Sodium-ion battery industry chain forum records

The "Sodium Ion Industry Chain and Standards Development Forum" was held on November 29. After reading the minutes of the meeting, I made some excerpts.

▲Figure 1. Current industrialization progress

Part 1. Ningde era

The title of CATL's title is "Joining Hands with the Sodium Electricity Industry Chain to Win a New Era of Energy." Recalling that CATL previously sold sodium power for 100,000+ lithium carbonate, on the one hand, it wanted to intervene in anticipation of this price, and on the other hand, it also wanted to intervene in the medium and long term. Find a way to solve the lithium resource dilemma. Therefore, there is nothing wrong with creating reserves around sodium batteries through technological innovation.

The current map is based on the size specifications of the original battery core. Under the existing size definition, the sodium electric material is placed inside the original battery core, so the areas covered are:

◎380-500Wh/L

That is to say, the existing Pack size can support pure electric passenger cars. After the sodium-ion battery is replaced, it can meet the needs of models with a range of less than 400 kilometers. Through AB battery technology, lithium and sodium hybrids have complementary advantages. My understanding is that making the capacity consistent can increase the energy density of the battery system.

From a long-term perspective, Ningwang estimates that the application of sodium-ion batteries is expected to be expanded to models with a range of 500 kilometers, covering about 65% of the market.

▲Figure 2. Pure electric range covered

The biggest highlight next year is whether King Ning can produce two generations of sodium batteries, and nuclear weapons will be put into use.

◎The first-generation sodium-ion battery product has an energy density of 160Wh/kg.

◎The energy density of the second generation sodium-ion battery product will be 200Wh/kg.

The problem here is that mass production of materials upstream takes time. The positive electrode is Prussian white, layered oxide, polyanion or the hard carbon material of the negative electrode. There are some significant material differences with existing lithium batteries.

Sodium battery materials are more sensitive to moisture. Some existing methods will cause a small amount of sodium to escape, which will cause many challenges at the testing level, such as material preparation, production line adjustment, BMS testing and The loading test of the vehicle needs to be checked one by one.

▲Figure 3. New material system

I'm thinking that CATL currently has all-round resources to develop materials, batteries, BMS and Packs, but this field is very unfamiliar to automobile companies. If sodium electricity is a new field and the user knows very little about this battery cell, how should we judge the time for the all-round performance evaluation cycle? In other words, Ning Wang runs too fast, and car companies have no choice but to choose black box delivery, or conduct testing from the cell level. The test cycle for all aspects of performance will take another 1-2 years, otherwise the car will be equipped with batteries. We have no experience with what potential problems may arise later.

Part 2. Zhongke Haisodium

As a representative of innovative enterprises, Zhongke Haina has been on the bench for ten years and sharpened its sword for ten years. Starting from the basic research and development of electrode materials, we will achieve the scale-up preparation and production of materials, from single cells to modules, and from modules to demonstration applications in electric bicycles, low-speed electric vehicles and energy storage systems. For 2023, the challenge is to expand production to meet the needs of the industry.

▲Figure 4. Cu-based layered oxide and coal-based carbon materials

In March 2022, the production line of 2,000 tons of positive + 2,000 tons of negative grade materials has been running for half a year. In 2023, the construction and commissioning of a 20,000-ton positive-grade and 10,000-ton negative-grade material production line will be completed. And then look at what it actually looks like next year.

▲Figure 5. Industrialization of materials and cells

A 1GWh sodium-ion battery production line was established in trial production in September 2022 and will be expanded to 3-5GWh in 2023. Here we mainly observe the product output rate after vertical integration and the current actual cost. The current 2022 The level is 280Wh/L.

Summary: At present, sodium batteries are a bit like the atomic bomb project. The production of them can play a game role in the price of lithium resources. If the progress is not as expected, in fact, we will not see big fluctuations in the price of lithium batteries in 2023. Let's wait and let the bullets fly for a while!