Asahi Kasei announced that in order to better meet the needs of the new energy vehicle market, the company will invest 40 billion yen (US$266 million) to expand its global Hipore™ lithium-ion battery (LIB) coated diaphragm membrane of production capacity.
According to the expansion plan, Asahi Kasei’s three factories in the United States, Japan and South Korea will increase the production capacity of coated diaphragms by approximately 700 million square meters per year. The project is expected to be put into operation in 2026. The expanded production capacity will increase Asahi Kasei’s lithium-ion battery coating separator production capacity to approximately 1.2 billion square meters per year, capable of supplying battery coating separators equivalent to 1.7 million electric vehicles. This will help establish a strong lithium-ion battery supply chain in North America, Japan and South Korea, providing powerful and durable wet-process lithium-ion battery coated separator production units for automotive applications. Asahi Kasei will continue to examine proactive investments, including establishing a new Hipore™ coated separator manufacturing facility, to further enhance its supply infrastructure for the North American and Japanese markets.
According to Huizheng Information, Asahi Kasei produces two types of Hipore™
Wet process lithium-ion battery separators, one is a polyolefin microporous base membrane separator, and the other is a coated separator produced by coating ceramic and other coatings on the base membrane.
The company developed Hipore™ lithium battery separators in 1998.
Hipore™ has multiple high-performance polysulfone membranes with micropores of 0.05-0.5μm, which has the advantages of no harmful gas emissions, excellent uniformity, uniform sub-micron pores, high porosity, and high puncture strength. In February 2015, Asahi Kasei spent US$2.2 billion to acquire Polypore International, the world’s third largest battery insulator manufacturer, and became the leading manufacturer of dry and wet separators. The acquired Celgard company (a branch of Polypore International) has been developing disposable lithium batteries and engaged in the production of lithium battery separators since the 1980s. After the 1990s, it began to develop secondary rechargeable lithium batteries and produce corresponding Diaphragm products. Celgard’s lithium-ion battery separators are mainly used in batteries for electric vehicles. On May 25, 2016, Asahi Kasei announced an investment of 6 billion yen in separators for lithium-ion secondary batteries (LIB) in Moriyama City, Shiga Prefecture. The wet process has an annual production capacity of 410 million square meters and the dry process has an annual production capacity of 200 million square meters. On March 30, 2017, Asahi Kasei made a capital increase of 15 billion yen in separators for lithium-ion secondary batteries (LIB) in Moriyama City, Shiga Prefecture. After reaching production, the lithium battery separator can increase its production capacity by 200 million square meters per year. . In January 2018, Asahi Kasei invested 7.5 billion yen to simultaneously expand dry/wet separator production capacity. After reaching capacity, the dry film production capacity will increase by 150 million square meters per year, and the wet film production capacity will increase by 90 million square meters per year.
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