According to a report by Nihon Keizai Shimbun on June 11, in order to achieve stable production of lithium-ion batteries, the supply of raw materials must be ensured. However, in terms of main raw materials, rare metals cannot be mined in Japan. With the world paying attention to battery development, some Japanese companies have begun to develop components that replace unstable materials with alternative materials or technological capabilities. Rare metals such as cobalt and nickel that are necessary for lithium-ion battery cathode materials are mined overseas. About 60% of cobalt is mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The distribution of nickel production areas is also uneven, concentrated in Southeast Asia and other regions. In addition, about 70% of natural graphite, the raw material for negative electrode materials, relies on China. The stability of the supply of raw materials for lithium batteries in Japan is a major issue. Large batteries require a lot of materials to produce. If pure electric vehicles begin to be fully popularized, various materials will sooner or later be in short supply. Japan is beginning to develop technologies to replace resources with unstable supplies. Japanese chemical company JSR uses "pre-doping" technology that pre-adds a small amount of lithium to resin materials to improve the performance of resin-based anode materials. It uses technology and equipment owned by its subsidiary JMEnergy. The state in which the negative electrode material retains lithium ions is the charged state. However, when the battery is charged for the first time, some ions in the negative electrode material cannot be released, resulting in a reduction in charging capacity. JSR has improved this aspect by pre-containing lithium ions in the negative electrode material to prevent the number of ions exchanged in the battery from decreasing. Finally, an anode material whose capacity is not easily reduced was developed. Japanese chemical company ADEKA has developed "sulfided polyacrylonitrile (SPAN)", an anode material using sulfur. Although sulfur is highly anticipated as a raw material for positive and negative electrode materials, mass production has not been possible before due to the difficulty in processing the harmful hydrogen sulfide generated during production. ADEKA has advantages in product groups such as sulfates used for surface treatment of semiconductor materials. The company has hydrogen sulfide treatment technology and has successfully achieved mass production. We strive to achieve commercialization around fiscal 2020 and have started supplying samples in January. In addition, Sumitomo Metal Mining has developed new technology to recycle cobalt and repurpose it into battery materials. It is planned to be put into practical use as early as 2021.

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