Carbon Footprint and Decarbonization Potential of Battery-Grade Synthetic Graphite

Natural graphite was listed as a critical mineral due to the demand surge for battery anodes. However, synthetic graphite (SG) dominates the battery anode market because of its superior product performance. The lack of clarity regarding SG production and its carbon footprint (CF) poses challenges to the implementation of battery CF regulations. Here, the process-resolved inventories of 12 operational and 22 upcoming SG plants in China were examined, representing major capacities of global battery-grade SG. We reveal that the average plant-specific CF is 9.0 tonne CO2 per tonne of SG (tCO2/t), with a wide range of 6.8 ∼ 12.9 tCO2/t, due to variances in feedstocks and energy efficiency. Reinforced premium SG that undergoes additional carbonization processes and uses oil-based needle coke as the main feedstock exhibits a higher CF of 11.2 tCO2/t. We further project that the utilization of renewable electricity and green hydrogen in SG production could effectively reduce the CF by 41% to 70%, presenting substantial decarbonization potential for battery anode materials.