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LG Chem will build a fourth plant and expand its 3,200-ton carbon nanotube (CNT) production line

Industry News > LG Chem will build a fourth plant and expand its 3,200-ton carbon nanotube (CNT) production line

At present, the global carbon nanotube market is developing rapidly, centered on cathode materials and other battery materials for electric vehicles. LG Chem has decided to expand the largest carbon nanotube (CNT) plant in Korea once again in order to establish a firm competitive advantage.

LG Chem to build fourth plant, expand 3,200-ton carbon nanotube (CNT) production line

On July 30, LG Chem announced that it will expand the fourth CNT production line at the Daesan plant with an annual output of 3,200 tons. This is the fourth CNT plant built by LG Chem, following the second plant that started commercial operation last year and the third plant that started construction earlier this year.

CNTs are a new generation of materials that have the same electrical and thermal conductivity as copper and diamond and are 100 times stronger than steel. Its application range is very wide, and can be used in electric vehicle batteries, conductive coatings, electrostatic coating materials for automotive exteriors, and planar heating elements.

After the completion of the fourth CNT plant, together with the existing first and second plants (1,700 tons in Yeosu) and the third plant (1,200 tons in Yeosu) currently under expansion, LG Chem's CNT production capacity will reach 6,100 tons . The fourth CNT factory will start construction in the first half of next year and is expected to be put into commercial operation in the second half of 2024.

LG Chem first started up its first 500-ton CNT plant in 2017. Entering 2020, as the CNT market continues to expand, CNT factories are being expanded every year.

LG Chem's CNT plant utilizes original technologies such as fluidized bed reactors to achieve mass production of up to 600 tons in a single growth line, which is the largest in the world for a single production line. In addition, one of the major advantages of the plant is that it uses a cobalt (Co)-based catalyst based on an original technology to reduce the content of magnetic substances that affect the quality of the battery, achieving the world's highest quality level.

* Usually iron (Fe) catalysts mainly used in the industry have relatively high content of metals and magnetic substances compared to cobalt. Therefore, additional post-processing processes are required for commercialization.

Taking the fourth CNT factory as an example, by improving the reactor stability and process automation innovation, the efficiency of the production line operation scale has been successfully achieved, and the per capita labor productivity has increased by about 20% compared with the previous factory.

LG Chem's CNTs will be supplied to battery companies such as LG New Energy, which leads the global electric vehicle battery market, as a first-class conductive additive (Conductive Additive), and plans to expand the supply to other industrial fields. * Positive electrode conductive material: It is a raw material that helps the flow of electricity and electrons, especially in the positive electrode material composed of active materials such as nickel, cobalt, and manganese, it has the effect of increasing the conductivity of lithium ions and improving the efficiency of charge and discharge.

CNT is used as a positive electrode conductive material, which can achieve about 10% higher conductivity than conventional carbon black, and reduce the amount of conductive material by about 30%. The battery can be additionally filled with the saved positive conductive material, which can greatly improve the battery capacity and life. In addition, CNTs are also expected to be regarded as the main conductive materials in the field of new-generation batteries such as anode materials, lithium-sulfur and all-solid-state batteries.

According to industry sources, the CNT market is expected to grow to about 3 trillion won ($2.3 billion) by 2030. Accordingly, global CNT demand is expected to rise from 5,000 tons last year to 70,000 tons in 2030, showing an average annual growth rate of more than 30%.

Currently, LG Chem is expanding sales of new battery customers other than LG New Energy. And for automakers based on the highest level of CNT quality in the world, the pace of ensuring material trust is accelerated.

At the same time, in addition to batteries, LG Chem is also actively expanding CNT sales in new fields where carbon nanotubes are being used, such as conductive paints, road icing prevention (black ice) planar heating elements, and semiconductor engineering trays. For example, the use of CNTs in semiconductor engineering pallet materials can effectively utilize the excellent thermal conductivity of CNTs to achieve effects such as high temperature resistance and isolation of dust, electromagnetic waves and static electricity.

"We will build an unshakable No. 1 position in the field of battery conductive materials with our manufacturing competitiveness based on original technology and excellent quality, and vigorously develop new markets with huge potential," said Noh Kok-lai, head of LG Chem's Petrochemical Business Division.

In 2011, LG Chem began to develop the original carbon nanotube technology, and in 2013, a 20-ton pilot production line was built. Starting from the research and development of conductive polymer and battery products in 2014, it has a total of 300 related patents so far.

At the same time, in order to enhance the competitiveness of CNT manufacturing such as reactor production capacity, LG Chem continues to expand its mid- to long-term mission to pursue investment and process innovation, and is committed to creating differentiated carbon nanotube products exclusively for LG Chem, further widening its competitiveness gap.

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LG Chem will build a fourth plant and expand its 3,200-ton carbon nanotube (CNT) production line

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