According to news from Shanghai Nonferrous Metals Network, recently, high-energy-consuming enterprises in Baotou, Inner Mongolia were cut off for a week.
On June 27, The Paper learned from Shanshan, the leading manufacturer of artificial graphite for battery anode materials in China, that the production capacity of the company’s anode integration base in Baotou, Inner Mongolia has not been affected by power cuts, and is still producing according to plan.
According to Shanshan’s previous introduction, in 2022, the second phase of the company’s integrated base in Baotou, Inner Mongolia will reach production smoothly. The production capacity of the second phase includes 52,000 tons of graphitization capacity, 60,000 tons of negative electrode material production capacity, plus 40,000 tons of negative electrodes for the first phase. Material production capacity, a total of 100,000 tons of negative electrode material production capacity has been built.
At the same time, Shanshan Co., Ltd. also stated that in 2022, the self-sufficiency rate of the company’s graphitization production capacity will increase year-on-year. The company continues to improve the graphitization process. Through process upgrades such as increasing the amount of charge in a single furnace, pre-graphitizing, and adding “swimming lane furnaces”, it reduces the energy consumption per ton of graphitization processing, further reduces costs, and improves product profitability.
For a long time, lithium batteries, regarded as the “bull nose” of low-carbon transformation, have attracted attention from inside and outside the industry because of the high energy consumption in the production of artificial graphite, the battery negative electrode material.
It is understood that the current mainstream lithium battery anode material products are artificial graphite and natural graphite, and artificial graphite is the mainstay in the field of power batteries and high-end consumer batteries. Among them, graphitization is a key process in the production of artificial graphite anode materials, and it is a process of orderly transforming thermodynamically unstable carbon atoms into a graphite crystal structure.
Specifically, needle coke, petroleum coke, pitch coke and other raw materials are calcined at a certain temperature (2300-3000 ℃), and then crushed, classified, and graphitized at high temperature. In terms of application, this process affects the gram capacity, first effect, compaction density, consistency, and particle shape of the negative electrode material, which in turn affects battery performance. Someone in the industry once pointed out, “Whether the negative electrode material is well done or not, the graphitization is the real chapter.
However, graphitization is an energy-intensive process. Usually, 1 ton of graphitization capacity needs to consume 12,000-14,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity, and its cost accounts for about 50%-60% of the cost of battery anode materials, and the cost is mainly electricity.
According to the Ping An Securities report, since the graphitization process includes steps such as furnace cleaning, furnace loading, power-on, cooling, and furnace unloading, the single production cycle is generally 15-30 days, of which the power-on time is generally 2-3 days, and the cooling process It takes a long time. The power-on link has a great impact on product yield and power consumption level.
In the past, anode material manufacturers usually entrusted the production of graphitization process. In recent years, with the need to reduce costs, it has become a trend for leading anode companies such as Shanshan and Putailai to realize self-sufficient integrated production of graphitization capacity.
In China, graphitization production capacity is mostly distributed in areas with relatively rich power resources, such as Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Sichuan, Shanxi, and Yunnan. Among them, the power price advantage of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region is the most significant, and it has become an important production area of domestic anode graphitization production capacity, accounting for about 46% of the country’s total production capacity.
It is understood that in addition to Shanshan Co., Ltd., manufacturers engaged in graphitization production in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region include Inner Mongolia Snow New Material Technology Co., Ltd., Inner Mongolia Sanxin Group Co., Ltd., Inner Mongolia Dasheng Graphite Co., Ltd., Inner Mongolia Mengji New Carbon Materials, Inner Mongolia Xin Source Technology Co., Ltd., Inner Mongolia Hengsheng New Material Technology Co., Ltd., Inner Mongolia Yingxiang Carbon Co., Ltd., etc.
The Paper reporter learned that this is not the first time that Baotou has imposed power cuts on high-energy-consuming enterprises. In the future, how should graphitization manufacturers respond to the ever-tightening requirements for energy conservation and consumption reduction in the market and policy environment? In the eyes of industry insiders, improving the production process is the only way for enterprises.
According to Bo Wenjie, assistant general manager of Inner Mongolia Xinyuan Co., Ltd., according to different heating methods, graphitization mainly has two production processes: intermittent and continuous. Among them, the Acheson furnace is the current mainstream processing method, which belongs to intermittent processing. Among the processing methods that have been mass-produced, the Acheson furnace is one that can take into account both product stability and output.
Another type of intermittent processing is box furnace processing. This method has high efficiency in the use of furnace space and has a better performance in reducing energy consumption than Acheson furnace, but the product quality is not as stable as Acheson furnace.
“Different from the batch process mentioned above, continuous graphitization furnace processing has good performance in terms of energy consumption and quality, but this process needs to achieve continuous graphitization and increase the temperature to above 2800 degrees Celsius, and the production process is airtight, impurity gas It is easy to cause the pressure in the furnace to be too high, and the mass production process still needs a breakthrough.” Bo Wenjie said.
According to the previous report of Caihua News Agency, among the major anode material companies with graphitization capacity, Shanshan, Putailai, Xiangfenghua, Kaijin Energy, and Shangtai Technology are all based on Acheson furnaces. Chamber furnace processing technology. Those who have tried to use continuous graphitization furnaces include Betray, Sunward and so on.
Caihua News also pointed out that compared with the traditional graphitization Acheson furnace processing technology, the unit power consumption of the box method and the continuous method process is reduced by 20%-30% and 40%-50% respectively. At the same time, the single-day output of the box method and the continuous method is 2 times and 5-6 times that of the traditional Acheson furnace process.
Bo Wenjie, assistant general manager of Inner Mongolia Xinyuan Co., Ltd., also pointed out that the continuous graphitization process will play a key role in reducing costs and improving quality in the future. Although it is currently difficult to use in batches, it is still the future development direction of major manufacturers.
(Article source: The Paper)
Article source: The Paper
Original title: Shanshan Co., Ltd.: Baotou negative electrode integration base is in normal production and is not affected by regional power cuts
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