Text | Li Anqi
Editor | Su Jianxun
Recently, 36 Krypton learned that the domestic developer of diaphragms for new energy storage devices “ Routronak ” received tens of millions of yuan in the A1 round of investment. The investors are Jinding Capital, Xinghan Capital and Datong Capital as financial advisors. It is reported that this round of financing is mainly used for the expansion and automation upgrade of the supercapacitor diaphragm production line, the improvement of the sodium-ion battery diaphragm pilot line and the acceleration of downstream customer certification, and the delivery of orders for 100-ton micro-nanoparticle gas-phase coating equipment.
This is the second time that Rotronac has received capital support this year. In August this year, Routronic Technology announced that it had obtained tens of millions of yuan in Series A financing. So far, Routronic Technology has completed four rounds of financing, with a cumulative total of nearly 100 million yuan in financing.
Rotronac was established in October 2016, focusing on the localization of nanofiber separators for high-power and long-life energy storage devices. It is a research and development and production enterprise of nanofiber functional membranes. The company’s nanofiber separator products are mainly used in supercapacitor batteries, sodium-ion batteries, energy storage lithium batteries, semi/full solid-state batteries and other fields.
In recent years, with the rapid development of the new energy industry, the soaring price of lithium battery products is a hot topic this year. At the same time, emerging tracks such as hybrid battery capacitors, supercapacitors, and sodium-ion batteries have also received a lot of attention.
These electrochemical energy storage devices are inseparable from a key component-separator. According to Jie Ming, CEO of Rotronac, the current lithium battery separator market is relatively mature, but it is not 100% compatible with the separators required for new energy storage devices such as supercapacitors, sodium ions, and solid/semi-solid batteries.
Traditional lithium-ion battery separators can be applied to sodium-ion batteries, but there are defects such as lyophilicity, poor liquid retention capacity, and slow sodium ion transmission speed, which affect the cycle performance of the battery; at the same time, the battery has a high interface resistance, so that the negative electrode Sodium dendrites are easily formed on the surface, and the growth of sodium dendrites will pierce the separator and cause a short circuit of the Na-ion battery, affecting the safety performance of the Na-ion battery.
According to Rotronac, the nanofiber separator has great advantages in porosity, lyophilicity, liquid retention, thermal stability, and wide temperature range, and can better meet the needs of supercapacitors, sodium-ion batteries, solid-state/semi-solid Requirements for new energy storage devices such as batteries.
“The nanofiber separator adopts a wet process to form a porous film by overlapping different types of micro-nano fibers; the lithium battery separator is more like a plastic, which is made by dry stretching or wet phase separation. Forming a diaphragm. These are two completely different technical paths, and the products brought about by different materials and technical paths have very different characteristics.” Xie Ming introduced.
For example, sodium ion batteries are difficult to remove water due to the high alkalinity of the positive electrode material and the large specific surface area of the hard carbon negative electrode material, but the humidity of the production environment must be controlled within 30%. Lithium battery separators generally can only withstand the water removal temperature of 85 degrees, so it is difficult to remove a lot of crystal water. The battery cell made of nanofiber separator can withstand 140 degrees of baking, the water removal efficiency is greatly increased, and the dryness is reduced.
Previously, however, nanofiber separators relied on imports from Japan. According to Jieming, the CEO of Rotronac, the nanofiber separator developed by Rouchtron can realize import substitution. Its products have broken through the multi-dimensional high-throughput preparation of nanofiber materials, the composite molding of micro-nano fibers, and the reliability of the microstructure of high-porosity separators. It is one of the few qualified suppliers of supercapacitors in China. The company has started mass supply from 2022.
At present, many sodium power manufacturers, including Ningde Times , Ningde New Energy, Zhongke Haina , Zhongna, Haichen, Veken Technology, Trina Energy Storage, Phylion, Tianneng, etc., have tested or are testing Rouchuang Naco’s diaphragm.
In addition, Rotronac is also developing electrolyte separators for all-solid/semi-solid batteries. This technology mainly uses the nanofiber separator as the skeleton, uses the large pore size distribution and high void structure of the fiber separator to carry out online impregnation coating, and pours the solid electrolyte slurry into the inside of the separator. There is a difference in the semi-solid membrane formed by the electrolyte.
All in all, Rotronac divides the diaphragm market into three segments: first, the supercapacitor diaphragm segment focuses on import substitution, which is the basic disk for the company’s future business development; second, expands nanofiber diaphragms to sodium-ion batteries and large phosphoric acid In the field of iron-lithium energy storage batteries, this is the market that will be focused on in the next 1-2 years; third, for semi-solid batteries, the company will invest part of its research and development efforts in the field of lithium-ion conductor separators, waiting for the market to explode in 2025.
Xie Ming said that the company’s monthly diaphragm production is basically at full capacity. From 2022, Rouchuang has started to build a production line with an annual output of 30 million square meters, which is expected to be put into operation in 2023. At that time, the new production line will be mainly used to meet part of the demand of the existing supercapacitor diaphragm market; the original production capacity of 3 million square meters will be converted into a pilot line for sodium-ion battery diaphragm.
The company plans to start building a 300 million square meter battery diaphragm production line in 2024, mainly to meet the diaphragm market for sodium-ion batteries and large-scale lithium iron phosphate energy storage batteries. Because the corresponding equipment is domestically customized, the fixed asset investment is about 1/4 of the traditional lithium battery separator, and the delivery time is about half. Therefore, the cost of nanofiber separator is expected to reach the level of lithium battery separator or even lower, and the expansion speed will be faster.
He Fuchang, partner of Jinding Capital, said: Under the new power system, electrochemical energy storage and its upstream materials are undoubtedly one of the tracks with the highest growth and certainty in the future. Jinding Capital only invests in high-quality companies with unique technical value, keen market insights, practical solutions to industry pain points, and long-term spirit. Rouchuang Nacco is the kind of company that we firmly invest in. Due to its unique advantages of in-depth cooperation with listed companies, Jinding can bring empowerment and integration of the entire industrial chain to invested companies. It is believed that Rouchuang Nacco will rise rapidly and make unique contributions to the domestic substitution of China’s material industry.
media reports
Sohu Sohu 36Kr
related events
- “Rouchuang Naco” received tens of millions of yuan in A1 round financing, and at the same time developed sodium electricity and supercapacitor diaphragm tracks2022-12-30
- New energy storage device diaphragm developer ” Ruochuang Nacco” received tens of millions of yuan in Series A financing2022-09-01
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