More than 8 years to break the foreign monopoly "you let the Chinese stand up"

From a small factory that is on the verge of bankruptcy, it has opened up "fluorine" resources through scientific research and innovation and has emerged as a leading enterprise in the global inorganic fluorine chemical industry.

It takes 8 years to develop the core material of lithium battery electrolyte, break the monopoly of foreign enterprises, and lay the foundation for realizing the dream of new energy automobile power in our country.

From a single fluorine chemical tracking to the "new energy vehicle system as a support, led by new energy vehicles, electric vehicle power has always become the core" of the entire new energy vehicle industrial chain.

Seeing the streets full of electric bicycles and low-noise, pollution-free, energy-efficient electric vehicles, many people know that their power comes from batteries, such as lithium batteries. However, even in the chemical industry, many people do not know that lithium batteries have a core material called lithium hexafluorophosphate.

What is even less known is that the technology for producing lithium hexafluorophosphate has long been monopolized by foreign companies until a private enterprise painstakingly studied for eight years and finally overcome the difficulties and broke the monopoly, so that China no longer hopes for "lithium".

The company's products occupy not only the domestic market, but also the international market including Japan. It also reduced the price of lithium hexafluorophosphate from 1 million yuan per ton to more than 100,000 yuan per ton, allowing "lithium" to enter the civilian era.

You made the Chinese stand up

Historically, Liu Bei was a household name for Zhuge Liang's story of "three visits to Thatched house". However, in Jiaozuo City, Henan Province, in 1994, he staged a true story of " six visits to Thatched house ".

At that time, Lishijiang, 44 years old, was the director of the second petrochemical plant in Jiaozuo City, and his career was smooth. The leader of Jiaozuo City Central Station District invited him to "go out to the mountains" six times before and after, and worked at a small chemical plant in Jiaozuo City, a small chemical plant that was on the verge of collapse. Because they decided that Lishijiang was a person who was unwilling to be mediocre and dared to do it.

Lishijiang was a soldier at the age of 17. After retiring at the age of 22, he worked as a temporary worker at a fertilizer factory in his hometown Wen County. Because he interrupted his studies when he was young, he squeezed out all the time to study hard. He eventually entered the Radio and TV University at the age of 36 in a semi-self-taught manner. After graduation, he officially became a national cadre and completed a major transformation in his life.

When Li Shijiang took office, he found the bottleneck of the development of the cryolite factory. Cryolite, also known as sodium hexafluoroaluminate, is an essential flux in the aluminum industry. Li Shijiang replaced the backward production process with a new production process, and revived hopes of this small chemical plant that was on the verge of bankruptcy.

In December 1999, with the help of the state's 8 million yuan government bond capital support, after strict legal procedures, the Jiaozuo Ice Crystal Stone Factory turned gorgeous and was restructured into a polyfluorinated chemical company, and the new process was successfully realized with national funds. Industrialization.

During the research and development process, PFC found that "lithium" and "fluorine" formed the "electrochemical reversible battery" with the highest energy and was suitable for the electrode material of lithium-ion batteries. Therefore, entering new energy became a new goal of the company.

In 2006, Lishijiang visited Japan. An old expert of his colleagues told him during a chat that lithium batteries are the new energy source for mankind in the future. The core material of lithium cell electrolytes is called lithium hexafluorophosphate. At present, only Japan can mass-produce. The raw materials used by domestic lithium battery manufacturers are all dependent on imports.

This inspired Lishijiang's determination to develop and innovate. After returning home, he immediately mobilized elite soldiers to set up a lithium hexafluorophosphate attack team.

Because of the foreign technology blockade, they have no experience to learn from. Since 2006, the multi-fluorination research team has gone through thousands of tests and has broken through the technical difficulties of raw material purification and sealing barriers. It has pioneered new raw materials such as industrial anhydrous hydrofluoric acid, and from product technology to equipment manufacturing. Fluordo has acquired complete intellectual property rights and finally took off this "crown jewel".

Reluctantly giving up the market, Japanese companies soon fought a price war, trying to stifle polyfluorosis in its cradle. As a result, PFC not only achieved a complete victory, but also opened the era of low prices for lithium hexafluorophosphate, which reduced the global price of lithium hexafluorophosphate from 1 million yuan/ton straight line to more than 100,000 yuan/ton, so that lithium batteries Really put down noble body, Into the lives of hundreds of millions of people.

From the beginning of the attack to the formal mass production, and then to the Japanese product out of the Chinese market, more than eight years of tenacious struggle. Now, polyfluorosis has entered the international market including Japan. Currently, the international market share is as high as 25 %, and the production and sales volume ranks first in the world. It is estimated that 1 out of every 3 lithium batteries in China uses lithium hexafluorophosphate, and 1 out of every 4 lithium batteries in the world uses lithium hexafluorophosphate.

An old engineer said to Lishijiang: "When you don't make lithium hexafluorophosphate, I go to Japan three times a year to speak well with others and spend several times the price and still refuse to sell our products; After your lithium hexafluorophosphate is made, the Japanese come to me three times a year to speak up and let me use their products. You made the Chinese stand up! "

Waste "Fluoride Source", Fluoride Miao "Combination"

On the periodic table of elements, there are three chemical elements that are extremely difficult to tame: fluorine, lithium, and Silicon. Like the Monkey King in myths and legends, their ghosts and elves have great magic power. Once they are tamed, they can benefit humans. For more than 100 years, countless people of insight have wanted to tame them. However, it is difficult to find the magic of Buddha's Palm.

In more than 20 years, polyfluorosis inadvertently became associated with fluorine, lithium, and Silicon, and wrote a legend of the industry that "Fluorolithium-lithium combination and fluosilici separation".

In the 1990s, Lishijiang was sent to Beijing's former chemical department for training. During this period, he saw a "Development Strategy for Inorganic Fluorinated Salt" and proposed that the road to the development of inorganic fluorine in China can no longer be sacrificed to the old path of national important strategic resource fluorite. Fluorinated salt can be made using fluorine produced by phosphorous fertilizer.

When Li Shijiang went to the Cryolite factory, he found that the factory still used the original production process of the former Soviet Union, the fluorite fluoroaluminate method to produce fluoride salts. Subsequently, he hired a chemical expert as a consultant to set up a research team. After more than a thousand days and nights of arduous technical research, in 1999, finally achieved results: the use of sodium fluorosilicate in phosphate waste to produce cryolite, and then Silica slag is used to produce white carbon black. This is the production technology of the high-quality white carbon black produced by the sodium fluorosilicate method for the production of high-quality white carbon black by the sodium fluorosilicate method, which has become the model of China's fluorine resource recycling economy and technological innovation.

This technology has not only solved the problem of the "three wastes" pollution that has long plagued and restricted the development of phosphorus fertilizer in China, but also opened up new "fluorine" resources, saved the national strategic resource, fluorite, and walked out of a new type of fluorinated chemical industry. It was listed as "National High-tech Industrialization Demonstration Project" by the former State Planning Commission. Since then, one by one innovative products, a technology patent, one industry standard, so that this unknown district office small factory, in one fell swoop to become the world's fluorine chemical base that attracted attention at home and abroad.

From the very beginning, polyfluorosis planted innovative genes in companies, and then led the research results of "Fluorolithium combination-production of lithium hexafluorophosphate" and was awarded the first prize for scientific and technological progress of the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation., was awarded the second prize for national scientific and technological progress, It was listed by the Ministry of Science and Technology and the National Development and Reform Commission as the National "863 Plan" and the national strategic emerging industries.

"Technology development is not easy, but it is harder to industrialize new processes. Most projects are 'blind' in the process, in a way a 'death trap'. For example, in the laboratory, from beaker to beaker, the temperature problem can be considered, and it will be cold. Once industrial production is carried out, the problem of high temperature will not be solved. The equipment will be fried. " Guzongqin, president of the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Planning Institute, knows the difficulties of technological innovation.

It’s hard to get more than one person. In 2008, Polyfluoride built a lithium hexafluorophosphate experimental unit with an annual output of 2 tons. In 2009, it built a production line with an annual output of 200 tons. In 2013, the production line with an annual output of 2,000 tons was put into production, basically occupying the domestic market. In 2017, it has formed an annual production capacity of 6,000 tons of high-purity lithium hexafluorophosphate, and its production and sales volume ranks first in the world. The emergence of lithium hexafluorophosphate has laid the foundation for China to realize the dream of a new energy vehicle.

Since embarking on the road of innovation, polyfluorosis has been innovating at an incredible speed. It has become the world's number one ice crystal stone, the world's number one aluminum fluoride, and the world's number one lithium hexafluorophosphate, and has become the leader in the inorganic fluorine chemical industry. enterprise.

"Transformation and upgrade, laying eggs along the way"

Today, polyfluorides have turned their attention from fluorine and lithium to Silicon. Lishijiang was keenly aware that it was the time for the transition from a carbon-based civilization to a silicon-based civilization, and technological innovation must also develop on the basis of a silicon-based civilization.

As a semiconductor material, silicon is an indispensable raw material for the photovoltaic and chip industries, but the purity of silicon is relatively high. Polyfluorinated "fluorinated silicon" is the separation of high-purity silicon from fluorine as a medium to produce monocrystalline silicon, polycrystalline silicon, and the like.

In 2017, Zhongning Silicon, facing bankruptcy, suddenly broke into Lishijiang's vision and made him look at it. "The products produced by Zhongning Silicon are electron-grade polysilicon, electron-grade silane and Silicon tetrafluoride. These three products are used in semiconductors, liquid crystal panels and photovoltaics. The quality of the products can reach the same level abroad. "

When the news of bankruptcy came out, Lishijiang, who was close to ancient times, made several rounds of negotiations and finally moved the executives of Zhongning Silicon Industry with sincerity. In March this year, the two technology innovation companies finally took pity on each other and joined hands.

Based on the study of the three elements of "fluorine, lithium, and Silicon," polyfluorosis is applied to three types of batteries: aluminum electrolytic cell cells, lithium ion cells, and photovoltaic cells, which constitute three elements of new energy generation, energy storage, and energy conservation. At the same time as developing batteries, it has extended the study of motors and electrical controls, and mastered the core power assembly of electric vehicles. Based on this, it has tracked and studied the three major new energy vehicle technologies: "lightweight body, power electrification, and complete vehicle intelligence." Through the steady progress of R&D, polyfluorosis eventually formed a new energy full-industry chain that was "supported by a new material system, led by a new energy vehicle, and powered by electric vehicles".

In 2010, Duofludo developed a power lithium-ion battery that completely owns independent intellectual property rights. Today, it has formed a power lithium-ion battery production capacity with an annual output of 600 million AH. In July 2015, Duofuduo acquired Hebei Hongxing Automobile Manufacturing Co., Ltd. and obtained the production qualification of electric vehicles. In November 2016, the Multi-Fluoride New Energy Vehicle Power Assembly Industrial Park started construction at the Western Park in the industrial industrial agglomeration area of Jiaozuo City. The project is a supporting project of the National Belt and Road Initiative. It is a 2025 smart factory manufactured by China, and it is also a dream factory for Lishijiang and many people.

"Transformation and upgrading, laying eggs along the way", from fluorinated chemicals to new energy sources, polyfluorosis has taken a unique road of transformation and upgrading. In the field of scientific and technological innovation, the "multi-fluorinated multi-scheme" that was transformed from "made in China" to "created in China" was heavily written.

"There is no going back on innovation, and a strong desire for innovation is more important than innovation. "Lishijiang laughed and said that multi-fluorinated innovation has become an" addiction "and has become a corporate culture.

Call for "technology innovation ecosystem"

"The semiconductor industry has a saying: It takes 5 years to get started and 10 years to grind half a sword. "Lishijiang told reporters," The main difficulty in the development of the industry is that domestic semiconductor companies are reluctant to use domestic chemicals. "

Polyfluorosis has encountered such problems. During the research and development of semiconductor raw materials, polyfluorosis has developed a new technology for the production of electron-grade hydrofluoric acid, and at the same time has established 10,000 grades of cleaning, 1,000 grades of filling, 100 grades of analysis rooms, and electronic grade automatic filling lines, once again breaking the long-term dependence of raw materials on imports in China. To achieve world-class and Chinese-made chemicals. Electron-grade hydrofluoric acid is widely used in the cleaning and etching of integrated circuits and ultra-large scale integrated circuit chips. It is one of the key basic chemical materials in the Microelectronics industry.

What is embarrassing is that although technological innovation has been successful, market development has been “cold”. It is understood that there are three reasons: First, chip manufacturers do not believe that domestic enterprises can achieve the quality of imported products, are not willing to do "white mice"; second, electronic grade hydrofluoric acid only accounts for 1.2% of the cost of chip manufacturing, The test cycle takes one year, chip manufacturers are not willing to spend a lot of financial and material resources to evaluate; third, there are hundreds of processes in the semiconductor chip manufacturing process, and the stability of electronic grade hydrofluoric acid is very high. Once the problem is too much, no one is willing to take the risk of switching to a domestic product.

On the one hand, the domestic semiconductor chip companies are eager for qualified raw materials, but on the other hand, the domestic raw material manufacturers are difficult to survive because of the difficulty in promoting products. This is the dilemma faced by the localization of semiconductor raw materials.

It is reported that the state has taken some measures: Last year, the state set up 500 million insurance funds to cover these new products used in the semiconductor industry. If a chipmaker has problems with domestic raw materials, the National Insurance capital can bear 80 % of the losses. Companies will only bear 20 % of the losses, but this measure has not yet been extended.

Due to the competition with foreign companies in the process of research and development and promotion of lithium hexafluorophosphate, Lishijiang felt very deep. "For technology innovation companies, on the one hand, it is necessary to give time, on the other hand, to give policy, only to create a good technology. Innovation ecosystem, only in this way can China truly establish its own intellectual property rights system. "

The page contains the contents of the machine translation.