Cost and energy demand of producing nickel manganese cobalt cathode material for lithium ion batteries

Abstract

Abstract The price of the cathode active materials in lithium ion batteries is a key cost driver and thus significantly impacts consumer adoption of devices that utilize large energy storage contents (e.g. electric vehicles). A process model has been developed and used to study the production process of a common lithium-ion cathode material, lithiated nickel manganese cobalt oxide, using the co-precipitation method. The process was simulated for a plant producing 6500 kg day −1 . The results indicate that the process will consume approximately 4 kWh kg NMC −1 of energy, 15 L kg NMC −1 of process water, and cost $23 to produce a kg of Li-NMC333. The calculations were extended to compare the production cost using two co-precipitation reactions (with Na 2 CO 3 and NaOH), and similar cathode active materials such as lithium manganese oxide and lithium nickel cobalt aluminum oxide. A combination of cost saving opportunities show the possibility to reduce the cost of the cathode material by 19%.