Category: Lithium Battery New Energy

As a new type of secondary battery with high energy density, many cycles and long service life, lithium battery is currently widely used in mobile power, electric vehicles, home appliances, smart wearable devices, 3C products and other fields. With the continuous depletion of fossil energy, lithium battery has gradually become the main power source of new energy vehicles and energy storage, which has attracted wide attention from all walks of life in recent years.

Lithium battery is composed of positive electrode, negative electrode, electrolyte and diaphragm, etc., in the production process of these parts, a lot of filtration and purification technology is required. Shinkai has used its professional advantages in filtration to help lithium battery manufacturers solve a large number of problems, specifically:

1) Production of ternary cathode materials: The co-precipitation method is used to produce ternary material precursors, which requires the use of metal membrane filters to filter the produced ternary precursor particles. At the same time, the cleaning water produced by ternary material cleaning also requires metal membrane filtration;

2) The exhaust gas from the silicon anode has a very high temperature, so it is suitable to use metal membrane elements; anode: artificial graphite or carbon produced by vapor deposition method.

3) Electrolyte solvent DMC (dimethyl carbonate): DMC is produced by transesterification method, and metal membranes are used to filter Na2CO3/NaHCO3;

4) Electrolyte: pre-crystallization filter in the production process of lithium hexafluorophosphate LiPF6;

5) Electrolyte liquid: Before preparing the electrolyte, it needs to be filtered and purified with a metal membrane filter, then the electrolyte is added, stirred to dissolve, and then the undissolved electrolyte and other impurities are filtered out with metal membranes.

The Sinter Metal Filter Elements produced by Shinkai has the advantages of corrosion resistance, high precision and good reproducibility, which is very suitable for various production links of lithium batteries. In China, leading enterprises in the lithium battery industry, including Wanhua Chemical Group , XTC New Materials, Capchem, etc., are already our customers. If you have similar questions, please contact Shinkai team.

In early March, our technical team rushed to Inner Mongolia for another new full-process filter installation guidance of a set of 100,000 tons/year polysilicon plant.

Shinkai’s hot gas filters with metal membrane are with performance of high precision, good regeneration, long service-life. By operating those filters, plants could efficiently reduce the labors’ working intensity, obviously increase the economic benefits and environment protection.

Shinkai has been keeping following the polysilicon industry’s development, combine with its own filters’ advantages, explore various filter products suitable for each process of polysilicon, contribute its own strength to development of the new energy industry.

Bioprocess fermentation, which seems to be a new word, is being used as a new material in many fields and comes into people’s vision.

Bioprocess fermentation refers to the fermentation of carbohydrates by microorganisms (bacteria, fungi) to produce various industrial solvents and chemical raw materials. The main products are ethanol, acetone-butanol, butanol-isopropanol, acetone-ethanol, 2, 3-butanediol and glycerol fermentation.

From meal replacement, new drinks and other functional food, to more flexible living paper, more functional cosmetics, many aspects of our daily life are closely related to bioprocess fermentation.

In the field of environmental protection, energy conservation and emission reduction, bioprocess fermentation is also playing an increasingly important role. Refinery sewage is broken down by bacteria, and waste gas from a steel plant is fermented by bacteria and turned into ethanol. These seemingly magical things have become reality. With the continuous development of science and technology, bacteria with different functions are cultivated, constantly changing our life and production.

This kind of bacteria is oxygen-consuming. Under a certain oxygen concentration, its growth rate is proportional to the oxygen supply. The way to achieve the highest conversion rate is to find an optimal gas distribution method.

The most effective way is to use porous sintered metal as a gas sparger. The advantage of this kind of sparger is that it can break the gas into micron-sized bubbles, increase the oxygen concentration in the fermentation broth as much as possible, and ensure a mild environment for the fermentation broth, which is conducive to the work of bacteria. Compared with other gas distribution methods, porous metal can reduce gas consumption without causing severe disturbance of fermentation broth.

The sintered metal sparger produced by Shinkai, with uniform pore size, small resistance and high distribution efficiency, has become the first choice of many biological fermentation manufacturers.

At present, petrochemical based biodegradable plastics with promising development prospects include PBAT (co-polyester of terephthalic acid, adipic acid and BDO), PBS(co-polyester of succinic acid and BDO), and PBST (co-polyester of succinic acid, terephthalic acid and BDO). It is estimated that the demand for total biodegradable plastics in China is about 20 million tons/year, and the annual demand for terephthalic acid, adipic acid, succinic acid and BDO is about 1 million tons. At present, terephthalic acid, adipic acid and BDO already have the large-scale production technology, which can meet the large demand of biodegradable plastics in the future.  However, the yield of succinic acid is seriously insufficient in China, which severely limits the rapid development of biodegradable plastics industry.

Succinic acid, also known as succinic acid, is an important binary carboxylic acid, which is widely used in medicine, food, synthetic plastics, biodegradable plastics and other fields. Succinic acid and 1,4-butanediol (BDO) are the core raw materials for PBS production. At present, the relatively mature maleic anhydride hydrogenation process has the advantages of low operating cost, intrinsically safe production process, no waste discharge, clean production and good environmental benefits. Now, it is the best method to produce succinic anhydride/succinic acid with efficiency and economic benefit.

In the process of exploration, the most important thing is to develop a kind of high efficiency, good selective hydrogenation catalyst, researchers have done a lot of research work, which theoretically reveals the influence mechanism of the catalyst active component existence form and carrier on catalyst activity, selectivity and life. What’s more, the team has mastered the core technology of the preparation of the catalyst. The best catalyst for the directional synthesis of succinic anhydride with high activity, high selectivity and long service life for the hydrogenation of maleic anhydride was obtained. Of course, in the process of catalyst filtration and application, Shinkai catalyst filter plays a great role. The catalyst filter developed by Shinkai can be fully automatic closed operation, safe and environmental protection, can maximize the protection of catalyst activity, increase the life of the catalyst, and improve the economic benefits of the device.

At present, the production methods of the polysilicon industry mainly include the silane method and the modified Siemens method. The modified Siemens method and the silane method mainly produce solar-grade/electronic-grade crystalline silicon. The silane method is to pass silane into a fluidized bed with polycrystalline silicon seeds as fluidized particles, so that silane is cracked and deposited on the seeds, thereby obtaining granular polycrystalline silicon. The modified Siemens method is to generate silicon rods by vapor deposition after reduction of trichlorosilane after purification.

The modified Siemens method is the most common and mature method at home and abroad. The modified Siemens method is to use industrial silicon powder and hydrogen chloride to synthesize trichlorosilane, and then rectify and purify the trichlorosilane. The purified trichlorosilane and high-purity hydrogen undergo a reduction reaction in a reduction furnace and vapor deposition to generate high-purity polysilicon. However, during the reduction of trichlorosilane, a large amount of by-product silicon tetrachloride will be produced, and a large amount of amorphous silicon powder will also be produced in the reduction furnace. In the modified Siemens method, the generated silicon tetrachloride and amorphous silicon powder enter the tail gas recovery system, thereby separating the amorphous silicon powder, and the silicon tetrachloride enters the next step of rectification and separation.

The on-line filtration system for exhaust silicon powder developed by Shinkai with metal membrane filter element as the core, including on-line silicon powder filter, silicon powder collection tank and on-line operating system, can completely intercept the amorphous silicon powder through high-precision filter elements, thereby greatly reducing the maintenance frequency of the downstream system equipment, providing guarantee for the stable operation of the downstream system, and improving the efficiency of material utilization.

In addition, the Siemens method is improved to add a cold hydrogenation device to treat the by-product silicon tetrachloride, that is, silicon tetrachloride and hydrogen are mixed and heated, and then passed into a cold hydrogenation fluidized bed reactor to react with the industrial silicon powder added to generate trichlorosilane. Since this process uses a fluidized bed reaction, it is inevitable that a large amount of fine silicon powder will enter the rear system with the reaction gas, and this part of the silicon powder will enter the rear system, which will wear and block the pipeline equipment, and also increase the difficulty of slag slurry recovery, resulting in a decrease in material recovery rate, material loss and increased environmental protection pressure. At present, the above-mentioned fine silicon powder is separated by designing a three-stage cyclone after the cold hydrogenation fluidized bed reactor, but the separation effect of fine silicon powder with fine particles is not good.

The cold hydrogenated silicon powder on-line filtration system developed by Shinkai includes high-temperature silicon powder on-line filter, high-pressure silicon powder hopper, silicon powder collection tank, supporting heat tracing and on-line detection system. With the characteristics of high temperature, thermal shock, precise control of pore size, easy regeneration of components, and low overall pressure difference of the filtration system, the separation of the above-mentioned fine silica powder can achieve excellent separation effect.

At present, the silicon powder filtration system developed and produced by our company has been widely used in the silicon industry and has solved many filtration and separation problems and has been widely praised by customers. The company has developed improved Siemens method, silane method, electronic-grade polysilicon full-process filtration solutions, and developed multiple sets of silicon powder filtration systems in organic silicon, silica and industrial silicon. Many clients’ cases could be found in our page of Partners, if you have any doubts of poly-silicone filtration, please contact we Shinkai.

Nuclear reactors in power plants use a large amount of fission nuclear fuel uranium. There are mainly three isotopes in the nature: U-238, U-235 and U-234, of which fissionable U-235 is currently the main nuclear fuel used now. However, the characteristics of natural uranium ore are low grade, scattered ore body and small scale in quantity. Normally if the uranium content is higher than 0.05%, that would be with mining value. So how does uranium go from ore to the usable nuclear fuel? Now let’s look at that how nuclear fuel is “Refined”.

After the uranium ore is mined, it is crushed and ground into fine powder, and the useful components in the ore are converted into soluble compounds by chemical reagents, and then selectively dissolved to obtain a solution containing the useful components. Uranium is then purified and recovered from the ore leachate. The obtained chemical concentrate, this primary product has a bright yellow color, so it is also called “yellow cake”, which is generally diuranate or uranyl tricarbonate. Further purification and transformation work is required. The uranium concentrate is refined and nuclear-pure uranium compounds are obtained. At present, the solvent extraction method has completely replaced the precipitation method adopted earlier.

First, the “yellow cake” is dissolved in nitric acid to produce a solution of uranyl nitrate. The diuranate solid prepared by hydrometallurgy dissolves very quickly in nitric acid, and only a small amount of residue remains after the reaction. The undissolved residue was removed by filtration, and the filtered solution contained excess nitric acid and nitrates.

Resolvent extraction method is used for purification. At present, uranium refineries have adopted the TBP extraction process. TBH has the characteristics of low volatility, chemical stability and large extraction capacity. After washing the uranium-loaded organic phase with water, the uranium is back-extracted with slightly acidic hot water to obtain a nuclear-pure uranyl nitrate solution.

Then, the extracted and purified uranium is reacted with uranyl nitrate and ammonia to produce ammonia diuranate precipitation, and then uranium trioxide is obtained through processes such as filtration, drying and calcination. Uranium dioxide is obtained by hydrogenation reduction, which can be used as a raw material for the production of other uranium compounds, and can also be directly used as a nuclear reactor dye, but as a reactor dye directly, the reduction reaction requires a higher temperature to produce denser uranium dioxide.

Uranium hexafluoride is the raw material for the separation of uranium isotopes. When preparing uranium hexafluoride, it is necessary to react uranium dioxide and hydrogen fluoride at 500 °C to obtain uranium tetrafluoride first, and then react with fluorine at 300~350 °C to obtain uranium hexafluoride. Several uranium isotope separation methods currently in practice use uranium hexafluoride as the working medium. However, whether it is a product or a tailing material, it must be converted into a material in the form of uranium dioxide for use as a nuclear dye. Therefore, both the production and reduction of UF6 are called transformations.

In the extraction purification and high temperature reaction, the special alloy Monel®-400, Inconel®-600 and 316L  produced by Nanjing Shinkai are used. It is also widely used in the treatment of nuclear waste and water filtration.

In the extraction purification, high temperature reaction and harsh chemical environment, the special nickel alloy Monel®-400, Inconel®-600, and Hastelloy® C-276 porous metal membrane  (sometimes SS304L) produced by Nanjing Shinkai could be used to achieve the corrosive resistant. It is also widely used in the treatment of nuclear wastewater filtration or corrosive gases like HF(Hydrofluoric Acid). The standard micron grade or minimum particle removal would be 5 micron or 20 micron, etc. For the dimensions of cylinder such as outside diameter, thickness, length and connection/ fittings, there’s no limitation, all cartridges could be customized based on clients’ request. Shinkai has full tool/ molds to meet different size requests.

Catalytic hydrogenation technology is the core technology in medicine, fine chemical industry, and other organic synthesis. In the application of catalytic hydrogenation technology, noble metal catalysts with relatively high catalyst activity are mainly used, such as Palladium-carbon catalysts, Raney nickel catalysts, etc. At this stage, precious metal catalysts used in industrial production and research work are mainly divided into the following categories:

1. Nickel-based catalyst.
2. Palladium-based catalyst.
3. Platinum catalysts.
4. Copper catalysts.
5. Activated carbon/carrier material.

Precious metal catalysts are one of the main cost sources in catalytic hydrogenation, so the separation and recovery of catalysts have become the key to controlling the operating costs of catalyst  hydrogenation. And in the actual production process, there may also be problems such as catalyst leakage, so an efficient catalyst filtration method is required to filter and recover.

Shinkai is committed to the exploration and research in the field of filtration and separation and has independently developed the metal sintered filter membrane, which has impact resistance, high temperature resistance, strong corrosion resistance, good air permeability, good separation effect, and outstanding backwashing effect. Shinkai can design a filtration system that meets the continuous automatic production requirements of product filtration, catalyst application and withdrawal according to the customer’s operating conditions and special requirements.

Shinkai catalyst filtration and separation systems have been used in hundreds of sets of APIs, dye intermediates, chemical intermediates, resin intermediates, pesticides, spices, food additives and other fields in China and abroad. If you have questions about the filtration and separation of fine chemical production catalysts, Shinkai will serve you at any time, welcome to consult!

In the production of organic silicon monomer raw materials, as the end-product, high-purity dichloromethane/ DCM/ methylene chloride is very important. However, the production of DCM often contains a certain amount of impurity calcium chloride. Shinkai’s metal filter with sintered powder filter elements can perfectly filter and purify the DCM to 2ppm. In October, we just completed the transformation of a set of methylene chloride filter. Shinkai’s sintered metal filter cartridges successfully replaced the ceramic membranes, effectively reducing the number of backwashing, increase the service life of the filter.