On February 28th, 2024, in the research and development rooms of the Scientific Research Institute of Sichuan Shunying Power Battery Materials Co., LTD. (hereinafter referred to as "Sichuan Shunying") The staff are busy at their posts in consulting data, recording data, operating experiments and so on . As a scientific research platform specially established by Sichuan Shunying, the Institute is committed to promoting technological innovation in the industry and helping the company gradually grow into a technology-led innovative enterprise.
Up to now, Sichuan Shunying has obtained many honors and qualifications such as Sichuan Provincial Specialized New Enterprise, post-doctoral Innovation Practice Base, Sichuan Entrepreneur Technology Center, Sichuan Engineering Research Center, Meishan Nickel-Cobalt Material Engineering Technology Center and so on.
（In the research and development room, the staff are busy at their posts）
Building a Scientific Research Platform Broadening the Path for Enterprise Upgrading
As a state-level high-tech enterprise rooted in Meishan High-tech Industrial Park for more than 10 years, Sichuan Shunying adheres to the concept of "environmental protection and recycling economy" and takes ternary precursor of power lithium-ion battery materials as its main business. At the same time, it is also the only enterprise in Sichuan that uses resource recycling and recycling technology to promote from energy metal purification to ternary precursor production, and its industry is the energy conservation and environmental protection industry and new material industry in the 16+1 key development industries identified by the Sichuan Provincial Government.
"The company's core products are locked into 'new energy materials', We adhere to technological innovation and independent research and development, and promote the development of enterprise with independent core technologies." According to the introduction of Dan Yong, president of the Shunying research institute, in 2021, the company restructured the original research and development Department into the Shunying Research Institute, and since then, the research institute has been committed to promoting technological innovation in the industry based on the positioning of "efficient development of complex multi-energy metal mineral resources, comprehensive utilization of valuable metals and integrated research of new material synthesis". Help the company gradually grow into a technology-led innovative enterprise, laying the foundation for its development into a large-scale, international group company.
(The staff is checking the operation of the test equipment)
"The institute has built a scientific research center, a testing center, a test workshop and other hardware facilities, equipped with advanced research and development equipment, testing instruments, and the construction of mineral pretreatment, leaching, separation, purification, material synthesis, acid-base cycle and other full-process test facilities."Dan Yong introduced that,at present, it has more than 90 professional R & D personnel such as hydrometallurgy, chemical industry, new materials and equipment automation, and 16 external experts.
Increasing R&D investment Stimulating the vitality of enterprise innovation
In the current fiercely competitive market environment, scientific research and innovation can not only improve the production efficiency and product quality of enterprise, but also open up new market space for enterprise and bring sustained profit growth, which has become the "lifeline" of enterprise development.
"The core technology mastered by our company is mainly reflected in the research and development of various energy storage materials such as' wet extraction of non-ferrous mineral resources', 'functional material synthesis' and' waste battery recycling and recycling '."Dan Yong said ,as a "leader" in this segment, Sichuan Shunying invests 5% of its sales annually in technology research and development.
Sichuan Shunying and University of Science and Technology Beijing jointly developed the new technology of nitric acid pressure leaching of brown iron laterite nickel ore with independent intellectual property rights, which for the first time achieved the goal of cascade utilization of nickel, cobalt, iron, scandium, aluminum, manganese, magnesium and other full resources in low grade brown iron laterite nickel ore, acid and base recycling and recycling, and "zero discharge" of waste water and residue. In 2018, it was evaluated by 7 academician experts as "the first in the world, the overall technical level is in the international leader, the technology promotion market has huge potential, and will have a significant impact on the nickel and iron industry", and in June 2020, it obtained the innovation and invention discovery certification of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China.
"The Institute has established long-term cooperation platforms with universities and research institutes such as University of Science and Technology Beijing, Sichuan University, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Southwest University of Science and Technology, and Chengdu University of Technology." Dan Yong introduced that after more than ten years of technology accumulation, the company has six core technologies such as "nitric acid leaching cascade separation closed cycle technology", "pressure efficient oxygen leaching technology" and "polymetal separation deep purification technology", and has applied for a total of 195 patents, of which, 95 pieces have been authorized (34 domestic utility models, 46 domestic inventions, 15 international inventions), and 100 are under review.
Persisting in Result Transformation Empowering Rapid Industrial Development
Walking into the research and development room of the lithium resources project team, the staff are filtering the lithium mica leaching slurry and introducing the ongoing "nitric acid pressure cascade leaching new technology", which is a major research project in the horizontal application of lithium mineral resources development, the project to lithium (lithium mica) raw ore, low grade, concentrate as raw materials, through calcination and transformation, nitric acid leaching. membrane efficient separation, enrichment and acid-base recycling technology to produce high grade lithium carbonate, lithium hydroxide products. At present, the project has completed the test and produced tons of high-quality lithium carbonate, and the economic calculation results show that the process costs 50% less than the traditional sulfuric acid process lithium carbonate.
(The staff is conducting experiments)
"The project will completely subvert the lithium extraction technology of spodumene, change the problems existing in the process of lithium extraction of spodumene, such as low metal recovery rate, large emissions of 'three wastes', low capacity utilization rate, and large consumption of energy accessories, achieve the clean production of the whole process of lithium extraction of spodumene, and near zero emissions of' three wastes', leading the world trend of lithium carbonate industry made of spodumene." Dan Yong introduced that the project has started the preliminary work of the demonstration project, and the construction of the demonstration project will start this year.
In 2020, Sichuan Shunying has carried out industrialization investment and promotion of the new technology of nitric acid pressure leaching of brown iron laterite nickel ore, and built a project in Beihai to process 1.2 million tons of dry base brown iron laterite nickel ore annually. The total investment of the project is 2.06 billion yuan, and the annual income will be 2.4 billion yuan after completion.
The independent innovation is the key to tackling "bottleneck" challenges and forging "ace in the hole" technologies., and transforming scientific and technological achievements into advanced productive forces is the goal of high-quality development of enterprise. "Following the development strategy of "developing one mature research project and promoting one industrialization," we systematically plan and advance the transformation of scientific research results. ." Dan Yong said on the basis of the use of "nitric acid pressure leaching recycling technology", it will strengthen independent research and development, deepen foreign cooperation, and enhance the influence and visibility of Sichuan Shunying in hydrometallurgy and new energy materials industry.