Which has a higher energy density, 18350 lithium battery, 14500 lithium battery, or 26650 lithium battery?
What is the current level of technological capability and energy density of 18350 lithium batteries, 14500 lithium batteries, and 26650 power lithium-ion batteries in China? Can the target of 300wh/kg proposed in the 13th Five Year Plan be achieved? How will the size specifications of future lithium-ion batteries evolve?
At the recently held 2016 (2nd) Guangzhou International Electric Vehicle Industry Summit, Dr. Zhang Xiaofei, Dean of the High Tech Industry Research Institute, Yang Qi, Marketing Director of CATL, Dr. Peng Wen, Director of the Engineering Experiment Center of Hefei Guoxuan Research Institute, Jin Chengzhou, CTO of Zhongtian Energy Storage, Yang Jun, Dean of Dongguan Chuangming Battery Research Institute, and Ding Yonghua, Dean and General Manager of Penghui Energy Research Institute, exchanged views on the above issues.
Firstly, in the discussion on the future development direction and energy density of power lithium-ion batteries, Yang Qi stated that according to the national 13th Five Year Plan, the minimum energy density target for power lithium-ion batteries is 300Wh/kg, which is a task assigned by the country. As one of the participating companies in this task, CATL believes that it will advance the marketization of achieving this goal.
According to Gaogong Electric Vehicle Network, with Ningde Times' battery technology, the energy density of a single battery cell can currently reach 250Wh/kg. During the 13th Five Year Plan period, CATL will be committed to the research and development of high nickel ternary/silicon carbon batteries. In terms of battery materials, CATL believes that it will evolve from lithium iron phosphate/graphite, ternary, high nickel ternary/silicon carbon to solid-state lithium air metal.
The current consensus in the industry is to achieve an improvement in energy density through solid-state lithium-ion batteries, that is, to solidify the electrolyte, "said Yang Qi.
According to Dr. Peng Wen from Guoxuan High Tech, if we only talk about energy density, Guoxuan High Tech's current experimental data can achieve a level of 280Wh/Kg. If we want to achieve the national 13th Five Year Plan goal, the battery energy density must reach 300Wh/Kg by 2018. After two years of repeated experiments and trial operations, we will successfully configure and install it in 2020.
We should be able to achieve 240wh/Kg now, calculated based on the goal of increasing by 10% annually, "said Yang Jun from Dongguan Chuangming.
However, the above-mentioned personnel all stated that the above results only do not consider battery safety and lifespan. At present, power lithium-ion batteries must first consider safety issues. How to achieve higher energy density while ensuring this premise is a difficult problem that battery companies urgently need to overcome. The head of BYD's battery technology development department has also revealed that in practical applications, lithium iron phosphate will achieve 150-160Wh/kg by 2018; By 2020, it is expected to reach 240wh/kg.
In terms of materials, BYD uses high nickel ternary materials as the positive electrode material. However, the first issue that high nickel systems need to address is safety, especially the problem of thermal runaway.
Prior to this, the battery manager of Samsung SDI revealed that the company's power
lithium-ion battery energy density can now achieve 250Wh/kg, and Samsung has made a technological leap in energy density from 300-350Wh/kg. Expected to reach 350wh/kg before 2023.
Zhongtian Energy Storage's Jin Chenguranium proposed, "The key to power lithium-ion batteries is still their lifespan and safety. Currently, safety issues have been slightly reduced, but lifespan is very, very difficult to achieve. Regarding the new generation of batteries, this is actually a problem of a new system. Many companies are considering silicon carbon anodes now, but there are still many problems to be solved
The message shows that Tesla announced that the size of its lithium-ion battery will be changed from 18650 to 21700. Will this cause a butterfly effect? According to the sharing of guests at this meeting, is the current situation of domestic battery companies sticking to existing sizes or coexisting with multiple routes? What will be the trend of changes in battery form and size in the future.
Yang Qi revealed, "One thing is certain is that CATL will follow its own path, which is a strategy established a long time ago to improve its various performance within this system as much as possible. Currently, there are many customers cooperating with CATL, and from the current customer requirements, there is an overall trend of increasing battery cell size
It is worth noting that the level of technological research and development is a crucial factor in both the industrialization of next-generation batteries and the selection of size specifications for power lithium-ion batteries. According to Yang Qi's on-site introduction, Ningde Times only has about 1200 people engaged in battery cell design and basic research and development, as well as some in technology and raw materials. There are also more than 1000 people here. In addition, Hefei Guoxuan currently has 500 research and development personnel, 2000 production personnel, and 25% technical personnel, ranking among the top in the industry.
Dr. Zhang Xiaofei concluded, "The proportion of technical personnel is basically around 20%, at least between 15% and 25%. I think if we cannot meet this standard in the research and development of the next generation of batteries, the company will find it difficult to survive
