Energy Giant Cross-border Forays Into Fluorine Chemical Industry

Recently, the Ecological Environment Bureau of the Management Committee of Ningdong Energy and Chemical Base has accepted the environmental impact assessment document of the battery material industry chain demonstration project of Ningxia Baofeng Energy Storage Materials Co., Ltd.

Ningxia Baofeng Energy Storage Materials Co., Ltd. plans to invest about 13.539 billion yuan to build a battery material industry chain demonstration project in Area A of Linhe Comprehensive Industrial Park, Ningdong Energy and Chemical Base. The construction content includes 240,000 tons/year of iron phosphate, 250,000 tons/year Annual lithium iron phosphate, 150,000 tons/year negative electrode material, 170,000 tons/year electrolyte (supporting 20,000 tons/year lithium hexafluorophosphate, 260,000 tons/year carbonate, 130,000 tons/year ethylene oxide).

It is understood that the project will use the hydrogen fluoride solvent method to produce lithium hexafluorophosphate, all of which will be used for electrolyte configuration, and at the same time by-produce 30% hydrofluoric acid and calcium chloride dihydrate.

Ningxia Baofeng Energy Storage Materials Co., Ltd. is a subsidiary of Ningxia Baofeng Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Baofeng Group). In order to actively respond to the country's major strategic decisions of "carbon emission reduction" and "carbon neutrality", Baofeng Group established Ningxia Baofeng Energy Storage Materials Co., Ltd. in 2021. Linhe Comprehensive Industrial Park Area A) invested about 13.539 billion yuan to build a new battery material industry chain demonstration project of Ningxia Baofeng Energy Storage Materials Co., Ltd.

According to public information, Baofeng Group was established in October 2010. It is a large-scale group enterprise integrating energy and chemical industry, new energy, agriculture, medical care and elderly care, wolfberry health, and public welfare. Its total assets exceed 60 billion yuan. With a population of 20,000 people, it is the leader of private enterprises in Ningxia and one of the top 500 private enterprises in China. Baofeng Energy, a subsidiary of Baofeng Group, is a leading enterprise in the domestic high-quality coal-based new material industry. In 2019, Baofeng Energy was listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange A-share.

Baofeng Energy was established in November 2005. It invested 72.7 billion yuan in the core area of the national-level Ningdong Energy and Chemical Base in China's Golden Triangle of Energy. A circular economy industrial cluster integrating "coal, coke, gas, methanol, olefins, polyethylene, polypropylene, fine chemicals, and new energy" in scale and complete industrial chain. The planned total production capacity includes an annual output of 8.1 million tons of coal, 700 10,000 tons of coke, 14.6 million tons of coal washing, 7.4 million tons of methanol, 3 million tons of olefins, 1.5 million tons of polyethylene, 1.5 million tons of polypropylene, 400,000 tons of tar processing, 100,000 tons of needle coke, 120,000 tons of benzene hydrogenation, 200,000 tons of C4, 240 million standard square meters of green hydrogen, 1.2 billion standard square meters of green oxygen, etc. The company's industrial scale, process technology, operating efficiency, and environmental protection indicators are all at the leading level in the industry. It is a leading enterprise in the domestic high-quality coal-based new material industry and a leading private enterprise in Ningxia, with 15,000 employees.

In recent years, Baofeng Group has actively promoted low-carbon transformation, and energy storage and hydrogen energy are the key development directions.

According to the plan, Baofeng Group will invest 96.2 billion yuan in lithium battery energy storage technology to build energy storage industry chain projects. Among them, an annual output of 200GWh battery cells and energy storage container systems will be built in Suyin Industrial Park, and an intelligent manufacturing plant for energy storage batteries will be built in accordance with Industry 4.0 standards; an annual output of 500,000 tons of lithium iron phosphate cathode materials, 30 tons of lithium iron phosphate cathode materials will be built in Ningdong. 10,000 tons of graphite anode material and 340,000 tons of electrolyte.

It is reported that after the completion of Baofeng's 200GWh energy storage industry chain projects, the annual output value of the project will be about 370 billion yuan, of which the planned investment of the first phase of the project is 48.2 billion yuan. It is equivalent to rebuilding a complete Ningxia.

In addition to Baofeng Group, many companies have recently deployed lithium hexafluorophosphate across borders.

A few days ago, Jinpu Titanium Industry announced that it plans to invest about 10 billion yuan in the new coal chemical composite material base in Anhui (Huibei) to invest in the construction of a new energy battery material integration project, including 8,000 tons/year of lithium hexafluorophosphate.

In July 2021, Lizhong Group plans to invest 1.2 billion yuan in the construction of a new energy lithium battery new material project, which will produce lithium hexafluorophosphate and lithium bisfluorosulfonimide products. The sodium fluoride (electronic grade) production capacity to be invested in the project will be used as sodium Technical storage and distribution at the material end of ion batteries. The project construction site is located in Jining New Materials Industrial Park, and the construction capacity includes 18,000 tons of lithium hexafluorophosphate.

On September 15, 2021, Chuanheng Co., Ltd. announced that it plans to sign a "Project Investment Cooperation Agreement" with the Fuquan Municipal People's Government, and plans to invest in the construction of a "mineralization integration" new energy material recycling industry project in Fuquan City. The project has a total investment of 10 billion yuan and is constructed in two phases. The main contents include a 400,000-ton/year battery iron phosphate production line, a 200,000-ton/year battery-grade iron phosphate production line, and a 20,000-ton/year battery lithium hexafluorophosphate project.

Previously, Chuanheng Co., Ltd. announced that it signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement and an investment cooperation agreement with Guoxuan Group, and planned to jointly plan and build a battery iron phosphate production line of no less than 500,000 tons per year and a joint venture to establish a fluorine-based battery material company in lithium hexafluorophosphate. and cooperation in the field of PVDF.

Chuanheng Co., Ltd. is mainly engaged in phosphorus and fluorine chemical related products, and has formed a phosphorus chemical cycle integrating mining, phosphate product production, phosphorus chemical technology innovation, associated resource development and utilization, phosphogypsum building materials, phosphorus nutrition technical services, and product sales. economic industry group.

In November 2020, Dofluoroduo and Yuntianhua signed a "Joint Venture Agreement", and the two parties jointly invested in the establishment of a joint venture company - Yunnan Fluorophosphorus Electronic Technology Co., Ltd. to build 2 × 15,000 tons/year of anhydrous hydrofluoric acid (intermediate products) Co-produce 15,000 tons/year of high-quality silica, 5,000 tons/year of lithium hexafluorophosphate, and 20,000 tons/year of electronic-grade hydrofluoric acid production equipment and supporting facilities.

Whether it is Yuntianhua or Chuanheng, the layout of lithium hexafluorophosphate is based on resources. Both are phosphorus chemical companies and have mastered phosphate rock resources. Phosphate rock is also one of the sources of fluorine elements, although it is used in fluorine chemical industry. The resource source of the industrial chain does not account for a small proportion. However, due to the over-exploitation of fluorite in recent years, it has faced a shortage of supply. The use of fluorosilicic acid, a by-product of phosphorus chemical industry, is a necessary raw material for the production of fluorine chemical industry-hydrofluoric acid has also become a source of fluorine resources. an important means.

At present, the planned domestic production capacity of lithium hexafluorophosphate is huge, and new enterprises are constantly entering the market. However, lithium hexafluorophosphate has high technical barriers, and the problems of tight supply of lithium resources and soaring prices have also caused great cost pressure on lithium hexafluorophosphate production enterprises, which is also a problem that new projects have to consider. Therefore, there is still great uncertainty as to whether many publicity projects can proceed smoothly.