Lithium iron phosphate, ternary, sodium battery, aluminum battery and other 6 kinds of technology competition, who is the king?

It is said that there is no metal on the earth, and the planets that have repeatedly hit the earth have brought various metals to the earth.Obviously, when the planet hits, it is too random and brings some troubles to the residents of the earth. One of them is lithium.This is currently the most widely used metal for electrochemical Energy Storage systems, but the most prosperous region of the Lithium Battery industry-China-is currently suffering from insufficient lithium resources.However, other metals have also entered the battery territory one after another, making electrochemical energy storage colorful.

Are lithium iron phosphate and ternary really rivals?

Speaking of Lithium Iron Phosphate Batteries and ternary batteries are brothers in the field of lithium-ion batteries, but in the past two years, lithium iron phosphate batteries and ternary batteries seem to have some tendency to catch up with each other and not give way to each other.In particular, on November 18, after the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology publicized the "Standard Conditions for the Lithium-ion Battery Industry (2021 Edition)" (draft for comments) and the "Administrative Measures for the Announcement of the Lithium-ion Battery Industry Standards (2021 Edition)" (draft for comments), the industry has found that it seems to have a certain tendency to inhibit lithium iron phosphate batteries that are making great strides:

The new specification requires that the energy density of energy-type power battery should be ≥ 180Wh/kg and the energy density of battery pack should be ≥ 120Wh/kg.Although the energy density of lithium iron phosphate battery packs exceeds the number of 120, the number of units is a bit dangerous, because the energy density of the mainstream Lithium Iron Phosphate Battery cells is still hovering around 160Wh/kg. According to this calculation, many products cannot meet the requirements of the new regulations.

But are the new regulations really suppressing lithium iron phosphate batteries?

Let's start with positive electrode materials.Just as the mellow bottom of the pot is the soul of the hot pot, the positive electrode material also plays the role of the soul of the lithium battery.The cathode material accounts for about 40% of the battery manufacturing cost.

Because of this importance, even lithium-ion batteries are distinguished by cathode materials.After more than 30 years of development, the current cathode materials used as Lithium Batteries have entered the industrialization of lithium cobaltate (LCO), lithium manganate (LMO), lithium iron phosphate (LFP) and ternary materials (NCM, NCA).Lithium iron phosphate and ternary are the two largest types of power batteries, so they are particularly eye-catching.In addition, Dong Mingzhu's Yinlong Company uses a lithium titanate (LTO) material, but lithium titanate is not used as a positive electrode material, but as a negative electrode material.The cathode material of lithium titanate battery is still lithium iron phosphate or ternary material.

The name "ternary" comes from three metals and refers to the use of lithium nickel cobalt manganate (NCM) or lithium nickel cobalt aluminate (NCA) as the cathode material.Nickel salt, cobalt salt, manganese salt (aluminum) as raw materials, the ratio of the three can be adjusted according to actual needs.

In the field of power batteries, lithium iron phosphate batteries and ternary batteries compete because they have their own advantages.

It can be known from the table that compared with ternary materials, the advantage of lithium iron phosphate is high safety, and the other advantage is that the cost is relatively low. The disadvantage is that the energy density is not as high as that of ternary materials.

Because of the cost advantage, before 2017, the lithium iron phosphate battery in the power battery can be said to be a rider with relatively low cost.However, in 2017, because the policy subsidies at that time encouraged high energy density, ternary batteries came from behind and soon replaced the mainstream position of lithium iron phosphate batteries, reaching the highest proportion of power battery 68%.

However, with the decline or even disappearance of policy subsidies and the gradual improvement of safety requirements, lithium iron phosphate has risen again. Since the beginning of last year, the installed proportion of lithium iron phosphate batteries has been catching up with ternary batteries since the beginning of 38.3%. By June this year, the installed capacity of lithium iron phosphate batteries had exceeded that of ternary batteries for five consecutive months.

So is the new regulation of November 18 this year to re-introduce energy density, is it really a repeat of the old road of 2017?

The answer is: not so.In fact, the new regulations also put forward requirements for ternary batteries: the specific capacity of ternary materials ≥ 175Ah/kg.In the "2021 version of the lithium-ion battery industry specification conditions" determined on December 10, the ternary material ratio capacity is reduced to 165Ah / kg.At present, the three-yuan 8 series and above high nickel materials are undoubtedly up to standard, but the three-yuan 5 series and below mass production capacity or some enterprises do not meet the standard.Obviously ternary batteries are not peace of mind.

In other words, the country has put forward higher requirements for both lithium iron phosphate and ternary materials, and both must show their advantages in a longer track.

At present, lithium iron phosphate materials have been on fire in the phosphorus chemical market, which has been in Gujing for many years. Even several traditional phosphorus chemical enterprises, including Xinyangfeng and Yuntianhua, have made great strides into the field of lithium iron phosphate. There is still room for their great achievements in this track.The energy density of lithium iron phosphate batteries reaches the level of compliance, which is the direction of efforts of relevant enterprises.

Similarly, ternary materials companies continue to have room for sustained technical efforts.At present, the technical direction of ternary materials is mainly high nickel and low cobalt or even no cobalt.High nickel is to improve energy density, safety performance and life, and cobalt-free is because cobalt is too expensive.66% of the world's cobalt production comes from the politically unstable Congo (DRC).On December 20, foreign media reported that the situation in Congo (DRC) was even worse, superimposed on the African epidemic, cobalt prices are going to rise again.Moreover, cobalt does not participate in electrochemical reactions, so reducing cobalt while high nickel is a good way to increase battery energy density and reduce costs.

Can solid-state lithium batteries and lithium-sulfur batteries carry beams

In order to improve the energy density and safety of lithium batteries, in addition to the technical efforts of lithium iron phosphate batteries and ternary batteries, the world is also exploring solid-state lithium batteries (including semi-solid-state lithium batteries) and lithium-sulfur batteries.

In terms of solid-state lithium batteries, energy storage headlines were once published in "Cycle Performance Up to 45000 Times!How long is the solid-state battery before the charge?"It is explained in detail in the article.It replaces the liquid electrolyte with a solid substance, which increases the material density of lithium ion or metal lithium, and can conduct a larger current, thereby increasing the battery capacity.Because there is no electrolyte in the solid-state battery, it is safer, smaller and has greater energy density.

In addition to safety, small size is also an attractive advantage of solid-state batteries.In traditional lithium-ion batteries, separators and electrolytes need to be used, which together occupy nearly 40% of the volume and 25% mass of the battery.The use of solid electrolyte greatly reduces the thickness of the battery.

All-solid-state battery technology is also considered by the market as the next generation battery technology.

In addition to lithium titanate batteries, there is also a lithium-sulfur battery technology direction, which uses sulfur as the positive electrode material and lithium as the negative electrode.During discharge, the negative electrode reacts in that lithium loses electrons and becomes lithium ions, and the positive electrode reacts with sulfur and lithium ions and electrons to form sulfides. The potential difference between the positive electrode and the negative electrode reacts is the discharge voltage provided by the lithium-sulfur battery.Under the action of applied voltage, the positive and negative reactions of the lithium-sulfur battery proceed in reverse, which is the charging process.The theoretical discharge mass specific energy of the lithium-sulfur battery is 2600Wh/kg.

Solid-state lithium batteries and lithium-sulfur batteries are both promising new technologies that can improve the power density of lithium batteries. The cost of liquid lithium batteries is about 1200-2000 yuan/kWh. However, if the existing technology is used to manufacture solid-state batteries that are sufficient to power smart phones, the cost will be as high as 60,000 yuan, not to mention the cost of solid-state batteries that power cars. Therefore, solid-state lithium batteries and lithium-sulfur batteries.

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