Through the successful transformation of the results, the operation of the project will realize the short process, low cost and green preparation of high nickel ternary lithium battery precursor materials in China. "Recently, Qu Jingkui, the project leader of the" laterite nickel ore preparation of nickel-based new materials technology and engineering demonstration "project researcher, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences (hereinafter referred to as the Institute of Process) told reporters.
As an important strategic resource in China, nickel has been continuously increasing in demand and prices have continued to rise in recent years. However, nearly half of China's nickel demand currently depends on imports. With the rapid development of the new energy vehicle industry, the demand for the necessary raw materials for preparing power batteries such as nickel and cobalt will continue to grow rapidly.
This project is a key support project of the Science and Technology Service Network Program (STS Program) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. "The project uses nickel-based minerals as raw materials, and the pressure-leaching process is used to prepare the obtained nickel-cobalt-manganese solution into NCM ternary lithium battery cathode precursor materials and high-purity nickel, nickel sulfate, cobalt sulfate, metallic cobalt, nickel hydroxide and other products. "Qu Jingkui introduced.
While researching and transforming, the Institute cooperates with material technology production enterprises. Since May 2018, the nickel-based new material project has completed project construction and 100-ton expansion test. In April this year, it was put into trial operation and opened up the process Continuous and stable operation has been achieved. The produced metal nickel plates, metal cobalt plates, ternary materials, and single crystal high-temperature alloys have been certified by national authoritative testing agencies and reached relevant national standards.
Qu Jingkui said: "Compared with traditional pyrometallurgical processes, the hydrometallurgical process used in the project has the advantages of less investment, low cost, short process and clean process, and no three waste emissions. The new process reduces the cost of traditional processes by 20%. . "
Qu Jingkui said that after the successful pilot operation, a project to process 500,000 tons of laterite nickel ore to produce nickel-based new materials will be started, and an industrial production line is expected to be completed in 2022.