Techno-economic analysis of cathode material production using flame-assisted spray pyrolysis

Guiyan Zang, Jianan Zhang, Siqi Xu and Yangchuan Xing

Energy, 2021, vol. 218, issue C

Abstract: The cost of cathode materials contributes approximately 32.7% of the total cell construction cost of lithium-ion batteries, significantly affecting the price of battery packs. To reduce the cathode material manufacturing cost, a flame-assisted spray pyrolysis (FSP) method has been developed to utilize a sustainable solvent of glycerol to manufacture the LiNi1/3Mn1/3Co1/3O2 (NMC333) cathode materials. The objective of this study is to evaluate the minimum cathode material selling price (MCSP) of the FSP processes compared with a traditional carbonate co-precipitation pathway. Results show that the MCSP of the FSP is $19.1/kg that is 17% lower than the traditional carbonate co-precipitation pathway as a result of lower fixed operating cost and variable overhead. Sensitivity analysis shows that when the new process is integrated with in-situ sintering and processing, the MCSP can be as low as $15.6/kg. When all the material prices are decreased by 20%, the FSP process can synthesize NMC333 at a price of $2.3/kg lower. According to the simulation result, LiNi0·8Mn0·1Co0·1O2 (NMC811) has the best potential to meet the U.S. Department of Energy battery price target of $125/kWh, demonstrating that the FSP process is an attractive manufacturing technology for NMC cathode powder material production.

Keywords: Economic analysis; NMC powder; Cathode material production; Flame assisted spray pyrolysis; Li-ion battery; Production rate (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544220326116
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:218:y:2021:i:c:s0360544220326116

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2020.119504

Access Statistics for this article

Energy is currently edited by Henrik Lund and Mark J. Kaiser

More articles in Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().