Low-Temperature Production of Battery Grade Graphite from Coal with Recovery and Reuse of the Catalyst
Year: 2024
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: Synthetic graphite is made predominantly from a petroleum-derived needle coke using the Acheson method. This involves heating the needle coke at elevated temperatures of ~ 3000 °C for more than 7 days. High-temperature heating is the most technically challenging, expensive, and energy-intensive aspect of graphite manufacturing. We will present a strategy for synthesizing high-quality battery-grade graphite powder from coal using a low-temperature catalytic graphitization process. The use of a catalyst drops the processing temperatures to 1500 °C and processing times to a few hours. The graphite produced with this process has been tested as a battery anode and has been shown to outperform anodes made with commercially sourced graphite materials. We will also present a sustainable method to recover and reuse the catalyst and acid used to retrieve the catalyst. This overcomes a long-standing technical hurdle associated with using catalysts for manufacturing graphite.
DOI: 10.2172/2460429
Institution: National Energy Technology Laboratory
Language: English
Subfield: Materials Chemistry
Field: Materials Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
OpenAlex ID: W4403324483