Ube Industries will establish a joint venture in Puyang, Henan to produce DMC for lithium-ion batteries

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This post was last edited by jl_xu on 2013-1-1 20:19. Published by the High-Tech Lithium Battery News Center at 2012-04-17 13:56:52. Summary: On April 9, 2012, Ubiquity Corporation announced that it had reached agreements with Henan Zhongyuan Dahuahua Group Co., Ltd. and Japanese company Takasago to establish a joint venture in China for the production of dimethyl carbonate (DMC). Keywords: electrolyte, hybrid vehicle, electric vehicle. On April 9, 2012, Ubiquity Corporation announced that it had reached agreements with Henan Zhongyuan Dahuahua Group Co., Ltd. (headquartered in Puyang City, Henan Province; hereinafter referred to as Zhongyuan Dahuahua) and HighChem of Japan (headquartered in Tokyo) to establish a joint venture in China for the production of dimethyl carbonate (DMC). Zhongyuan Dahuahua is a subsidiary of Henan Coal and Chemical Industry Group Co., Ltd. that is engaged in the production of chemical products. Henan Coal and Chemical Industry Group Co., Ltd. is China’s second-largest coal enterprise, as well as Asia’s largest coal gasification company. Kao Chem is a chemical products trading company headquartered in Japan, specializing in import and export operations between China and Japan. The new company will be located in Puyang City, Henan Province, with the goal of starting operations by 2013; the factory’s production capacity will be 100,000 tons per year. 　　The new company is funded 51% by Zhongyuan Dahuahua, with Ube Industries and HighChem contributing 24.5% each. Although the details of the joint venture agreement have not been disclosed, it is known that Ube Industries will provide the new company with a license for the \"vapor-phase nitration technology\" used to produce DMC from carbon monoxide (CO) as a raw material. 　　DMC is primarily used as an electrolyte solvent in lithium (Li) ion rechargeable batteries; therefore, with the increasing popularity of hybrid and electric vehicles, the demand for DMC is growing rapidly. Especially in China, there is an increasing demand for using DMC as a pollution-free additive for gasoline and diesel. 　　Yubari Kogyo plans to further stabilize the procurement of DMC by establishing a joint venture. Ube Industries will purify the DMC purchased from the joint venture on its own, and then use it within the company for electrolyte purposes or sell it externally. In 1992, Ube Industries set up a DMC production line with an annual capacity of 3,000 tons at the Ube Chemical Plant (Ube City, Yamaguchi Prefecture); currently, the annual capacity for DMC is 15,000 tons. 【Source: Nikkei Technology Online】