Will the sodium ion battery be windward? The prospects of institutional predictions are mixed.

At the annual shareholders' meeting of Ningde Times (300750) on May 21, Chairman Zeng Yuqun revealed that the company's sodium ion battery has matured and will release the sodium ion battery around July this year. Battery Network learned that in June 2020, Ningde era set up an innovation laboratory, which also includes the research and development of next-generation batteries such as sodium ion batteries in the short and medium term.

As soon as the news of the sodium ion battery will be released in Ningde era, the industry has attracted a new round of attention to the sodium ion battery, and the stock market has also heard the wind: by the close of trading on the 24th, the shares of China Salt Chemical, Shengyang, Huayang and Shandong Zhanggu have risen by the daily limit. China Great Wall, Xin Wanda, Ningde era, Nanfeng Chemical and other shares rose.

What is a sodium ion battery? Public data show that sodium ion battery is a kind of secondary battery which uses sodium ion as charge carrier, which was first proposed in the 1970s, but its development has been relatively slow for a long time. Research shows that by 2020, there are only more than 20 companies in the world dedicated to the research and development of sodium ion batteries, such as China Science and Technology, Sodium innovative Energy, Star Sodium, Chaowei Group, Faradion in the United Kingdom, Tiamat in France, Natron Energy in the United States and so on.

The main advantages of sodium ion batteries are extremely abundant reserves (more than 1000 times the abundance of lithium in the earth's crust), high safety (thermal runaway temperature is higher than lithium batteries), low cost (in theory), high conversion efficiency, fast charging and so on. And because the manufacturing process is similar to that of lithium-ion batteries, most of the existing lithium devices are compatible with the production of sodium-ion batteries. However, sodium ion battery also has some obvious defects, such as low energy density, poor rate performance, slow industrialization process and so on.

The prospects of institutional predictions are mixed.

For the future development prospects of sodium ion batteries, the predictions of major organizations are also mixed.

Guotai Junan Securities said that 70% of China's lithium resources need to be imported, and sodium-ion batteries are the support and guarantee of lithium-ion batteries. The main scenarios for the development of sodium ion batteries are base stations, electric bicycles and other areas that do not require high energy density, which is expected to have the advantages of low cost and good safety in the future, which is a good supplement to the ternary high nickel technology.

Huajin Securities believes that the sodium ion battery is still in the early stage of industrialization, and it is expected to replace part of the low energy density power lithium battery market and energy storage market after industrialization. The sodium ion battery has an impact on the positive and negative electrode, electrolyte and copper collector of lithium electricity, but has little influence on the diaphragm: 1. The lithium resource has the greatest influence. The cathode material with low energy density is lithium-free, but it can not replace ternary lithium. The demand for nickel, cobalt and manganese still exists. 2. The anode material changes from graphite to hard carbon and other materials. 3. Propylene carbonate (PC) was added in the electrolyte system, and the electrolyte was replaced by NaClO4, NaPF6 and so on. 4. The porosity of the diaphragm may be adjusted, but it will not affect the current diaphragm system. 5. The current collector copper foil of the negative electrode is all replaced by aluminum foil.

Northeast Securities believes that the energy density of sodium ion battery (generally less than 120Wh/kg) is significantly lower than that of lithium iron phosphate battery (160Wh/kg) and ternary battery, and the degree of matching with the battery demand of new energy vehicles is low, so there is no possibility of replacing lithium battery to become the mainstream technology in the power field. At present, there is no significant advantage in the actual production cost of sodium ion battery. Although the use of relatively cheap metals can reduce raw material costs, low energy density means more auxiliary materials and manufacturing costs.

Northeast Securities also said that from the current point of view, the substitution of sodium ion battery for lithium battery is actually very weak. Considering that sodium reserves are more abundant than lithium, more attention should be paid to the strategic significance of sodium ion battery as a technical reserve and energy security, but its commercial value should not be overestimated.

Huaan Securities also said that compared with the current lithium-ion system, there are significant differences in organic sodium-ion battery system except for separator and electrolyte solvent; the raw material advantage of sodium-ion battery compared with lithium-ion battery mainly lies in replacing lithium salt with sodium salt and copper foil into aluminum foil; but the low energy density and cycle performance of sodium-ion battery correspond to more auxiliary material consumption and higher kilowatt-hour cost. In addition to the large-scale factors, the cost reduction of sodium ion batteries still faces many obstacles.

A number of domestic companies have joined the bureau.

In addition to the Ningde era, a number of domestic companies have been involved in the field of sodium ion batteries and their materials.

On May 24th, Tianshi material (002709) said on the interactive platform that the formula of sodium ion battery electrolyte is similar to that of lithium ion battery electrolyte, except that the electrolyte changes from lithium hexafluorophosphate to sodium hexafluorophosphate, and sodium hexafluorophosphate is not a new product. The company already has mass production technology, and the products have been approved by customers.

In response to investors' questions, Shandong Zhanggu (002598) said that the current Cashant technology invested by the company is based on the material synthesis of lithium ion, sodium ion and zinc ion solid-state functional diaphragm and dry self-supporting diaphragm manufacturing technology of PPS system.

On April 22nd, China Salt Chemical (600328) disclosed in its 2020 annual report that the company's metal sodium production capacity is 65000 tons, accounting for 40.5% of the global production capacity, and its scale and technological advantages are in the leading position in the industry. However, at present, its metal sodium products are mainly used in indigo powder and pharmaceutical intermediates.

On April 14, Huayang (600348) announced that the company intends to invest in the construction of 1000-ton production projects of sodium ion battery cathode materials and sodium ion battery anode materials through its subsidiary Xinyang Energy. The company has also said that it will give full play to the raw material advantages of anthracite, lay out and build a production line of positive and negative materials for sodium-ion batteries made from anthracite, and build the largest production base for sodium-ion batteries in the country.

In response to investors' questions on March 29th, Shengyang (002580) said that sodium ion battery technology is one of the research directions that the company continues to pay close attention to, and the company's technical team continues to pay attention to the development trend of sodium ion battery technology. It is reported that Shengyang Co., Ltd. has jointly developed high environmental protection and high cycle sodium ion batteries with academician workstations and other units, which has passed the experimental stage.

On March 26th, it was reported that the company has completed a round of financing of 100 million yuan, with Wutong Tree Capital as the investor. this round of financing will be used to build a production line of positive and negative materials for sodium ion batteries with an annual capacity of 2000 tons. Prior to this, China Science Hainai Sodium has completed two rounds of financing, including well-known investment institutions such as Guoke Jiahe, Zhongke Chuangxing and Wutongshu Capital.

Zhongke Hainna was founded in 2017, the core technology comes from the Clean Energy Laboratory of Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the company has a number of core patents for sodium ion battery. and has a complete material research and development platform, 100-ton sodium ion battery positive and negative material pilot production line, megawatt sodium ion battery pilot production line. At present, the product has taken the lead in the application of low-speed cars, two-wheelers and 5G base stations.

In response to questions from investors, the Great Wall of China (000066) said on January 4 that its subsidiaries are engaged in the research and production of lithium batteries and sodium-ion batteries, as well as the demonstration application of sodium-ion batteries in electric bicycles, showing the potential for practicality and industrialization.

In addition to the above-mentioned enterprises, Battery Network noted that the layout of sodium ion batteries are also Chaowei Group and Zhejiang Pharmaceutical and other companies.

In January 2017, Chaowei Group and General Electric signed a cooperation agreement on Durathon sodium battery project, and Qiangqiang jointly established Zhejiang Anli Energy Co., Ltd., to carry out the production, R & D and sales of sodium salt battery. The total investment of the project is 105 million US dollars, and the total capacity 500MWh is planned.

Zhejiang Pharmaceutical holds 40% of the shares of sodium innovative energy, and the major of sodium innovative energy focuses on the technological innovation and engineering of sodium ion batteries, and has completed the world's first tonnage trial line of sodium ferrite-based transition metal oxide cathode materials. Sodium innovative Energy was established in May 2018, committed to the innovative research and development of sodium ion batteries and industrial production research.

In addition, listed companies such as Xinwanda, Bozhong Seiko, Dow Technology, Rongbai Technology, Tianneng Co., Ltd. also regard sodium ion battery and its key materials and equipment as one of the research directions of technology reserve, and some enterprises have relevant patent layout.

From the point of view of the industry, the current layout of companies in the field of sodium ion battery is relatively rare, and enterprises devote themselves to the field of sodium ion battery, which is rich in resources and cheap is the main driving force. It is expected that it will take time for large-scale mass production and commercial application of sodium ion batteries, and their competitiveness will not be obvious compared with lithium batteries in the next three to five years. However, with the technological progress and the improvement of the layout of the industrial chain, sodium ion batteries will be used in subdivided fields in the future, such as low-speed electric vehicles, home / industrial energy storage, 5G communication base stations, small power batteries, electric ships and so on. compared with the current large number of lead-acid batteries and lithium batteries, it is expected that there will be some room for replacement.