LG Energy Solution Ltd. aims to commercialize a battery manufacturing technology by 2028 that is being touted as a game-changer, opening up new opportunities in the battery manufacturing sector.
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LG Energy Solution Ltd aims to commercialise the battery manufacturing technology by 2028, which it describes as a game-changer that will pave the way for the Korean cell maker to become more competitive with Chinese rivals.
LG Energy Solution Ltd aims to commercialise the battery manufacturing technology by 2028, which it describes as a game-changer that will pave the way for the Korean cell maker to become more competitive with Chinese rivals.
Companies from Tesla Inc. to Samsung SDI Co. are working on dry-coating technology, a process that aims to replace the energy-intensive wet process for making cathode and anode electrodes — a key component of electric car batteries. The search for cheaper and more environmentally friendly ways to make batteries is becoming increasingly urgent as demand for electric vehicles continues to decline.
“LG is at the top among battery competitors in terms of dry-coating technology,” Kim Jae-young, who became LG Energy Solution’s chief technology officer in December, said in an exclusive interview with Bloomberg News at the company’s headquarters in Seoul. “We started 10 years ago.”
Kim said LG plans to complete a pilot production line for its dry-coating process in the fourth quarter and begin full-scale production in 2028. This is the first time LG has revealed a timeline for commercializing the technology. Kim estimates the dry method could reduce battery manufacturing costs by 17% to 30%.
Tesla, which acquired a dry-coating startup called Maxwell Technologies Inc. in 2019, has attempted to apply this technology to make its 4680 battery cells in Austin, Texas, but has had limited success. Wet coating requires expensive, energy-intensive steps to dissolve chemicals in toxic solvents, which are then dried in ovens about 100 meters long at temperatures up to 200 degrees Celsius on the battery production line.
With dry coating, battery manufacturers can save energy, equipment costs and space. They don’t need to invest in drying ovens or solvent recovery systems. Volkswagen AG, which is trying to develop dry coating at its in-house battery company, Powerco, has called this technology a “game changer” because it could enable companies to use 30% less energy and 50% less space.
LG is betting on a big innovation like dry coating to bolster its efforts to compete with Chinese battery makers. Its share of the EV battery market has fallen to 12.6% so far this year, from 14.6% a year earlier. That’s largely due to the expansion of Chinese companies such as Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd and BYD Co. The average price of lithium-iron-phosphate, or LFP, batteries in China fell 44% to $53 per kWh in April, according to BloombergNEF.
Batteries have three main components: two electrodes and an electrolyte that helps transfer charge between them. The materials used to make those components determine how much energy the battery stores and at what cost.
Tesla promoted the dry method for electrodes at its Battery Day in 2020. But according to Reuters, the US EV maker is only able to apply the process to the anode part of the battery, not the cathode. Tesla did not respond to a request for comment on its battery development.
Experts say making cathodes by dry processing is more difficult than making anodes, because cathodes are usually made from materials that are difficult to handle.
Kim said the dry electrode manufacturing process being developed by LG can be applied to both cathode and anode, regardless of the size of the cathode particles. He said it is very challenging to apply dry electrode manufacturing to cathodes with small-sized particles.
In addition to Tesla, companies such as Panasonic Holdings Corporation, CATL, EVE Energy Company, and Svolt Energy Technology Company are working on dry electrode technology for application to high energy density 4680 cells, according to an April report by SNE Research.
“Everyone is jumping into this technology because Tesla started it,” said Park Chul-wan, an automotive professor at Seojeong University. “All three of Korea’s battery makers are still in the early stages of the dry process.”
For device makers, the move to more efficient battery-manufacturing processes presents an opportunity.
Hanwha Momentum Co., a Seongnam-based unit of Hanwha Group that makes battery-manufacturing equipment, is studying the dry process with battery makers. Meanwhile, Massachusetts-based startup AM Batteries has recruited veterans of Tesla’s efforts to help develop equipment for a spray method of dry coating batteries.
Nare Nanotech Corp., which is based in Yongin, South Korea, and supplies coatings for Apple iPhones and iPads, is also trying to get into the battery business and is taking an even simpler route. Instead of using a dry process, Nare is trying to improve the wet process by cutting the coating line in half using xenon flash lamps.
“The EV industry is now in a difficult phase of crossing the chasm, and many are considering different methods of production,” said Narae CEO Jung Dong-won. “There is a demand for a completely different way of production to beat Chinese competitors.”
With assistance from David Stringer.
This article is generated from an automated news agency feed without any modifications to the text.
First Publication Date: July 04, 2024, 02:56 am IST