Lithium batteries represent the future

As a device for converting chemical energy into electrical energy, the battery has been developed from the "Leyton Bottle" of 1746 and has been classified into nearly 20 species by major categories. In recent years, new types of batteries attracting market attention have emerged in an endless stream.

For example, in a hydrogen fuel cell, electricity can be generated near zero carbon emissions by separating electrons in hydrogen gas and generating a current. Many governments and auto companies also strongly support the development and application of hydrogen fuel cells.

Earlier this year, the United States hydrogen fuel cell giant Plug Energy was once sought after, and its share price has therefore been ups and downs. "Although hydrogen fuel cells give the market a good expectation of green, but from the perspective of actual development speed and promotion, in recent years is still a conceptual stage." A battery industry senior experts told reporters.

Coincidentally, this kind of pictorial imagination also exists in supercapacitors.

As a power source between a conventional capacitor and a battery and having a special performance, the super capacitor has the advantages of high charge and discharge speed, long cycle times, and the like. It is also due to environmental reasons that public transport vehicles equipped with super capacitors and trolley buses are planning to be widely promoted in many cities. There are many opinions that supercapacitors will replace batteries as technology advances.

The supercapacitor expert told reporters that there is misreading of the ability of the super capacitor. Taking new energy vehicles as an example, supercapacitors can usually compensate for peak power at the start and acceleration of the car. However, the key to determining the mileage of electric vehicles is the lithium battery. In the current situation, there is a complementary relationship between supercapacitors and lithium batteries, and no one can replace them. In the future for a long time, the supercapacitor energy density can not be compared with the lithium battery.

The Changjiang Securities Research Report believes that the degree of industrialization of fuel cells and supercapacitors is not high, and traditional dry batteries, lead-acid batteries, and nickel-chromium-nickel-hydrogen batteries also have serious environmental pollution problems and low service life. Therefore, in a fairly long period of time in the future, lithium batteries with relatively balanced performance in various aspects will remain the best choice for future battery applications.

The rapid development of global electric vehicles will further detonate the demand for lithium batteries. Take the TE S MODEL S model as an example. In 2013, the sales volume was 22,400 units. Calculated on an average of 70 kWh per vehicle, the total electricity consumption reached 1.5 million kWh in 2013, and the global demand for lithium-ion batteries for smartphones is high. The total amount of electricity is 9.90 million kWh, and only one Tesla model's electricity accounts for 16% of the smartphone's battery.

According to a report published by Navigant Research last month, the stable and reliable performance of lithium batteries makes them increasingly used in battery powered and plug-in hybrid vehicles. In the next decade, the global demand for lithium batteries will increase rapidly, and the market value will increase every year. By 2023, it will increase to 26 billion US dollars.

According to China’s “Energy-saving and New Energy Vehicle Industry Development Plan (2012-2020)”, by 2015, the cumulative production and sales volume of pure electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles will strive to reach 500,000 vehicles, according to which calculations will then require energy. The power battery module will reach 15 billion watt-hours/year and the power type will be 3 billion watt-hour/year. In 2012, the scale of China's lithium battery industry reached 55.68 billion yuan, and it is expected to reach RMB 125.15 billion in 2015, which will continue to show a trend of rapid development.

Although, the future development trend of lithium batteries is generally upward. There has also been a structural overcapacity. In particular, domestic low-end lithium battery strangling fierce. On the other hand, high-quality, high-tech lithium batteries are in short supply. This polarization means that what looks like a mature lithium battery still has room for greater technological progress.

For lithium battery raw material production enterprises, in addition to the breakthrough innovation of positive and negative materials, lithium battery electrolyte may become another key point of breakthrough.