- LG Chem plans to build a constructing production system of a total of 1,700 tons of Carbon Nano Tubes (CNT)
- Global EV market will be one the target audiences for this product
- It is possible to realise high conductivity upwards of about 10 per cent compared to existing carbon black
LG Chem believes that the CNT demand is expected to post explosive growth of an annual average of about 34 per cent to rise from 3,000 tons last year to 13,000 tons by 2024. This growth will be centered around electronic vehicles market.
“We will become a dominant market leader in the next-generation high-value materials based on our unique proprietary technologies and experiences in mass production,” Noh Kug-lae, head of the Petrochemicals Company.
CNT is a next-generation new material having the same electric and heat conductivity equivalent to copper and diamonds, and its intensity is 100 times of steel. It can be used in batteries, semiconductors, automobile parts, aircraft fuselages, etc.
Targeting the global EV market
LG Chem stated that this measure was taken to not only target the global EV market, but also the CNT market that has recently been rapidly growing for use in anode conductive additives of lithium ion batteries.
“By using CNTs as anode conductive additives, it is possible to realize high conductivity upwards of about 10 per cent compared to existing carbon black and reduce the amount of conductive materials usage by about 30 per cent, and that space can be filled with necessary anode materials to increase the capacity and life of lithium ion batteries,” read LG Chem’s official statement.
It continued, “Thanks to these features, CNT demand is expected to post explosive growth of an annual average of about 34 per cent to rise from 3,000 tons last year to 13,000 tons by 2024 mainly centering on the global EV market.”
LG Chem plans to further strengthen product competitiveness by actively utilising CNT lithium ion batteries. It also plans to gradually increase sales to global IT materials companies and end-car makers in North America, Europe and China and it is also scheduled to review plans for additional extensions in 2022.
The company began full-fledged R&D to develop proprietary carbon nanotube technologies in 2011 and constructed a 20-ton pilot mass production line in 2013. In 2014, it developed battery material and conductive compound products and it currently possesses over 250 patents in just CNT-related fields.
