Batteries are the oil of the future.
In recent years, the number of patents in the battery field is far ahead of many industries. From raw materials to cells, billions of dollars have been spent on research and development, global capacity expansion and supply chain cooperation.
Electric vehicles have been catching up to gasoline-powered vehicles in cost, with the goal of matching the cost of gasoline-powered vehicles by 2026. Unfortunately, it backfired. In the past 10 years, the price of lithium-ion batteries has risen by 90%, and the price of raw materials (especially lithium metal) has risen sharply last year.
The current electric vehicle batteries are dominated by lithium batteries, and the rise in lithium metal prices is undoubtedly a hindrance. It also puts some pressure on automakers who are committed to zero-emissions across their entire range.
Integrate
Modern battery factories are relatively simple to retrofit, producing batteries using a variety of different materials in response to changing customer needs ▼
"Manufacturers in Europe and the U.S. rely heavily on East Asian suppliers for battery materials, precursors and cathode materials, while a high-cost industry relies on a low-margin one," said Max Reid, a battery materials analyst at consultancy McKinsey & Company. The market is very competitive.”
In November, global specialty chemicals company Johnson Matthey announced it was pulling out of the cathode materials business because costs were too high to generate expected profits and to attract major business partners.
"The choice of cathode material is particularly important, which typically accounts for 50 percent of a battery's cost," said Dustin Bauer, a patent attorney at law firm Reddie & Grose.
In order to reduce battery costs and ease the pressure on raw materials, companies along the entire supply chain are consolidating.
For example, Tesla directly signed a nickel supply agreement with a mine in the United States, which will start production in 2026. Tesla is also working to diversify its sources of lithium, even securing its own U.S. mining rights.
For another example, BASF, one of the world's largest chemical companies, cooperated with CATL, the world's largest battery manufacturer, to supply cathode materials for CATL's first European factory.
In addition to CATL, BASF also supplies raw materials for Porsche's joint venture with German battery maker Customcells. Cooperated with China's Honeycomb Energy (SVolt) to develop cathode materials and battery recycling technology.
A BASF spokesman said the company has been working on how to extract the metal efficiently so that it doesn't get wasted when it's damaged during recycling.
Swedish battery start-up NorthVolt launched its first battery product in late 2021. From in-house cathode production to final battery recycling, the company aims to fully vertically integrate the entire process.
NorthVolt is also working with Volkswagen to build a German battery plant, which is expected to start production in 2024, and Volvo to supply a Swedish plant capable of supplying 50GWh of battery capacity per year, enough to power around 500,000 vehicles.
"Gigafactories are hot in Europe right now," said Ruth Sayers, director of technology and operations at Faradion, a Sheffield, UK-based company that develops sodium-ion batteries. Shipping parts is a good deal anyway, not to mention good for the environment.”
Lithium is expensive and cobalt is "dirty"
Lithium-ion batteries dominate the market, with major cathode chemistries including nickel-manganese-cobalt-lithium (NMC) and nickel-cobalt-aluminum lithium (NCA). As manufacturers want to reduce costs and try to go "cobalt", lithium iron phosphate (Lifepo4 Battery) batteries have begun to emerge. Tesla plans to switch to lithium iron phosphate batteries (Lifepo4 Battery) in entry-level cars.
"The choice of materials is basically determined by the needs of consumers," Reid said. "Battery life, price, performance... What is the most important thing to consumers, what kind of batteries do we have to produce, and the right chemistry to choose? "It's not difficult at all to transform a factory to produce a certain chemical composition."
Last year, CATL BATTERY announced that it was making sodium-ion batteries that would no longer be constrained by lithium prices. Its first-generation commercial sodium-ion batteries are roughly compatible with lithium-ion batteries that use lithium iron phosphate (Lifepo4 Battery), which can integrate lithium-ion and sodium-ion cells into the same battery pack.
“Na-ion batteries have a lower energy density than lithium-ion and are more adaptable to fast charging and low temperature environments. Na-ion batteries can also be transported or maintained in a deeply discharged state. Lithium-ion is the most prone to fire in this state. Yes,” Faradion Sayers explained.
CATL BATTERY's first-generation sodium-ion battery has an energy density of 160Wh/kg, which is similar to lithium-ion batteries using lithium iron phosphate (Lifepo4 Battery). But other chemistries can reach 265Wh/kg, and the company aims to break 200Wh/kg in the next generation.
A CATL spokesperson revealed that it is using anode-free lithium metal battery technology, which helps to dramatically increase energy density. This battery is manufactured and shipped without an anode. When the battery is first charged, sodium begins to accumulate on the current collector, which makes up the anode.
Faradion has similar plans.
"The manufacturing process and production equipment for sodium-ion batteries are exactly the same as for lithium-ion batteries. So the infrastructure is readily available and no additional capital expenditure is required," Sayers said.
Tesla's announcement that it will use lithium iron phosphate batteries also opens up more possibilities for the future of sodium ions. Sodium ion is essentially an alternative technology for lithium iron phosphate (Lifepo4 Battery), so the application prospect of lithium iron phosphate (Lifepo4 Battery) is also the application prospect of sodium ion.
Lithium is expensive and cobalt is "dirty".
Extracting a ton of lithium from rock or brine consumes hundreds of liters of water, and Congo's cobalt mines are often accompanied by allegations of human rights abuses and environmental damage.
Sodium-ion batteries contain neither lithium nor cobalt. Copper is also not needed, there is only aluminum on the current collector. So, sodium-ion batteries are much cheaper, potentially reducing material costs by 40%.
Faradion is the first to apply sodium-ion batteries to the tricycle market. India's richest man Mukesh Ambani's Reliance New Energy Solar plans to build a gigafactory in western India that will use Faradion's sodium-ion technology. Ambani, who loves sodium ions, invested £100m in Faradion.
Faradion is also in talks with truck and bus makers.
"Sodium-ion producers can draw on more than 30 years of lithium-ion battery manufacturing experience and leverage a wealth of existing knowledge to rapidly advance sodium-ion technology," Ball suggested.
But CATL BATTERY doesn't think sodium ions will replace lithium ions. Sodium ions have the unique advantage of adapting to situations that lithium-ion batteries cannot. In the long run, sodium-ion and lithium-ion batteries will coexist and complement each other.
A solid-state future?
While increasing the utilization of charging piles may solve most range anxiety, solid-state battery technology has the potential to provide greater energy density and provide higher range.
CATL BATTERY has developed a solid-state battery prototype, but it is still a long way from mass production as there are various technical issues to be resolved.
"Solid-state batteries are still in the experimental stage and have to go through this complex precipitation process," Reed said.
Solid-state batteries need to use high-purity metal lithium to replace the graphite in the negative electrode of lithium-ion batteries, which requires lithium chloride as a precursor. Currently, there is not enough infrastructure to meet this supply.
"If demand comes up, we have to scale up, and while solid-state batteries are said to fill a car in five minutes, it's still too expensive," Reed said. "The research team is looking at sodium as a cheaper alternative. replacement of."
Britishvolt factory renderings. Several gigafactories are being built across Europe, such as the one Britishvolt is building ▼
Taiwan-based ProLogium claims to have developed a solid-state lithium-ceramic battery that can be charged in 12 minutes and offers twice the range of conventional lithium-ion batteries.
In early February, Mercedes-Benz led the investment in Huineng Technology, and the two companies expect that Mercedes-Benz cars will use solid-state batteries after 2025.
Recycle
Batteries may be the oil of the future. Can it eliminate the environmental pollution caused by oil? The answer is possible. Recycling large quantities of key materials can reduce the carbon footprint of batteries.
The UK is building a recycling system. Johnson Matthey has partnered with European Metal Recycling to develop a fully closed cycle process for lithium-ion batteries and battery raw materials.
And Faradion intends to cover the entire battery life cycle while expanding the scale of its business.
"The sodium recovery process is about the same as lithium-ion, or even simpler. Because sodium-ion batteries have only aluminum on the current collector and no copper, you don't need to go to great lengths to separate the elements." Sayers said Faradion is also working on a green Batteries, the elements of which can be recycled to make fertilizers.
In early February, another new venture, Britishvolt, formed a joint venture with mining and recycling group Glencore. The original intention of the partnership was to process lithium-ion waste from its gigafactory, which has slowly developed into a battery recycling business, with mass production expected to begin in early 2024.
In addition to recycling, the company also wants to reduce carbon emissions from the battery cell production process. The company aims to emit no more than 25 kilograms of carbon dioxide per kilowatt-hour of production capacity, Chief Technology Officer Allan Patterson told the Knowledge Transfer Network's Battery Technology Summit.
For reference, the US and European standards are no more than about 60 kg/kWh, and the Chinese standard is about 90 kg/kWh. Key approaches include localizing cathode material production and using renewable energy sources, which can also be done with graphite.
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