With the rapid growth of global demand for electric vehicles and energy storage, the entire battery industry chain is under constant pressure. In order to alleviate the tight supply of upstream mineral resources, battery manufacturers have significantly accelerated the pace of exploring new materials.
Recently, European battery manufacturer Northvolt announced that it has cooperated with Finnish pulp giant StoraEnso to develop wood-based sustainable battery technology. This move is not only expected to reduce the carbon footprint of battery production, but also help Europe to establish a local battery industry upstream and downstream industry chain. .
According to a statement released by Northvolt and StoraEnso, the planned batteries will use lignin to produce battery anodes. Because lignin is derived from forests, rather than relying on raw materials derived from petroleum, it helps reduce carbon in battery production.
It is understood that StoraEnso has a large number of forest resources in Europe, and built a bio-derived carbon material pilot plant in Finland as early as 2015. Northvolt is one of the major battery manufacturers in Europe. In early July, the company received a capital injection of more than 1.1 billion euros from investors including Volkswagen and Goldman Sachs Asset Management. The cooperation orders of manufacturers, the total cooperation amount exceeds 55 billion euros. The company said recently that it is laying out a battery super factory in Europe and will provide power batteries to European car manufacturers as soon as possible.
In their statement, the two companies stressed that the purpose of the partnership is to industrialize the first battery anodes, all sourced locally in Europe.
Usually, the anode material of power batteries is often treated graphite, but data shows that about 3/4 of the graphite raw materials in European battery production are imported. With the advent of lignin hard carbon anodes, European battery manufacturers may ease the pressure on material imports to some extent.
In order to meet the demand for domestic batteries in Europe, according to statistics, at least 15 countries in Europe have begun to deploy battery production plants. It is expected that by the end of this year, the battery production capacity in Europe will reach 124 million kWh, and by 2025, this data will increase by three times. above, reaching 500 million kWh. In addition to Northvolt, the battery company ACC, which has received investment from Mercedes-Benz and other car brands, has also planned a million-kilowatt-hour power battery production capacity.
Behind the continuous expansion of production by major battery companies, there is actually the "supply anxiety" of mineral raw materials. The lignin battery explored by European companies is a microcosm of the battery industry's pursuit of new materials.
According to the latest data released by the International Energy Agency, in 2021, global electric vehicle sales will reach 6.6 million units, and in the first quarter of this year, electric vehicle sales have risen by 75% to 2 million units. At present, the most mainstream battery technologies in the world are still ternary lithium batteries based on cobalt, nickel and lithium, and lithium iron phosphate batteries using metals such as iron and lithium as raw materials. The industry generally believes that in the context of the rising global demand for electric vehicles, the competition for non-renewable minerals such as cobalt, nickel and even lithium is becoming increasingly fierce. In order to ensure the security of the battery raw material supply chain, the global battery industry has to seek new battery materials. , to broaden the optional technology of power battery.
The sodium-ion batteries developed by CATL, a leading company in the battery industry, feature "lower cost" and "better performance". Compared with traditional lithium batteries, the reserves of sodium resources are significantly more abundant, and large-scale development of minerals is no longer required. . At the same time, potassium-ion battery technology has also received increasing attention from the industry. American start-up technology company Group1 recently announced that it will join the ranks of potassium ion battery production. The company believes that potassium ion batteries are likely to become the next generation of high-energy batteries and the future of electric vehicle batteries due to the wide availability and low cost of potassium.
However, in the eyes of industry insiders, although batteries using low-cost, high-reserve new materials are constantly being introduced, the final technical route that can "break through" still needs to be verified by the market.
