<2022> Technology Trend and Market Outlook for Cathode Materials of Lithium-ion Secondary Batteries
Recently, the secondary battery
market has been expanding from small IT application market to ESS and EV
market, and accordingly demand for cathode materials in the secondary battery
market is also expected to increase.
Lithium-ion secondary batteries were invented by Akira Yoshino of Japan
around 1985 and were commercialized by Sony in 1991.The cathode materials used
by Sony at that time is lithium cobalt oxide (LiCoO2) (thereinafter,
abbreviated as LCO). LCO as a cathode material in lithium-ion secondary
batteries has nominal voltage of 3.7V. It is easily synthesized as a material
in which lithium is intercalated and deintercalated. And it has relatively good
life characteristics.So it is still widely used. However, problems of the LCO have
begun to emerge. There are two major problems. LCO is very expensive due to Co,
the major component of LCO, of which reserves are limited. Another problem is
the performance of the material. At the ending period of charging, the battery
capacity reaches max 150mAh/g, which is only about half the theoretical
capacity due to LCO’s structural instability. For these reasons, it is
difficult and disadvantageous to use LCO cathode material in large-size
batteries for automobiles and power storage.
Accordingly, the cathode material that has improved these problems is
lithium nickel cobalt aluminum oxide (LiNi0.8Co0.15Al0.05O2; thereinafter,
referred to as NCA). And the newly developed cathode material is lithium nickel
cobalt manganese oxide (LiNi1/3Co1/3Mn1/3O2; thereinafter, referred to as NCM).
3M invented it and holds the NCM111 patent. LG Chem also developed
LiNi0.5Co0.2Mn0.3O2 (NCM 523) material in which the composition of NCM is
partly adjusted. Recently, high Ni based cathode materials such as NCM622,
NCM811, etc. have been studied widely.
There is also lithium manganese oxide (LiMn2O4; hereinafter referred to
as LMO) that has spinel structure. Its capacity is 100mAh/g, which is lower
than LCO, but it has good output characteristics and excellent safety. Moreover
it is being applied to low-end products by taking advantage of its low price or
it is partially blended into cathode materials for electric vehicles.
Finally, there is lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4; hereinafter referred
to as FPO) with olivine structure. It has high structural stability but it has
relatively low discharge voltage of about 3.5V. So, high-voltage olivine
cathode material in which Fe is replaced with Mn or Ni is being widely studied.
Among the four major components (cathode, anode, electrolyte, and
separator) of lithium-ion secondary batteries, cathode materials making up
cathode account for about 30-40% of the total cost of lithium-ion secondary
battery. Since the cost is considered the most important factor to
commercialize large-sized lithium-ion secondary batteries, it is essential to improve
the performance of cathode material and lower the price at the same time.
In 2022, 1,522,270 tons of cathode materials in total for LIBs were
used globally. Chinese companies sold 911,010 tons of cathode materials taking
up 59.8%, Korean companies sold 480,730 tons with 31.6% and Japanese companies
sold 123,470 tons with 8.1%. In terms of cathode material type, NCM was sold
the most with 44.9% 683,760 tons, followed by LFP with 30.6% 466,430 tons, NCA
with 10.6% 160,910 tons, LCO with 8.5% 130,140 tons, and LMO with 5.3%, 81.030
tons.
According to the global shipment of lithium secondary battery cathode
materials in 2022, the ranking in ternary cathode material shipment is in the
order of Ecopro(Korea), Umicore(China), XTC(China), LGC(Korea), Ronbay(China),
SMM(Japan), Nichia(Japan), L&F(Korea), Shan Shan(China), and CyLiCo(China).
China is showing dominance in LFP cathode material. The ranking is in
the order of Hunan Yuneng (China), Dynanonic (China), Guoxuan (China), BTR
(China), Lopal (China), Pulead (China), Wanrun (China), Anda (China), and Terui
(China).
In the top 10 are three Korean companies including Umicore, two
Japanese companies and five Chinese companies. And most of the companies in the
top 20 are Chinese and they show remarkable growth.
As such, Korea, China and Japan are leading the global cathode material
market. Chinese companies have emerged as dominating suppliers by increasing
supply with the growth of Chinese major battery makers based on the domestic
market. And Japanese companies are responding with advanced precursor technology
to China's aggressive expansion. Korean cathode material companies are in a
situation where they have to face price competition with Chinese companies and
fiercely compete with Japanese companies for anode material and precursor
technology.
In the future, the cathode material market is expected to experience
fierce competition among the material companies in Korea, China and Japan along
with massive growth of LIB in the global electric vehicle market.
This report describes the technology trend of various types of cathode
material, especially the latest cathode material technology development trend
based on Ni-rich NCM, cobalt-free cathode material technology, and
single-particle cathode material technology development trend. It also covered
precursors that are part of anode materials and mineral market. The number of
cathode material companies that this report surveyed are 9 in Korea, 5 in
Japan, and 15 in China.
This report analyzes the market trend from aspects of both demand and
supply and analyzes supply chain in the industry by country, by company, and by
cathode material type during the past five years. It also presents the market
outlook and the price outlook for different types of cathode materials till
2030 with background of IT, xEV, and ESS market.
Strong points of this report;
- It informs the technology trend for Ni-rich NCM cathode materials, which have
recently
drawn
much interest.
- It informs the recent technological trend
for cobalt free and single-particle cathode
materials,
which have recently drawn much interest.
- It informs not only about cathode materials
but also about mineral market and mineral
companies.
- It informs demand by cell companies,
capacity expansion plan by the manufacturers and
price
in the cathode material market for lithium secondary batteries.
- It informs details of major makers in
Korea, China, and Japan of lithium secondary battery
cathode
materials.
- It informs the status of usage of the four
major materials in lithium battery manufacturers.
- It informs the trend of usage of cathode
materials in the industry over the past five years
from
2018 to 2022.
- Contents –
Chapter Ⅰ. Status of Cathode
Material Technology & Development Trend
1.
Introduction---------------------------------------------------------- 8
1.1
Status of Cathode Material Development------------------ 12
1.2
Design Criteria------------------------------------------------- 21
1.2.1
Ionic Bonding and Covalent Bonding
1.2.2
Mott-Hubbard Type and Charge
Transfer Type
1.2.3
Concept of Charge transfer Reaction
in 3d Transition Metal Oxides
1.2.4 Concept of Diffusion in Solid Phase
and Two-Phase Coexistence Reaction
1.3 Characteristics required in Cathode Materials----------------------------- 32
2.
Types of Cathode Material---------------------------------------- 34
2.1
Layered Composites------------------------------------------- 34
2.1.1
LiCoO2
2.1.2
LiNiO2
2.1.3
LiMO2 (M = Fe, Mn)
2.1.4
Ni-Mn Based
2.1.5
Ni-Co-Mn 3-Component System
2.1.6
Li-rich layered compounds
2.2
Spinel based Composites------------------------------------- 64
2.2.1
LiMn2O4
2.2.2
LiMxMn2-xO4
2.3
Olivine based Composites------------------------------------ 69
2.3.1
LiFePO4
2.3.2
LiMPO4 (M = Mn, Co, Ni)
2.3.3
CTP (Cell-to-Pack) Technology
2.4
Low cost electrode materials-------------------------------- 81
2.4.1 NMX: Co-free Cathode
materials
3.
Other cathode material-------------------------------------------- 88
3.1 Fluoride based composites----------------------------------- 88
Chapter Ⅱ. Ni-Rich NCM
Technology
1.
Introduction--------------------------------------------------------- 95
2.
Issues of Ni-Rich NCM-------------------------------------------- 96
2.1
Cation mixing-------------------------------------------------- 98
2.2
H2-H3 Phase Change---------------------------------------- 102
2.3
Residual lithium compounds------------------------------- 105
3.
Solution to Ni-Rich NCM Issues-------------------------------- 105
3.1
Transition metal doping------------------------------------ 106
3.2
Surface modification---------------------------------------- 110
3.3
Concentration gradient structure-------------------------- 117
3.4
Single crystal approach: Long-Life
Characteristics through Single Particles----------------------------------------------- 129
Chapter Ⅲ. Manufacturing Process of
Cathode Materials----------- 135
1.
Manufacturing Process of Cathode
Materials----------------- 135
1.1
Mixing--------------------------------------------------------- 137
1.2
Calcination---------------------------------------------------- 139
1.3
Crushing------------------------------------------------------- 140
1.4
Sieving-------------------------------------------------------- 142
1.5
Magnetic separation----------------------------------------- 143
2.
Manufacturing Process of
Precursors-------------------------- 144
2.1
Production Flow of Ni based/
Production Flow of LFP- 145
2.2
Post Reactor/Reactor Process------------------------------ 147
3.
Evaluation of Cathode Material
Characteristics--------------- 150
3.1
Chemical composition analysis-------------------------------- 150
3.2
Measurement of specific surface area------------------------ 150
3.3
Particle size measurement--------------------------------------- 150
3.4
Tap density measurement---------------------------------------- 151
3.5
Measurement of moisture content----------------------------- 151
3.6
Measurement of residual lithium carbonate----------------- 151
3.7
Thermal analysis---------------------------------------------------- 151
3.8
Particle strength---------------------------------------------------- 152
4.
Manufacturing process of cathode
plate---------------------- 152
Chapter Ⅳ. Status of
Cathode Material Manufacturers
1.
Korean Manufacturers------------------------------------------- 161
1.1 L&F------------------------------------------------------------- 162
1.2 Umicore Korea------------------------------------------------ 174
1.3 Ecopro BM---------------------------------------------------- 186
1.4 Cosmo AM&T------------------------------------------------- 203
1.5 Posco Chemical----------------------------------------------- 213
1.6 SM Lab--------------------------------------------------------- 228
1.7 Top materials------------------------------------------------- 233
1.8 LG Chem------------------------------------------------------- 237
1.9 SDI (STM)----------------------------------------------------- 247
2.
Japanese Manufacturers----------------------------------------- 254
2.1 Nichia---------------------------------------------------------- 255
2.2 Sumitomo Metal Mining------------------------------------ 262
2.3 Toda Kogyo--------------------------------------------------- 276
2.4 Mitsui Kinzoku------------------------------------------------ 285
2.5 Nippon Denko------------------------------------------------ 290
3.
Chinese Manufacturers------------------------------------------- 295
3.1 Reshine-------------------------------------------------------- 296
3.2 Shanshan------------------------------------------------------ 302
3.3 Easpring------------------------------------------------------- 310
3.4 B&M----------------------------------------------------------- 323
3.5 Pulead--------------------------------------------------------- 329
3.6 XTC------------------------------------------------------------- 333
3.7 ZEC------------------------------------------------------------- 339
3.8 CY Lico--------------------------------------------------------- 344
3.9 Ronbay--------------------------------------------------------- 348
3.10 Dynanonic--------------------------------------------------- 356
3.11 Guoxuan(Gotion)-------------------------------------------- 364
3.12 Hunan Yuneng---------------------------------------------- 371
3.13 Hubei Wanrun----------------------------------------------- 378
3.14 Chongqing Terui-------------------------------------------- 383
3.15 Anda---------------------------------------------------------- 387
2
Other Manufacturers-------------------------------------------------- 395
Chapter Ⅴ. Outlook for
Global LIB Market (~2030)
1.
Outlook for global LIB market---------------------------------- 409
2.
Outlook for global small size LIB
market for IT products--- 415
3.
Outlook for global mid size LIB
market for EVs-------------- 418
4.
Outlook for global large size LIB
market for ESS------------ 420
Chapter
Ⅵ. Market Status and Outlook
for Cathode Materials
1.
Market demand of cathode materials------------------------- 422
1.1
Cathode material demand by country------------------- 423
1.2
Cathode material demand by
material type------------ 425
1.3
Market status by cathode material
manufacturer------ 427
1.4
Cathode material demand status by
LIB company----- 436
1.4.1
Status for cathode material usage
in SamsungSDI
1.4.2
Status for cathode material usage
in LGES
1.4.3
Status for cathode material usage
in SK on
1.4.4
Status for cathode material usage
in Panasonic
1.4.5
Status for cathode material usage
in CATL
1.4.6
Status for cathode material usage
in ATL
1.4.7
Status for cathode material usage
in BYD
1.4.8
Status for cathode material usage
in Lishan
1.4.9
Status for cathode material usage
in Guoxuan
1.4.10
Status for cathode material usage
in AESC
1.5
Status for production capacity of
cathode materials-- 511
1.6
Outlook for cathode material
supply by material------ 514
1.7
Status of cathode material price------------------------- 516
1.7.1
Price structure of cathode
materials-------------- 516
1.7.2
Status for cathode material price
by type------- 518
1.7.3
Mineral market status------------------------------ 521
1.7.3.1 Nickel
1.7.3.2 Cobalt
1.7.3.3 Manganese
1.7.3.4
Lithium
Chapter. Ⅶ. INDEX