Lotte Chemical and Sasol Chemicals collaborate on electric vehicle battery materials

According to foreign media reports, Sasol Chemicals, a subsidiary of South African energy and chemical company Sasol Ltd., and LOTTE Chemical announced a partnership to conduct a pre-feasibility study on a joint project to build and operate a production battery-grade electrolyte solventkey components of lithium-ion batteries forelectric vehicles ).

Image credit: Sasol Chemicals

The companies will evaluate whether Sasol's sites near Lake Charles in the US and Marl in Germany are suitable for building a plant that can produce a variety of battery-grade electrolyte solvents.The plant will use raw materials provided by Sasol and third parties and utilize proprietary technology licensed from Rakuten and third parties.

Young-Jun Lee, head of the battery materials business unit of Lotte Chemical, said: "The increase in battery demand has led to a rapid increase in the demand for key materials for lithium-ion batteries. Lotte Chemical will rapidly expand its battery materials business to lead the world in terms of quantity and quality of batteries. material market."

Shelley Grahmann, Vice President of Strategic Development and Optimization at Sasol Chemicals, said: “This agreement is in line with our strategy to provide customers with solutions to meet sustainability challenges. Sasol has a large global market, a strong infrastructure in Marr, and also Develop a sustainable development center in Lake Charles. We urgently need to determine whether one of these two sites can be an ideal factory to provide key materials for the lithium-ion battery market.” The project will also consider a number of ways to reduce the carbon footprint, For example, the use of renewable energy.

The electrolyte solvent makes it easier for lithium ions to move between the anode and cathode of the battery, enabling charging and discharging of lithium-ion batteries, which are likely to be the main source of power for electric vehicles.