in 2020 to 366GWh in 2023. Therefore, the demand for artificial graphite anode materials will also increase dramatically, and it is necessary to expand production capacity. Posco Chemical plans to increase its global market share by 105,000 tons of natural graphite anode materials, 16,000 tons of artificial graphite, and 90,000 tons of positive and negative electrode materials based on its production in 2023.

According to South Korean media reports, Posco Chemical has decided to invest 217.7 billion won (about 180 million U.S. dollars) to build a new artificial graphite negative electrode material factory. The new material factory is located in the Blue Valley National Industrial Park in Pohang, South Korea, with an estimated annual output of 16,000 tons, which can supply about 360,000 50kWh electric vehicles. The construction of the factory started this year and is scheduled to be completed in 2023.

It is reported that the negative electrode material is the main body of lithium storage when the lithium battery is charged, accounting for about 10%-15% of the cost of the lithium battery. At present, graphite materials are the mainstream of lithium battery negative electrode materials, which can be divided into natural graphite and artificial graphite. Due to the characteristics of raw materials and process, the internal structure of artificial graphite negative electrode materials is more stable than that of natural graphite products. In addition, it has a long life and is conducive to fast charging. From a global perspective, Japanese and Chinese companies have been dominating the market for artificial graphite negative electrode materials.

Since the beginning of this year, Chinese material companies have also been making continuous moves. At the end of March, Putailai planned to build a "50,000 tons per year lithium-ion battery negative electrode material graphitization project" in Ulanqab, Inner Mongolia. The total investment of the project is 1.281 billion yuan and the construction period is two years. Putailai said that the project will achieve full coverage of the company's negative electrode material processing and production processes, integrated production, reduce production costs, and improve product competitiveness.

Prior to this, Zhongke Electric said that the company initially expected to form 40,000-50,000 tons of negative electrode material production capacity by the end of 2020. At the same time, the company has built 10,000 tons of graphitization capacity in Guizhou Grete and is currently building an additional 10,000 tons of graphitization capacity, striving to put it into production in the first half of 2020. The main facilities construction of the additional 10,000 tons of graphitization capacity of the joint-stock company Jineng New Materials has been basically completed. In addition, the first phase of the "20,000 tons of lithium-ion battery negative electrode material project" of Hunan Chenyu Fuji New Energy Technology Co., Ltd. was completed and put into production at the beginning of this year.

According to statistics from the Power Battery Application Branch Research Department, the installed capacity of power batteries for new energy vehicles in my country was about 62.2GWh in 2019, a year-on-year increase of 9.3%. The growth of the power battery market has led to an increase in demand for upstream materials. In 2019, the output of domestic lithium battery negative electrode materials was about 250,000 tons, of which artificial graphite accounted for more than 75% of the market. In the future, with the development of the industry, the market size will expand significantly.

From the perspective of the market structure, Kaiyuan Securities Research Report pointed out that the domestic negative electrode material industry has a high degree of concentration, showing a "three big and five small" competition pattern. The "three big" refers to B&T, Shanshan Shares and Zichen Technology, and the "five small" refers to Kaijin Energy, Zhengtuo Energy, Shenzhen Snow, Hunan Xingcheng, and Xiangfenghua. The competition pattern of the negative electrode material market will focus on the competition among the leading companies, low-end production capacity will be gradually cleared, and companies with core technologies and advantageous customer channels will gain more market share, and market concentration will be further improved.

Silicon-carbon helps greatly improve energy density  

With the development of lithium battery technology, the upgrading of negative electrode material products is an inevitable trend, and the upgrading of graphite negative electrode system to silicon-based negative electrode system is the main direction. Among various new negative electrode materials, silicon has an ultra-high theoretical specific capacity (4200mAh/g, 10 times higher than traditional graphite materials) and a low lithium desorption potential. Moreover, due to its higher voltage platform than graphite, it is more difficult to cause surface lithium ion precipitation during charging, and the comprehensive safety performance of the battery is more outstanding. It is the most practical choice to replace the carbon-based negative electrode of lithium-ion batteries.

It is understood that the specific capacity of silicon-carbon negative electrode materials can reach several times that of natural graphite electrodes and artificial graphite electrodes, and their application in lithium batteries will greatly increase the upper limit of energy density. This new material has been used by Tesla , a global star in new energy vehicles , and its Model 3 power battery uses silicon-carbon negative electrode materials.

At present, many domestic material enterprises are actively deploying silicon-carbon anodes. BTR, Shanshan Co., Ltd., Jiangxi Zichen, Shenzhen Snow, Zhongke Electric, Jiangxi Zhengtuo, Chuangya Power, Dalian Lichang, etc. are actively promoting the industrialization of silicon-carbon anodes. Among them, Shanshan Co., Ltd.'s high-capacity silicon alloy anode materials have been industrialized, which can meet the 300wh/kg performance requirements of new energy passenger vehicles, and have been supplied to CATL.

In addition to CATL, domestic battery companies such as Lishen Battery, Guoxuan High-tech, BYD, BAK Power, Wanxiang A123, and Microvast Power are accelerating the research and development and trial production of silicon-carbon negative electrode systems. High-nickel ternary + silicon-carbon composite materials have always been considered a golden combination. At present, the high-nickel ternary battery cells developed by Guoxuan High-tech and Lishen Battery use silicon-carbon materials for the negative electrode, and the energy density can reach 300Wh/kg.

It is not difficult to conclude that as the silicon-carbon negative electrode preparation process and the technology mastered by battery manufacturers for high-nickel systems gradually mature, silicon-carbon negative electrodes will usher in a broader market in the future.