LG Chemicals is going to mass-produce carbon nanotubes (CNT) that are considered as ‘dream material’. It is going to mass-produce 400 tons of CNTs per year which will be the biggest amount in South Korea and fourth biggest amount in the world.
LG Chemicals made an announcement on the 31st that it has established and started operating facilities that will mass-produce CNTs in Yeoju.
LG Chemicals invested about $21.6 million (25.0 billion KRW) into these facilities which are world’s biggest size based on single CNT line. From production capability, LG Chemicals stands on the fourth place followed by China’s SUSN Sinotech (600 tons), C-Nano (500 tons) from the U.S., and Japan’s Showa Denko (500 tons). Size of its facilities is similar to Belgium’s Nanocyl and France’s Arkema that are leading companies in CNT.
LG Chemicals is planning to operate these facilities at 100% by end of next year. It is expecting to make about $8.65 million (10.0 billion KRW) in sales in this year and this number will increase to $34.6 million (40.0 billion KRW) when the facilities are operating at 100%. LG Chemicals predicts that demands for CNTs will continue to increase and is looking into extending its facilities in 2019.
CNT’s electric conductivity is same as copper and its heat conductivity is same as diamond. Its strength is 100 times stronger than steel. With its excellent properties that surpass current materials, its application is endless as it can be applied to semiconductors, secondary batteries, automotive components, and aircrafts’ fuselage. Due to recent expansion of electric vehicle markets, number of demands for CNTs is increasing greatly as anode conductor (material that helps with flow of electrons) for lithium-ion batteries.
LG Chemicals started R&D in 2011 and started mass-producing CNTs after checking CNT’s marketability from its pilot lines that produce 20 tons of CNTs per year. With world’s biggest size of fluidized reactor that was developed by LG Chemicals, it has established mass-production system and secured competitive edge in production cost. It also added by saying that it has succeeded in developing products that are more than 10% better than its competitors’ products in purity, conductivity, and strength. It has chosen North America, Europe, and China as countries to target first.
“We are going to pioneer next-generation’s markets by continuing to invest in R&D that will discover promising new materials such as CNT.” said Department Head Son Ok-dong of LG Chemicals Basic Material Business Headquarters. According to Yano Research Institute, global CNT markets are expected to grow by more than 10% annually from 824 tons in 2016 to 1,335 tons in 2020.
Staff Reporter Yun, Keonil | benyun@etnews.com