Toray Engineering Co., Ltd. has developed an environmentally friendly coating machine for secondary electrodes of lithium-ion batteries (LIB), which was introduced to the market in April. A newly developed drying system can reduce energy consumption by around 25% compared to conventional machines. In order to realize a carbon-neutral society, Toray Engineering will offer the environmentally friendly system to LIB manufacturers around the world. The targeted order volume in the medium term is 5 billion yen (approx. 34 million euros).
In the production of LIB electrodes, a coating liquid is first applied to metallic base materials and dried. This liquid consists of a mixture of electrode materials and organic solvents. Although hot air drying is commonly used, where the LIB electrodes are dried with heated air, the inside of the oven must be kept at a constant high temperature to keep the concentration of the organic solvent in the oven below the prescribed explosion protection limits in a controlled manner, while at the same time outside air is drawn in for ventilation. As a result, energy consumption in electrode manufacturing accounts for approximately 45% of energy consumption in the overall LIB manufacturing process. Toray Engineering has developed a proprietary drying system that recirculates and reuses hot air in the drying oven to reduce energy consumption in LIB electrode manufacturing compared to competitive systems.
