Power battery "manganese rises"

Driven by the inherent pursuit of higher performance and lower cost in power batteries, one battery material is becoming increasingly important and attracting attention.

It is manganese.

2023 is considered by the industry to be the first year of mass production of sodium batteries. At the same time, lithium iron manganese phosphate, which combines the respective advantages of ternary and lithium iron phosphate, will also be shipped in large quantities next year. In addition, nickel-manganese binary materials and lithium-rich manganese with higher performance and lower cost are also expected to move from the laboratory to the vehicle... With the implementation of various new materials and new technologies, the market will increase the demand for manganese.

"Spring River Plumbing Duck Prophet". In fact, related companies that operate manganese materials are already ready to make moves.

On November 1, Red Star Development announced that the company plans to raise an additional 580 million yuan, part of which will be used to build a high-purity manganese sulfate project with an annual output of 50,000 tons of power batteries.

According to Battery China, Hongxing Development’s current high-purity manganese sulfate production capacity is 30,000 tons/year. After the proposed project reaches capacity, Hongxing Development’s high-purity manganese sulfate production capacity will reach 80,000 tons/year. Red Star Development stated that the implementation of this project will help the company seize the opportunities of industrial transformation and accelerated development of new energy batteries, seize the power lithium battery market, and comply with industry development trends.

On November 2, Sinosteel Tianyuan stated that while consolidating its position in the manganese tetroxide industry, the company has further increased its investment in battery-grade manganese tetroxide. It is expected to add 10,000 tons of battery-grade manganese tetroxide production capacity early next year. .

At present, on the manganese raw material side, Xiangtan Electrochemical, Red Star Development, Sinosteel Tianyuan, etc. have all entered the field of power batteries. According to agency statistics, as of the end of 2021, Sinosteel Tianyuan has a production capacity of 55,000 tons of manganese tetroxide (including: 50,000 tons of electronic grade manganese tetroxide and 5,000 tons of battery grade manganese tetroxide); Xiangtan Electrochemical has electrolytic manganese dioxide The annual production capacity is 122,000 tons.

Industry analysts believe that manganese may become an important element in cathode materials in the future. It is understood that manganese element has been added to several high-voltage platform/high-gram capacity material systems currently launched in the industry.

In March this year, after Tesla’s Berlin factory delivered the first batch of Model Y, the company’s CEO Musk said: “I think manganese has potential.” In fact, at Tesla Battery Day in 2020, Musk said He once said: "Using two-thirds of nickel and one-third of manganese as the positive electrode can increase the battery capacity by about 50% while using the same amount of nickel."

01

Lithium iron manganese phosphate takes the lead in mass production

Lithium iron manganese phosphate, as the name suggests, is doped with a certain proportion of manganese element in lithium iron phosphate. It is one of the main technology upgrade routes with a clear consensus in the industry.

As an "upgraded version" of lithium iron phosphate, lithium iron manganese phosphate is a new cathode material obtained by adding manganese element to lithium iron phosphate. It is understood that lithium iron manganese phosphate materials can be used alone or mixed with ternary materials to obtain better performance.

If used alone, because lithium iron manganese phosphate has a higher voltage platform than lithium iron phosphate, its energy density can be 15% to 20% higher than that of lithium iron phosphate, and its cost and safety are almost the same as those of lithium iron phosphate batteries.

If mixed, after coating the ternary material with lithium iron manganese phosphate, the composite material can have the advantages of low cost and high safety of lithium iron manganese phosphate and the high energy density of the ternary material, while the battery has excellent cycle performance. .

In August this year, CATL Chairman Zeng Yuqun said that through material system innovation, CATL launched M3P batteries. M3P batteries are based on lithium iron batteries but not lithium iron. They maintain the high safety and long life characteristics of lithium iron phosphate. The energy density of the battery cells is increased by 20%, making them very competitive. It is reported that M3P is a ternary solution of lithium iron manganese phosphate doped with 30%-70%. Through the M3P+Kirin battery structure, it can meet the mainstream market model of 700km battery life.

In addition to Ningde Times, many battery companies including Yiwei Lithium Energy, Honeycomb Energy, Sunwoda, Guoxuan High-tech, Funeng Technology, Gateway Power, Far East Battery and other battery companies have in-depth layout on the lithium iron manganese phosphate battery route.

In terms of materials companies, in July this year, Dangsheng Technology and Rongbai Technology both released new lithium iron manganese phosphate materials, which can be used alone or doped and coated. In addition, many mainstream cathode material companies including Defang Nano and Zhenhua New Materials have disclosed the research and development progress of their lithium iron manganese phosphate products.

Rongbai Technology stated that lithium iron manganese phosphate is the next generation upgraded product of lithium iron phosphate, taking into account the advantages of higher energy density and lower cost. With the upgrade of product technology and the expansion of production capacity, it is expected to replace lithium iron phosphate in the future. More than 50% share of the power battery market.

With the introduction and expansion of lithium iron manganese phosphate, this material route will become one of the new potentially huge incremental routes for battery-grade manganese materials in the future.

02

Sodium batteries are also inseparable from manganese

The skyrocketing price of lithium carbonate has attracted great attention to sodium-ion batteries as an alternative to energy storage batteries. Compared with lithium-ion batteries, sodium-ion batteries have raw material resource advantages, cost advantages and some performance advantages. Especially in the context of high lithium carbonate prices, the cost advantages of sodium batteries have been further highlighted and have begun to attract more and more attention from battery companies.

In September this year, Chuanyi Technology disclosed that in view of the large market space and strong demand for sodium-ion battery products, combined with the project pilot results, the company plans to upgrade the originally planned first-phase 2GWh capacity sodium-ion battery project to 4.5GWh; in the same month, Ningde Times revealed that its plan to industrialize its sodium battery products in 2023 remains unchanged.

In addition to CATL and Chuanyi Technology, they include Zhongke Haina, Funeng Technology, Penghui Energy, Xinwangda, Chaowei Group, Sodium Innovation Energy, Weike Technology, Star Sodium, Hanhang Technology, Zhongna Energy, Shandong Zhang Gu and others have publicly disclosed their layout in the field of sodium batteries.

In terms of materials companies, Dangsheng Technology, Rongbai Technology, Duofuoduo, Zhenhua New Materials, Huayang Co., Ltd., GEM, Changyuan Lithium, Midland New Materials, Colorful Chemical, Lily, Guangdong Bangpu, etc. have all conducted relevant Material layout.

It is understood that there are currently three technical routes for sodium battery cathode materials: layered oxide, Prussian blue (white) and polyanion. Among them, the general formula of sodium-based layered oxide is NaxMO2, and the general formula of the crystal structure of Prussian blue compounds is NaxM[Fe(CN6)]1-y△yzH2O. M in the two general formulas represents one or more Transition metal elements or other doping elements, manganese is an important component.

In other words, either the layered oxide or the Prussian system will drive market demand for manganese.

Soochow Securities predicts that the sodium battery technology and material system will be basically finalized by the end of this year. 2023 will be the first year of sodium battery industrialization, and small batch shipments are expected to be achieved. Mass production will be achieved in 2024, and the scale is expected to reach 30GWh. After that, demand is expected to Maintain rapid growth. With the widespread application of sodium batteries, a new incremental market for battery-grade manganese will also be formed.

The biggest use of manganese has always been in the steel industry as a stainless steel material. About 95% of manganese is used in the steel metallurgical industry. CITIC Securities research report stated that with the gradual maturity and application of new manganese-based cathode material technologies such as lithium iron manganese phosphate, sodium batteries, lithium-rich manganese, and nickel-manganese binary materials, the penetration rate will continue to increase, and it is expected that global power in 2030 +Energy storage+The demand for manganese in small batteries will reach more than 1.4 million tons, nearly 12 times the level in 2021.