Sodium At The Beginning Of The Year, Four Enterprises Joined Hands

The sharp increase in the cost of lithium-ion batteries has made the contradiction between supply and demand of lithium resources one of the pain points in the development of the new energy industry. The industry urgently needs to seek new technical directions to replace it. In particular, the release of capacity in the energy storage industry has made the industrialization of sodium ion batteries a general trend.

According to the judgment of Zheshang Securities, after many battery enterprises have entered the sodium ion battery industry, the sodium ion battery is expected to achieve capacity explosion in 2023. As the temperature of sodium ion battery rises, it also attracts the attention of relevant material companies.

On January 6, Meilian New Materials released an announcement that the company and its holding subsidiary Liaoning Meicai New Materials Co., Ltd., Hunan Cubic New Energy Technology Co., Ltd. and Anshan Qicai Chemical Co., Ltd. reached a strategic cooperation consensus on jointly promoting the industrialization of sodium ion batteries, and signed a strategic cooperation agreement on the same day

 

 

According to the cooperation agreement, the technical teams of all parties jointly carried out cooperative research, development and experiments on the relevant performance, specification parameters and production process of the positive and negative electrode material of the sodium ion battery Prussian Blue (White), formed a communication and feedback mechanism, and jointly improved the technical indicators to promote the industrialization process of the sodium ion battery of the Prussian Blue (White) material. The first phase of the cooperation period was 10 years.

 

It is noteworthy that while "holding hands" with Meilian New Materials, Colorful Chemicals announced on January 6 that the company had terminated its cooperation with Suzhou Yuena New Energy Technology Co., Ltd., because the non competition situation of one of the core technical members of the founding team could not meet the terms of the investment contract. However, this action will not affect the overall development of the company in the future and the industrial planning of sodium ion battery materials. The company will still make investment layout around the relevant industrial chain of Prussian blue (white) sodium ion battery cathode materials.

 

It is understood that there are basically three types of cathode materials for sodium ion batteries, including metal oxides, Prussian blue and polyanion compounds.

 

The positive pole of Prussian blue (such as Na2Mn [Mn (CN) 6], NaFe [Fe (CN) 6], etc.) is a cubic structure, which has the characteristics of low raw material cost but low cycle life. Representative manufacturers include Ningde Times and Rongbai Technology.

The polyanion system has the characteristics of long life, stable structure, poor magnification performance and low capacity density. Representative manufacturers include Jiangsu Zhongna Energy, Penghui Energy, etc.

The layered transition metal oxides have the advantages of high energy density and long cycle life. The representative manufacturers are Ningde Times, Zhongke Haina, sodium innovative energy, etc.

According to the analysis of insiders, each of the above three materials has its own advantages. Among them, Prussian blue compounds have relatively low cost, high specific capacity and energy density, excellent magnification performance and great potential in the future. The first generation of sodium ion battery cathode material released by Ningde Times uses Prussian white, and the battery energy density reaches 160wh/kg.

 

It is precisely based on the company's technology, capacity and cost advantages in Prussian Blue (White) that Meilian New Materials has considered entering the sodium ion battery industry. The announcement shows that in September 2022, the Company and Colorful Chemicals signed the Strategic Cooperation Agreement on the joint investment of 2.5 billion yuan in the construction of the "180000 ton battery grade Prussian blue (white) project", and the agreement has been fulfilled.

 

On January 4 of this year, Meilian New Materials and Qicai Chemical jointly invested to establish Meicai New Materials, with a registered capital of 500 million yuan, and its business scope covers the production, sales and manufacturing of chemical products. It is reported that Meicai Xincai holds 51% of the company's equity and Qicai Chemical holds 49% of its equity.

With respect to Meilian New Materials, a leading enterprise in the global cyanuric chloride industry, the company has the core raw material sodium cyanide in the upstream of Prussian blue (white). With respect to colorful chemistry, it is specialized in high-performance organic pigments, solvent dyes and related intermediates. It is announced that it has the advantages of Prussian blue (white) industrialization technology, cost and environmental protection treatment.

 

In this Quartet cooperation, the newly established Meicai New Material also played an important role. The other protagonist of this cooperation, Cubic New Energy Technology, has certain technological advantages in the design, development and production of sodium ion batteries.

It is reported that after the cooperation, the technical teams of all parties will give full play to their technical advantages in the field of Prussian blue (white) battery grade materials, jointly carry out cooperative research and development, experiment on the relevant performance, specification parameters and production process of the positive and negative electrode materials of sodium ion batteries Prussian blue (white), and improve the technical indicators to promote the industrialization process of the sodium ion batteries made of Prussian blue (white) materials.

As for the positive impact of this cooperation, both Meilian New Materials and Colorful Chemicals announced that with the further deepening of business cooperation between all parties in the future, it is expected to have a positive impact on the business development of Meicai New Materials, which is conducive to accelerating the large-scale development of the company and improving its comprehensive strength.

 

For the industrialization of sodium ion battery, the market is generally optimistic. Especially under the background of unbalanced supply and demand of lithium resources, soaring prices and rising demand in the energy storage industry, the industrialization of sodium ion batteries is expected to speed up. At the same time, the government also pays more and more attention to the sodium ion battery technology, and takes it as an important research demonstration in the field of energy storage.

Huatai Securities said that the sodium ion battery can take the lead in the development of low-speed passenger vehicles with its good cost performance and more stable electrochemical performance, fast charging and low-temperature performance; In the field of energy storage, with the breakthrough of enterprises in the research and development of cycle performance, sodium ion batteries can be partially replaced by lithium iron phosphate batteries.

Based on comprehensive judgment, it is estimated that the installed capacity of sodium ion battery is expected to reach 335GWh in 2027, the overall market scale of sodium battery will reach 167.6 billion yuan, and the corresponding market space of positive material, negative material and electrolyte will reach 37.7 billion yuan, 17.2 billion yuan and 12.3 billion yuan respectively in 2027.

To be specific, with the joint participation of cell enterprises and material enterprises, the industrialization of sodium ion batteries is progressing rapidly. 2023 is expected to be the first year of sodium ion battery industrialization.