The lithium ferromanganese phosphate put forward many years ago is "fragrant" again?

"Lithium ferromanganese phosphate, which is recently hyped by capital, was actually studied by BYD a few years ago, but it is as strong as BYD in terms of lithium ferromanganese phosphate, and it has not made any achievements. I don't know whether lithium ferromanganese phosphate, which we are talking about, will really have the ability to industrialize this time. " When the editor asked an industry source about the lithium ferromanganese phosphate (LFMP) battery, the person replied.

The editor inquired about the relevant patent findings, and BYD applied for relevant patents in 2013 and applied for a number of lithium ferromanganese phosphate patents in 2015, but there has been no relevant news since then. BYD didn't seem to continue to go further on the road of lithium ferromanganese phosphate until 2020 when it offered a "blade battery" of lithium iron phosphate.

Lithium ferromanganese phosphate, lithium iron phosphate "upgrade"?

Lithium iron phosphate has become the mainstream battery of new energy vehicles again because of its low cost, high safety and good cycle life. Data show that in August this year, the output of lithium iron phosphate batteries in the Chinese market was about 11.1GWH, accounting for 56.9% of the total battery output in China's market. From January to August, the output of lithium iron phosphate batteries was about 58.1GWH, accounting for 52.1% of the total battery output.

Blade battery, CTP and other technologies have improved the system integration efficiency and energy density of lithium iron phosphate, which can continue to meet the use of middle and high-end electric vehicles, but from the point of view of lithium iron phosphate material itself, it is not easy to break through the "ceiling" of energy density and other performance. Recently, lithium ferromanganese phosphate battery technology is regarded as the "Plus version" of lithium ferric phosphate by many people, which has attracted much attention.

The reason why lithium ferromanganese phosphate is considered to be an upgraded version of lithium iron phosphate is mainly reflected in the fact that the energy density can continue to increase.

Theoretically, lithium ferromanganese phosphate has a higher voltage platform than lithium iron phosphate. The voltage of lithium ferromanganese phosphate can reach about 4.1 V, while that of lithium iron phosphate is about 3.4-3.5 V. both of them have the same theoretical gram capacity, because the voltage is higher, so under the same conditions, the theoretical energy density of lithium ferromanganese phosphate is 15-20% higher than that of lithium iron phosphate. This is similar to the current high-voltage nickel ternary materials in single crystals, which increases the energy density through the high voltage of single crystals and has the high safety and low cost of medium-sized nickel materials.

In addition, the preparation process of lithium ferromanganese phosphate is not different from the existing lithium iron phosphate production system, mainly through coating, doping, nanocrystallization and other modification technology to solve the problem of low electrical conductivity, and there is no significant difference in cost.

According to industry insiders, from a technical point of view, lithium ferromanganese phosphate is not a completely new technology. After the lithium iron phosphate material came out, some battery manufacturers made improvements according to different formulations. For example, BYD mentioned above is one of them. However, its electrical conductivity, cycle life and other shortcomings have deterred most enterprises in the past few years.

In addition, around 2015, the financial subsidy of new energy vehicles in China was directly linked to the energy density of power battery. at that time, lithium iron phosphate had an obvious disadvantage in energy density compared with ternary battery. most car companies and battery manufacturers directly focus on the field of ternary batteries, lithium iron phosphate is neglected, and the research on lithium manganese iron phosphate is also reduced.

It can be seen that lithium ferromanganese phosphate, which has the same advantages in energy density, safety and economy, has attracted attention because of its advantages in economy, safety, life and so on. it is considered by many people to be the main upgrade direction of lithium iron phosphate.

However, with regard to its shortcomings in conductivity, magnification and cycle life, visible technical improvement is still needed to make it possible for large-scale application. In addition, the preparation of battery-grade manganese sulfate is difficult and the quality is uneven, which is also a bottleneck that needs to be broken through.

Lithium ferromanganese phosphate has been applied in the field of small power.

"previously, new energy vehicle policy subsidies were linked to energy density, so lithium iron phosphate and lithium manganese phosphate with lower energy density were not very popular. However, in the field of electric bicycles, which are not affected by subsidies, enterprises and users are more concerned about performance, and lithium ferromanganese phosphate has also become one of the key materials for enterprises to study. " Zhao Chenglong, dean of Xingheng Power supply Battery Engineering Institute, said that Xingheng Power has long-term research and application experience in the composite technology of lithium ferromanganese phosphate, such as mixing lithium manganate and lithium ferromanganese phosphate to improve the low temperature, safety, cycle and other performance of the battery.

However, Zhao Chenglong also said that it is expected that lithium ferromanganese phosphate will still be used mainly in mixed use in the next two or three years.

The composite use of lithium ferromanganese phosphate also appears in ternary materials. According to industry insiders, by using lithium ferromanganese phosphate to cover ternary materials, the safety, low temperature performance and cost of ternary materials can be improved, thus broadening the application scene of ternary materials themselves. In fact, this is the case with the current use of some electric two-wheelers, power tools and other scenes.

What is the prospect of using lithium ferromanganese phosphate alone?

It is undeniable that lithium iron phosphate has become the mainstream battery of new energy vehicles because of its advantages in economy and safety, but high-end models still prefer ternary batteries. In particular, high-nickel ternary battery has been clearly the main development direction of ternary battery in the future.

Lithium ferromanganese phosphate has attracted much attention because its energy density is about 15% higher than that of current lithium iron phosphate, but it is only close to NCM523, and the gap between lithium manganese phosphate and high nickel ternary battery is very obvious.

At present, lithium ferromanganese phosphate only has some advantages over lithium iron phosphate in energy density, but its deficiency is also obvious. in order to replace lithium iron phosphate, it is obvious that lithium ferromanganese phosphate still has to overcome many of its own shortcomings.

In fact, the reason why people suddenly began to discuss lithium manganate phosphate recently, mainly some head material enterprises, have made new moves or new progress in this area.

On September 3, German Nano announced that the company plans to build a "new phosphate cathode material production base project with an annual production capacity of 100000 tons" in Qujing Economic and technological Development Zone. According to the company's patent, German nanometer lithium ferromanganese phosphate products may follow its unique liquid phase process, and the product performance will have advantages in terms of consistency and cycle life. The industry speculates that the new project may be lithium ferromanganese phosphate products.

In addition, it is reported that the German nano-new lithium ferromanganese phosphate has begun to send samples, and it is expected to achieve industrialization in 1-2 years, superimposed positive lithium supplement technology, and the energy density and cycle life of the battery have been significantly improved.

In addition, Dangsheng Technology disclosed in its 2021 semi-annual report that the company is developing high-performance lithium iron phosphate and lithium ferromanganese phosphate materials specifically for electric vehicles and high-end energy storage markets.

In August this year, Pengxin Resources announced that the wholly-owned subsidiary Pengjia Fund intends to increase the capital of Jiangsu Litai Lithium Energy Technology Co., Ltd. with 75 million yuan. Pengxin Resources said, "this capital increase mainly depends on the R & D capability and industrialization ability of Lithium Energy. The main products, Lithium Manganese Iron Phosphate, have great market potential and good development prospects."

From the performance characteristics of lithium iron phosphate, ternary materials and lithium manganese iron phosphate materials, the respective application scenarios are relatively clear, but each other's shortcomings are also clear. Lithium manganese iron phosphate is currently "better" than lithium iron phosphate by virtue of its energy density. however, whether other shortcomings can be solved depends on the technical progress and development research and evaluation of enterprises in this field.