Ube plans more battery electrolyte

Japan’s Ube Industries has licensed technology to China’s CNSG Anhui Hong Sifang for a 100,000-metric-ton-per-year plant in Hefei, China, that will make the solvent dimethyl carbonate (DMC). The two firms also will form a joint venture to convert 10,000 metric tons of the solvent into a high-purity version suitable for use as an electrolyte in lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles. In a related deal, Ube licensed a process for making dimethyl oxalate (DMO), an ethylene glycol raw material, to CNSG. The DMC and DMO are both made with what Ube calls its nitrite technology.