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.