In the wave of popular support in the capital market for nearly half a month, the industrialization of domestic sodium ion batteries has finally ushered in a milestone event.
htmlOn the evening of September 30, Shanxi Huayang Group New Energy Co., Ltd. (600348.SH, hereinafter referred to as "Huayang Co., Ltd.") issued an announcement that the sodium ion battery production line equipment invested and debugged by the company's wholly-owned subsidiary Shanxi Huanaxin Energy Technology Co., Ltd. was completed and was officially put into operation in Yangquan, Shanxi on the same day.announced that the company's sodium ion battery cell production line mainly produces cylindrical steel shells and square aluminum shells sodium ion battery cells. After the project is full, the sodium ion battery will achieve a key transition from pilot to mass production. At the same time, it will effectively promote the company to build the first domestic sodium ion battery full industry chain, making greater contributions to building an efficient and stable new energy power system and achieving the "dual carbon" goal.
It is understood that the sodium ion cell production line put into operation this time was jointly created by Huayang Co., Ltd. and Zhongke Haina Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Zhongke Haina"), and is the first production line in the world to mass produce 1GWh sodium ion cell.
Tianyan Check data shows that Shanxi Huayang Group New Energy Co., Ltd. was established in 1999 and its controlling shareholder is Huayang New Materials Technology Group Co., Ltd., the former of the latter is Yangquan Coal Industry (Group), one of the five major coal groups in Shanxi Province. On October 27, 2020, Yangquan Coal Industry (Group) Co., Ltd. was renamed Huayang New Materials Technology Group Co., Ltd.
, and Zhongke Haina is a company focusing on the development and production of sodium ion batteries, and was established in 2017. The technical leaders in its R&D team are Academician Chen Liquan , Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Researcher Hu Yongsheng. The team has been committed to the technical research and development of sodium ion batteries since 2011.
According to the official website of Zhongke Haina, the company's sodium ion battery positive electrode material is made of low-cost sodium copper iron-manganese oxide, and the negative electrode material is made of soft carbon. Currently, the energy density of the single cell reaches 145Wh/kg, the cycle life is about 4500 times, and the working temperature is between -40 degrees Celsius and 80 degrees Celsius.
It is understood that at the end of 2020, Huayang Co., Ltd. and Zhongke Haina signed a framework agreement for the production of sodium ion battery positive and negative electrodes. In April 2021, Huayang Co., Ltd. and Zhongke Haina jointly established Shanxi Warner Copper Energy and Carbon Energy Technology Co., Ltd. In June 2021, the world's first 1MWh sodium ion energy storage system jointly developed by it was released in Shanxi and was put into trial operation. In March 2022, the first phase of the thousand-ton sodium ion positive and negative electrode material production project was officially put into production in Shanxi.
Huayang Co., Ltd. announced that compared with lead-acid and lithium iron phosphate batteries, sodium ion batteries have the advantages of low price, high safety performance, excellent high and low temperature performance, and can be suitable for energy storage batteries, power batteries, backup batteries and car startup scenarios.
However, Huayang Co., Ltd. also pointed out in the announcement that the company's sodium ion cell, as a brand new technical product in the market, still requires relevant certification for commercial application, and its mass production and sales still require a certain period of time.
It is understood that according to the plan, Shanxi Huayang New Materials Technology Group, the controlling shareholder of Huayang Co., Ltd., will carry out research and development of upstream positive and negative electrode materials, PACK batteries, energy storage modules, energy storage power stations of various specifications and other types of energy storage products in the future, and launch high-efficiency energy storage solutions applied to the power grid side, power generation side, and user side.
sodium ion battery is coming? Upstream material companies are cautiously optimistic
Since mid-September, CATL stated in an investor announcement that it "will be committed to promoting the industrialization of sodium ion batteries next year", the popularity of sodium ion battery-related sectors in the domestic capital market has continued to rise.
According to the latest research report of Dongwu Securities , in the technical route of domestic sodium ion batteries, the positive electrode materials include layered oxides, Prussian blue, and polyanion. In the short term, single-crystal layered oxides are the mainstream route, with low mass production difficulty and excellent overall performance. In the long run, the three major routes will go hand in hand. The main advantage of layered oxides is energy density, the main advantage of Prussian blue is low cost, and the main advantage of polyanionics is battery cycle life.
The technical barriers of sodium ion batteries mainly lie in the negative electrode materials and additive formulas. Among them, the negative electrode materials are mainly hard carbon and soft carbon. Hard carbon materials are the current mainstream trend. Their indicators are strict and the structure-effect relationship is complex. They are the key bottleneck in the industrialization of sodium ion batteries and need to be developed in the future. Additive formulas are the key to improving the cycle life of sodium ions.
A few days ago, a reporter from The Paper learned from Zhenhua New Materials Co., Ltd. that the sodium ion positive electrode material produced by the company has started mass sales in the second quarter of this year. As of the end of July this year, its sodium ion positive electrode material has sent a total of 0.6475 tons of samples to customers. In addition to the customers who have sent samples, 4.13 tons of sodium ion battery positive electrode material has been sold, achieving sales revenue of 244,300 yuan. In terms of unit price, it is about 60,000 yuan/ton, which is lower than the current price of lithium battery positive electrode material lithium iron phosphate on the market (Shanghai Nonferrous Network data).
The relevant person in charge of Zhenhua Technology said that the company's sodium ion positive electrode material uses a layered oxide route. The company's original ternary lithium battery positive electrode production line can be directly used to produce sodium ion battery positive electrode materials. The production capacity of this production line is 50,000 tons/year. "The production technology of the two positive electrode materials is almost the same. Both are sintering process , but the temperature, humidity and sintering time are different." The relevant person in charge of the company said, "We are ready for the industrialization of sodium ion batteries."
Another positive electrode manufacturer, Ningbo Rongbai New Energy Technology Co., Ltd., told the Pengpai News reporter that the company's sodium ion battery positive electrode materials are in the early stages of development, with diversified technical routes, and all three major technical routes have layouts and plans. The company plans to build a layered oxide cathode material production capacity of 36,000 tons/year next year.
In addition, Beijing Dangsheng Materials Technology Co., Ltd. told reporters that the company's sodium ion positive electrode material is in the research and development stage and has not yet achieved mass production. The company's original lithium ion positive electrode material production line can be shared. The company's head expressed caution on the answer to whether mass production will be possible next year. "It's hard to say, it depends on the specific situation of the research and development and the customer's use." said the person in charge. In terms of
negative electrode material, the reporter learned from Betre New Materials Group Co., Ltd. that the company's subsidiary Shenzhen Advanced Graphene Technology Co., Ltd. has prepared to build a 400-ton hard carbon material project, and the products can be technically used in sodium ion batteries. The specific production capacity and construction time are to be announced. In terms of
electrolyte , public information shows that Dofluoro New Materials Co., Ltd. has achieved commercial mass production of sodium hexafluorophosphate, and is currently mass-producing multiple enterprises with a production capacity of about 1,000 tons/year. The reporter learned from from Yan'an Bikang Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. that its subsidiary, focusing on the production of lithium-ion battery electrolyte, is currently developing sodium hexafluorophosphate.
According to Dongwu Securities' forecast, by the end of this year, the domestic sodium ion battery technology and material system are expected to be basically finalized, and small-batch shipments are expected to be achieved in 2023. Starting from 2024, sodium ion batteries will be mass-produced, with a scale of expected to reach 30GWh. It is expected to replace lead-acid battery in the future, and can gradually enter the low-speed electric vehicles and energy storage fields. The global demand for sodium ion batteries in 2025 is expected to exceed 100GWh, and it is expected to become an effective supplement to lithium batteries in the future.
