Application prospects of industrial gases in the new energy battery industry

Since the beginning of the 21st century, the problems of global energy shortage and ecological environmental pollution have been intensifying. Since the energy characteristics of the mainland are "more coal, less oil and poor gas"; Therefore, the pressure on the mainland in terms of oil and energy is even greater. In the face of this increasingly prominent global energy crisis situation, and in order to solve the problem of ecological and environmental damage caused by the long-term use of fossil fuels, the mainland has formulated a timetable for carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, and has begun to vigorously develop the development and application of new energy sources.

1. The rapid development momentum of new energy power batteries

In general, new energy mainly includes hydropower, wind energy, photovoltaic, nuclear energy, biomass energy; From the perspective of specific applications, the current application scenarios are the widest, the utilization rate is the highest, and the new energy that is the best alternative to fossil fuels is lithium battery, especially the lithium battery used as a source of automotive power, which is the most widely used way in the field of new energy. The mainland government has also begun to arrange the implementation of the promotion of new energy vehicles as an important strategic deployment to replace traditional fossil fuels with new energy.

Since 2014, from the State Council to local governments, they have begun to continuously promulgate and promote various policies for new energy vehicles, and continue to build various supporting settings conducive to the popularization of new energy vehicles. On November 2, 2020, the General Office of the State Council issued the "New Energy Vehicle Industry Development Plan (2021-2035)", which requires that "by 2025, the sales volume of new energy vehicles in mainland China will account for about 20%." ”

Under the continuous stimulation of favorable policies, the sales volume of new energy vehicles in the mainland has grown rapidly. At present, the mainland has become the world's largest new energy vehicle market and the highest growth rate of new energy vehicle market. Due to the spurt growth of new energy vehicle sales, the sales of power batteries as the core of automobiles have also ushered in explosive growth, which in turn has also brought about the huge development of the entire industrial chain of new energy power batteries.

The new energy power lithium battery is mainly composed of four parts, namely the cathode material, the negative electrode material, the electrolyte and the battery separator. In recent years, the sales volume of these four parts of the material has not only increased tremendously, but also the price of materials has also been bullish. The producers of these four materials are expanding their production and investment in various places, which has directly triggered a large demand for industrial gases from various producers. Due to the requirements of the production process of cathode materials, anode materials and electrolytes, bulk industrial gases such as oxygen and nitrogen must be used as oxidation atmospheres or protective atmospheres to enter the production plant.

2 The rigid demand of new energy power batteries for industrial gases

2.1 Cathode material

The cost of cathode materials in the composition materials of new energy power batteries is about 40%, which is the largest part. The process route of cathode materials includes four production processes such as lithium manganate, lithium cobalt oxide, ternary materials and lithium iron phosphate. At present, the most widely selected by new energy power battery factories are ternary materials and lithium iron phosphate, which use a large amount of industrial gases in the production of cathode materials.

Ternary materials, whether nickel-cobalt-aluminum or nickel-cobalt-manganese, need to be prepared by mixing three metal materials with lithium during the production process. Because the change of metal nickel from positive divalent to positive trivalent needs to be completed in an oxygen-enriched environment, the preparation process of ternary materials requires the use of a large amount of oxygen.

Lithium iron phosphate is produced in a roasting oven. During combustion in the furnace body, carbon reduces trivalent iron to divalent iron to prepare lithium iron phosphate. High-purity nitrogen is required as a protective gas throughout the preparation process to avoid the oxidation of production raw materials and become waste.

2.2 Anode material

Anode materials are mainly divided into two categories: carbon materials and non-carbon materials. Among them, carbon materials are divided into graphite and amorphous carbon, such as natural graphite, artificial graphite, intermediate phase carbon microspheres, soft carbon (such as coke) and some hard carbon; Other non-carbon anode materials are nitrides, silicon-based materials, tin-based materials, titanium-based materials, alloy materials, etc.

At present, the mainstream anode materials are natural graphite, artificial graphite and intermediate phase carbon microspheres. In the preparation of negative electrode materials, raw materials such as graphite powder need to be mixed first, and then dried by high-temperature roasting in a sintering furnace. In the sintering furnace, a large amount of nitrogen is required to create an inert atmosphere to avoid oxidation of the mixed raw materials during the roasting process.

2.3 Electrolyte

The most important component of the electrolyte of the new energy power battery is lithium hexafluorophosphate, accounting for about 43% of the total cost of the electrolyte. At present, the most mature preparation process of lithium hexafluorophosphate is to use anhydrous hydrogen fluoride as a non-aqueous solvent to chemically react with fluorine chemicals and phosphorus to generate lithium hexafluorophosphate. The entire reaction process needs to be carried out in a protective atmosphere of high purity nitrogen.

From the above introduction, it can be understood that of the four components of the new energy power battery, three parts of the material preparation must be used to industrial gases. It can be seen that industrial gases have a huge auxiliary role in the new energy power battery industry.

3. Prospects of industrial gases in the new energy power battery industry

Due to the strong driving role of the development of new energy vehicles, the industrial investment scale of relevant enterprises in the cathode materials, anode materials and lithium hexafluorophosphate of the electrolyte of new energy power batteries has been increasing. According to the statistics of the International Energy Network in January 2022, in the past 2021, the overall investment amount of the power battery industry exceeded 670 billion, and the investment in the material industry accounted for more than half. Among them, the investment in cathode materials is about 227.7 billion, the investment in anode materials is 55.2 billion, the investment in electrolyte is 48.7 billion, and the investment in diaphragm materials is 68.2 billion.

Not only do industry manufacturers continue to be optimistic about the development prospects of new energy power batteries, but also the capital investment field continues to see the rapid growth of bullish power batteries. According to the forecast data given by Tianfeng Securities Co., Ltd. in March 2022, from 2022 to 2025, the compound growth rate of the entire industry of new energy power batteries can reach 46%, which is much higher than other manufacturing industries.

Therefore, the industrial gas industry, which is indispensable in the production process of power battery materials, will also be driven and grown.

For the aforementioned cathode materials, anode materials and lithium hexafluorophosphate manufacturers, because of the expansion of production scale, they have also produced a large demand change in the supply of industrial gases. The use of liquid oxygen or liquid nitrogen supply method has been far from meeting the needs of these manufacturers for gas, but also because the use of liquid supply costs have been high, the current power battery material manufacturers have chosen to use industrial gas field gas equipment to meet the gas use needs.

In general, there are two ways to supply industrial gases using on-site gas production equipment, one is that the manufacturers of power battery materials independently invest in gas production equipment and operate the gas supply independently. The other is that a third-party specialized gas company invests in the gas-making equipment and is responsible for operating the gas supply on site, while the producer of the power battery material only pays the gas usage fee.

Because the third-party gas supply mode can not occupy the funds of the power battery material manufacturer, and facilitate the power battery material manufacturer to quickly expand the production scale in line with the market demand without being limited by the shortage of funds, but also solve the power battery material manufacturer because of the unfamiliar with the gas equipment caused by the equipment operation is not smooth, and then affect the production; More and more manufacturers of power battery materials are choosing third-party gas supply models to address their growing demand for gas.

It is foreseeable that with the continuous development of the scale of the new energy power battery industry, the process technology is constantly upgraded, and the scale and type of gas consumption are also constantly improving. The third-party gas supply model will become the mainstream of the supply model with its more professional, safer and more economical advantages.

At present, domestic and foreign professional gas enterprises have paid attention to the mainland gas market in this field, of which Shenzhen Haige Jingu Company has an earlier industry layout and mature professional service capabilities, and occupies more than 20% of the third-party gas supply market in China's new energy battery industry. Yingde Gas, Guanggang Gas, Afterburner Gas and other enterprises have also entered successively. It is believed that with the entry and leadership of the above-mentioned professional gas companies, the future gas consumption mode of China's new energy battery industry will gradually take the third-party gas supply mode as the mainstream, and the new energy battery industry will quickly become a new hot spot in the industrial gas industry and create a considerable industry output value.

Resources:

1, "New Energy Industry In-depth Research Report: The Energy Revolution Sets Sail, the Investment Track Is Stable and Far-reaching", DT New Materials 2022-02-08

2, "New Energy Power Battery Industry Analysis Report", Minibus Investment Research, 2021-12-04

3, "Fund Special Report: The New Energy Vehicle Battery Industry is Developing at a High Speed", https://stock.finance.sina.com.cn/stock/go.php/vReport_Show/kind/search/rptid/701365645779/index.phtml

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