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Production
Progressing Cavity Pumps Keep the Battery Supply Chain Flowing
By Tom Evans, NETZSCH Pumps USA
battery supply chain — from mining and processing raw ma- terials through battery manufac- turing and finally to recycling — is scrambling to catch up to expo- nential growth in demand. The McKinsey Battery In-
T
sights team forecasts that the global lithium battery value chain could grow by over 30 per- cent annually from 2022 to 2030, reaching a value of more than $400 billion and a market size of 4,700 gigawatt-hours (GWh). Electric vehicles (EV) will
account for most of this demand, but stationary battery energy storage systems are also project- ed to grow at a CAGR of 30% from 2023 to 2033 according to
he global market demand for lithium-ion batteries is skyrocketing. The entire
IDTechEx, reaching 2,000 GWh of cumulative stationary storage capacity within ten years. All this battery manufactur-
ing depends on the availability and price of raw materials, and securing future supply is a top priority for automakers and gov- ernments.
Geopolitics Lithium is sometimes mis-
takenly understood as scarce in the U.S. In fact, 12 million tons of identified lithium resources have been found in continental brines, claystone, geothermal brines, hec- torite, oilfield brines, and peg- matites, totaling one-eighth of the world’s resources, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. This represents the largest deposits of the metal outside of the so-called
CUTTINGMASTER 2000
Stress Free, Burr Free, Particle Free Low Investment and Operating Cost Cuts Flex, Rigid, or Rigid-Flex PCBs
Lithium Triangle region in South America and is almost double the deposits in China. To accelerate domestic pro-
duction, the Trump administra- tion advocated the deregulation of the mining industry to fast- track domestic projects, and the Biden administration has in- voked the Cold War-era Defense Production Act to enable the fed- eral government to support the development of mining and pro- cessing operations.
Pumping Technology No equipment is more cru-
cial than pumping technology in keeping the lithium battery sup- ply chain flowing. Lithium is among the most challenging media for pumping applications in the chemical sector. The light metal does not
occur freely in nature due to its high reactivity. Pumps must be able to handle the chemically complex lithium slurries, which are highly flammable, very abra- sive, have high amounts of solids and can contain a wide variety of other metals, graphite, solvents, binders, alcohols and acids. And the manufacturing processes re- quire the pumps to convey these challenging viscous slurries without pulsations or pressure fluctuations, and often at very low flow rates, to ensure opti- mum battery cell production quality.
Pump designs, materials of
CUTTINGMASTER 2000 SERIES AVAILABLE IN STAND-ALONE OR IN-LINE CONFIGURATION
construction, and surface finish- es must be engineered to prevent contamination of the media and to facilitate easy and effective pump cleaning. During slurry preparation
Call to learn more about laser depaneling and get details about our CuttingMaster 2000 series.
mixing and electrode coating op- erations, pumps must also pre- cisely dose and meter a wide va- riety of active materials and bat- tery chemistry slurries, in addi- tion to accurately dispensing the other battery cell production flu- ids; electrolytes, adhesives, and UV resins.
Progressing Cavity One type of pumping tech-
1-800-345-5753 |
www.lpkfusa.com/depaneling See at SMTAI, Booth 2542, and at electronica, Hall B1, Booth 219
nology, progressing cavity pumps, has proven especially ef- fective at meeting all these crite- ria with the versatility to excel at the many different pumping ap-
plications in battery production and recycling processes. Progressing cavity pumps be-
long to the category of positive dis- placement pumps, which work by trapping a fixed amount of fluid in multiple cavities and “progress- ing” or moving them through the pump during operation. Positive displacement pumps are common- ly used in applications that re- quire a constant and steady flow rate and frequently on products having high percentages of solids and abrasives. The main design feature of
progressing cavity pumps is the eccentric screw principle in which a spiral rotor rotates in- side a geometrically matched stator. Since the shape of the cavities between the rotor and stator is always constant, the uniform delivery cavities gently move the product continuously and consistently from the pump suction inlet to the pump dis- charge, at a constant discharge rate free of flow pulsation. Liquids, solids, and viscous
slurries can all be conveyed safe- ly and efficiently, and the flow rate can be precisely controlled for fluid measurement and me- tering, which is directly propor- tional to the shaft speed. Another advantage of pro-
gressing cavity pumps is their versatility and adaptability. The NETZSCH NEMO® progressing cavity pumps, for example, have been tailored to solve a very wide range of lithium battery pump- ing applications in China and throughout Asia, Europe, and North and South America. To use a metaphor from the
internal combustion engine, if electrification is to overtake fos- sil fuels in time to stave off the worse effects of climate change, the battery supply chain must continue to be firing on all cylin- ders. That means all components of the supply chain must contin- ue to keep pace with each other. Progressing cavity pumps are a critical manufacturing technolo- gy to keep the entire process
moving forward. Contact: NETZSCH Pumps
USA, 119 Pickering Way, Exton, PA 19341 % 610-363-8010 E-mail:
npa@netzsch.com Web:
www.netzsch.com r
October, 2024
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