With the emergence of digitalization, smart homes, and household appliances, the demand for new energy storage batteries will become more and more extensive, and there will be more and more application scenarios, and our lives will become more convenient.
For example, on a sunny weekend, when we went camping, it was just a tent. Now, thanks to the high-power energy storage battery, we can cook, illuminate, supply electricity for electrical appliances, etc. This will make our camping a single tent and a fully functional family.
New energy has become a hot vocabulary in recent years. It seems that all energy must be linked to new energy overnight.
We often encounter some problems：
- What Is New Energy? What Kind of Energy Does New Energy Have?
- What Kind of Battery Is a New Energy Battery?
- What Kinds of Batteries Are Used in New Energy Vehicles?
- Which Major Companies Produce New Energy Batteries?
#1 – What Is New Energy? What Kind of Energy Does New Energy Refer To?
New energy generally refers to renewable energy developed and utilized on the basis of new technologies, including solar energy, biomass energy, wind energy, geothermal energy, wave energy, ocean current energy, and tidal energy, as well as the thermal cycle between the ocean surface and the deep layer, etc. In addition, there are hydrogen energy, biogas, alcohol, methanol, etc., and coal, oil, natural gas, hydropower, and other energy sources that have been widely used are called conventional energy sources.
With the finiteness of conventional energy and the increasingly prominent environmental problems, new energy with the characteristics of environmental protection and renewable is becoming more and more popular.
To the attention of all countries. The development of the new energy industry is not only an effective supplement to the entire energy supply system but also environmental governance and an important measure of environmental protection is the ultimate energy choice to meet the needs of sustainable development of human society.
It refers to the energy that is technologically mature and has been used on a large scale, while new energy usually refers to the energy that has not yet been used on a large scale and is being accumulated. Extremely research and development energy.
#2 – What Kind of Battery Is a New Energy Battery?
With the birth of new energy storage equipment, that is, the operation of new energy batteries.
From the energy generated by new energy equipment, some can be directly used in production and life. For example, we use electricity at home in our daily life, and electricity for factory machines. But more energy cannot be directly transmitted to electrical appliances. This requires energy storage equipment, which is what we call new energy batteries.
As an energy storage device, new energy batteries are actually a relative definition. In daily life, compared with traditional nickel-metal hydride batteries, lead-acid batteries, and lithium titanate, lithium cobalt oxide, lithium iron phosphate, nickel cobalt manganese, and nickel cobalt aluminum batteries, we call the latter new energy batteries. Among them, lithium iron phosphate and ternary lithium batteries with higher energy density and more stable performance are the two most widely circulated batteries in the battery market, and they are also the most widely used mainstream power source for electric vehicles.
#3 – What Kinds of Batteries Are Used in New Energy Vehicles?
There are many types of batteries, which can be divided into chemical, physical and biological batteries according to their types; if they are structured, they can be divided into two major categories: storage batteries and fuel cells.
In terms of types, the batteries currently used in new energy vehicles are all chemical batteries. The common ones are lead-acid, lithium titanate, lithium cobalt oxide, lithium iron phosphate, nickel cobalt manganese, and nickel cobalt aluminum. Among them, lithium iron phosphate and ternary lithium batteries with higher energy density and more stable performance are the two most widely circulated batteries in the battery market, and they are also the most widely used mainstream power source for electric vehicles. Because lithium iron phosphate and ternary lithium batteries are mainly circulating on the market now, we will mainly focus on these two batteries and interpret the differences between the two batteries.
What is the difference between the two batteries? Let me talk about the results first. In terms of safety, service life, and manufacturing costs, lithium iron phosphate batteries have advantages over ternary lithium batteries, but in terms of energy density, ternary lithium batteries are slightly better than lithium iron phosphate batteries.
-Energy density: ternary lithium battery is greater than lithium iron phosphate battery
Energy density is an important indicator for evaluating battery performance. Generally speaking, the higher the energy density, the higher the electric energy contained in the battery per unit weight or volume, and the longer the cruising range that can be provided for the vehicle.
Because of its inherent chemical properties, the lithium iron phosphate battery has a low voltage and an energy density of about 140Wh/kg; while a ternary lithium battery has a high voltage and an energy density of 240kWh/kg. This means that under the same battery weight, the energy density of ternary lithium is 1.7 times the energy density of lithium iron phosphate batteries.
At present, there are three types of ternary lithium batteries: NCM523, NCM622 and NCM811, among which NCM811 battery is the mainstream application battery. What is less known is that these three types of battery naming methods are derived from the ratio of the positive electrode material of nickel, cobalt and manganese. For example, the 811 battery, the positive electrode material is mainly 80% nickel, 10% cobalt and 10% manganese. On the basis of the previous ternary lithium battery, the electrode material has become 8:1:1.
It is worth noting that because of the continuous increase in battery life requirements, high-nickel NCM811 is a key breakthrough direction for battery development. The main reason for choosing it is that the increase in nickel content will increase the specific capacity of the ternary (nickel-cobalt-manganese) cathode material, which can further expand the energy density of the battery cell, and the amount of electrical energy storage will increase with the increase in energy density. Big rise.
In fact, before the emergence of ternary lithium batteries, NCA batteries were the mainstream power source for new energy vehicles. After testing by an organization on NCA and NCM811 batteries, it was found that NCA that only needs 5% cobalt has better performance than cobalt content. 10% of NCM811 batteries have an advantage, but because the production process and cost of nickel-cobalt-aluminum batteries are high, and the technology is in the hands of Japanese and Korean companies, domestic companies now mainly develop nickel-cobalt-manganese batteries.
-Safety: Lithium iron phosphate battery is larger than ternary lithium battery
Due to material reasons, the thermal stability of lithium iron phosphate batteries is the best. The electric heating peak value is greater than 350°C, and the internal chemical components will start to decompose when the temperature is 500-600°C. However, its low temperature resistance performance is poor. A battery with a capacity of 3500mAh works in an environment of minus 10°C. After 100 charge and discharge cycles, the battery is in a scrapped state.
In comparison, the ternary lithium battery material is unstable, and it is often easy to decompose at about 200 degrees, and the electrolyte will burn rapidly under the action of high temperature, triggering a chain reaction, and even causing spontaneous combustion of the vehicle! Therefore, many new energy vehicles equipped with ternary lithium batteries now need to add over-temperature protection and battery management systems to protect the batteries.
However, the low-temperature performance of the ternary lithium battery is better than that of the lithium iron phosphate battery. In the low-temperature state, the lower limit of charging and discharging of lithium iron phosphate battery is -20℃, and the lower limit of ternary lithium battery is -30℃, and the low-temperature discharge performance is better. According to tests, under the same low-temperature conditions, the low-temperature cruising range of the ternary lithium battery attenuates less than 15%.
-Life: Lithium iron phosphate battery is greater than ternary lithium battery
Battery life refers to the attenuation of the battery’s power after multiple full charge and discharge. Generally, the effective power decays below 80% of the original power when the battery of an electric vehicle is fully charged, which means that the battery needs to be replaced. The replacement standard is the same as that of the mobile phone battery.
Normally, the number of full charge and discharge cycles of a lithium iron phosphate battery can reach 3,500 times. After each charge and discharge, the power decays once, and after multiple decays, it will be below 80% of the original power. Converted into time, it will be charged and discharged once a day, and it will take nearly 10 years for the lithium iron phosphate battery to begin to decay. Replace the battery.
Different from lithium iron phosphate batteries, ternary lithium batteries have a shorter life span than lithium iron phosphate. The decay phenomenon will begin to occur after a complete charge and discharge cycle of more than 2000 times, and the time is generally about 6 years. However, the battery life can be extended a little bit through methods such as battery management, but it is only slightly delayed.
Of course, the life of a battery pack is not the simple sum of the life of a single battery. As a combination, only when the performance of multiple battery cells in the battery pack is highly consistent, can the life of the battery pack be close to that of a single battery.
-Manufacturing cost: Ternary lithium battery is larger than lithium iron phosphate battery
In terms of battery cost, lithium iron phosphate battery also has a huge advantage. It has no precious metals (nickel and cobalt metal elements), so the production cost is lower. Ternary lithium batteries use a variety of materials such as nickel, cobalt and manganese, and the production of high nickel batteries requires a relatively strict process environment, and the current cost is relatively high.
Secondly, in recent years, metal resources such as lithium and cobalt have faced scarcity problems, especially for metal cobalt, whose prices have soared, with quotations above 200,000 yuan/ton. The price of a ton of electrolytic nickel is now about 110,000 yuan. Therefore, many battery companies have to go to 811 to increase nickel content, reduce cobalt content, and thereby reduce costs.
From the perspective of battery energy density, low temperature performance, safety, service life and cost, lithium iron phosphate batteries and ternary lithium batteries have their own advantages. Now Tesla is already developing solid-state batteries, so usually we can say iron phosphate Lithium batteries belong to buses, ternary lithium batteries belong to passenger cars, and solid-state batteries belong to the future.
#4 – Which Major Companies Produce New Energy Batteries?
- Johnson Controls-Saft (a joint venture between Johnson Controls of the United States and Saft of France)
- A123 system company (invested and established by MIT, General Electric, etc., the company has a cooperation with Continental)
- LG Chem
- EnerDel (a joint venture company of Ener1 and Delphi)
- AESC (a joint venture between Nissan and NEC)
- PEVE (a joint venture between Toyota and Panasonic)
- GS (Yuasa battery)
- MAXELL (Hitachi Group)
- Sanyo Electric (now part of Panasonic Group)
- Samsung SDI (now the world’s largest lithium battery manufacturer)
At present, in China, new energy power battery manufacturers are advancing by leaps and bounds, and many outstanding industry leaders have been born: CTTL, BYD, GOTION, LISHEN, CALB, DESAY, Nanyang Tech.
With more cylindrical 18650, 21700, 26650, 26700, 32700 and 32134, as well as square lithium-ion batteries, and soft-packaged lithium-ion batteries, and battery packs composed of these batteries. There will also be the emergence of larger-sized batteries in the future, as well as the emergence of graphene batteries, which will make our lives more convenient because of faster charging, more storage, higher safety factors, and greater output power.
