High-end coal-based carbon materials could break graphitization energy bottlenecks

Power rationing measures have been transmitted to energy-intensive industries. As for lithium battery industry, For the lithium battery industry, the graphitization of cathode materials, as the most energy consuming link, has been impacted to a certain extent. UHP Graphite electrode with good performance in steelmaking. Experts from Guangdong Coal Based Carbon Materials Research Institute pointed out that the newly developed graphitization process based on the special structure of coal based carbon materials will greatly reduce the energy consumption of this process and break the energy consumption bottleneck of negative electrode materials.

Under the background of "double control" policy of energy consumption, many places have limited power and production, and the lithium industry chain has also been affected, while graphitization link bears the brunt of high energy consumption, resulting in limited production capacity, widening the gap between supply and demand, and gradually becoming a bottleneck restricting the production capacity release of negative electrode materials.

Experts from the Guangdong Institute of Coal-based Carbon Materials pointed out that the graphitization process, which is based on the special structure of coal-based carbon materials, will significantly reduce the energy consumption of the process and solve the energy consumption bottleneck of negative electrode materials.

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Graphitization accounted for a gradual increase in the cost of negative electrode materials,

It is understood that graphitization is a key process in the production of artificial graphite negative electrode materials, accounting for about 50% of the cost of negative electrode materials, the main cost is electricity, usually 1 ton of graphitization capacity needs to consume 12,000-14,000 KWH of electricity, which is a high energy consumption process.

According to relevant agencies, in the first half of 2021, the proportion of artificial graphite products in negative electrode materials rose to 85%. Meanwhile, the rise in electricity costs led to the rise in graphitization processing costs, which resulted in a shortage of graphitization capacity and a rise in processing costs. Graphitization has become a bottleneck restricting the development of the negative electrode materials industry chain.

The study shows that  from the current direct cost composition of negative electrode materials, the proportion of graphitization cost has increased from more than 40% in the previous year to about 55% at present, and the cost proportion has increased by about 10 percentage points. At present, for every 10000 yuan/ton increase in the graphitization cost of negative electrode materials, the cost of negative electrode materials will increase by at least 5000 yuan/ton.

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Graphitization becomes the key link of negative electrode production expansion

The national dual control policy on energy consumption has been stepped up layer by layer to strengthen the control of high energy consumption and high emission projects. Due to the high energy consumption attribute of graphitized capacity, the operating rate of graphitized stock capacity in some regions is restricted, the difficulty of landing new capacity is increased, and the scarcity of graphitized assets is prominent, which has become a bottleneck link for negative electrode production expansion.

Therefore, industry insiders pointed out that under the background of double control of energy consumption, the effective capacity of negative electrode lies in graphitization capacity. Negative electrode enterprises with highly integrated capacity will have stronger delivery capacity and lower cost advantage in the future competition, and the competition pattern of negative electrode material industry is expected to be optimized.

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The traditional process belongs to the link of high energy consumption

The basic production links of artificial graphite are mainly divided into crushing, granulation, graphitization and screening, among which graphitization barrier is the highest, which can best reflect the differentiation advantage.

Needle coke and petroleum coke are selected as the main raw materials for artificial graphite products. The production process of artificial graphite is made of raw materials and binder through four processes: crushing, granulation, graphitization and screening.

According to relevant experts, from the perspective of graphitization process, graphitization uses thermal activation to realize the orderly transformation of thermodynamically unstable carbon atoms from disordered layer structure to graphite crystal structure. This process needs to consume a lot of energy. According to the traditional process means, it belongs to the link of high energy consumption.

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New raw materials and new processes break through the bottleneck of energy consumption

Experts from Guangdong Coal Based Carbon Materials Research Institute introduced that the institute uses coal based carbon materials and special processes to prepare artificial graphite, which can greatly reduce the energy consumption of the process and improve the product yield, and the products can prepare negative electrode materials that can greatly improve the performance of lithium battery.

The expert explained that coal-based carbon materials, such as coal-series needle coke, are different from oil-series needle coke, petroleum coke and other raw materials. Their special molecular structure can ensure graphitization under more moderate conditions, thus greatly reducing energy consumption and improving the yield.

At the same time, the expert also pointed out that due to the particularity of the structure of coal-based carbon materials, the performance of batteries produced by such materials has been significantly improved, contact us to read more graphitization news.