Since the sharp decline in subsidies for new energy vehicles last year, trams have become market-driven, mileage anxiety and cost are two major considerations for consumers. Under this trend, with the advantage of low cost, the loading capacity of lithium iron phosphate battery has increased rapidly, surpassing the ternary battery for the first time in July.
Major car companies are scrambling to release lithium iron phosphate models to compete for users, but now the mileage of lithium-iron batteries is generally 500 kilometers, and increasing the mileage has become an important way to attract consumers.
Recently, lithium ferromanganese phosphate (LMFP), as one of the directions of lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery technology upgrading, has aroused widespread concern in the capital market. Li Jigang, general manager of Tianjin Skoland Technology Co., Ltd., told reporters that lithium ferromanganese phosphate can increase the battery energy density by more than 15% compared with iron lithium battery. It still needs a certification cycle of about one year, and then it will be increased on a large scale.
The advantage of energy density is obvious.
The synthesis method of lithium ferromanganese phosphate is similar to that of lithium iron phosphate, which is mainly divided into liquid phase method and solid phase method. The liquid phase method can achieve molecular level binding, high consistency and better cycle performance. The product uniformity of the solid phase method is relatively lower than that of the liquid phase, but the process is mature and easy to control, so it is the production scheme of lithium iron phosphate for most enterprises in the market.
"Lithium ferromanganese phosphate has an advantage over lithium ferric phosphate by increasing the voltage from 3.2V to 4.1V, thus increasing the energy density by more than 15%, which means a range of about 600 km." Li Jigang said.
The family training team of China Merchants Securities believes that the theoretical energy density of LMFP may be close to the current 5-series high-voltage ternary (NCM) battery, but it has some defects, such as low conductivity, side reaction with electrolyte, irreversible change in crystal structure of manganese phosphate caused by Jahn-Teller effect, and so on, which greatly affect the process of industrialization.
Li Jigang believes that at present, the electrical conductivity has been greatly improved and the Jahn-Teller effect has been significantly suppressed by means of carbon coating, ion doping and nanocrystallization in the industry.
In addition to upgrading lithium iron phosphate batteries, LMFP also has the opportunity to develop its talents for the high cost and instability of ternary batteries. According to your family training team, by using LMFP to cover ternary materials, the composites are expected to have the advantages of low cost, high safety and high energy density of ternary materials as LMFP.
Industrialization is accelerating
At present, the application market of lithium manganese iron phosphate is mainly small power two-wheeler and tricycle. For example, the LMFP18650 battery produced by 688819.SH has been successfully used in Mavericks' latest F0 series electric vehicles.
"there are 30 million to 40 million electric bicycles in China every year, which will be gradually changed from lead acid to lithium electricity. According to the selection of different products according to the market, the current market capacity of lithium ferromanganese phosphate is at least tens of thousands of tons. " Li Jigang said.
In Li Jigang's view, power battery is the development direction of certainty. At present, the biggest difficulty in marketization is that the new product certification needs a cycle of about one year, and then it must be a large-scale quantity to gradually or partially replace iron lithium, including composite use with ternary materials to improve safety performance.
At the same time, when LMFP is used in the energy storage end, it can effectively reduce the quality of the energy storage system and the number of batteries needed, which can not only reduce the cost, but also reduce the number of maintenance.
Recently, many cathode material companies have issued lithium manganese ferromanganese phosphate electricity production and technical reserve plans, for the subsequent mass production layout.
On September 3rd, German Nano (300769.SZ) announced that it planned to build a "production base project of new phosphate cathode materials with an annual capacity of 100000 tons" in Qujing Economic and technological Development Zone. The industry speculates that the project may be lithium ferromanganese phosphate.
In August, Dangsheng Technology (300073.SZ) disclosed in the China News that the company was developing high-performance lithium iron phosphate and lithium ferromanganese phosphate materials specifically for electric vehicles and high-end energy storage markets.
In addition, the LMFP positive electrode of each KWh needs 0.13kg iron source and 0.38kg manganese source. Its mass production application may greatly increase the demand for battery-grade manganese sources.
Li Jigang said, "Lithium ferromanganese phosphate has a large demand for manganese, but the reserve of manganese is very rich, and the overall price is relatively balanced." With the follow-up of large-scale production, the price of iron and lithium should be the same. "
