The demand for NMP is growing rapidly and the development prospects for recycling and purification are good.

NMP, N-methylpyrrolidone, has the advantages of high flash point, good safety, good stability, easy recycling, and good dissolution and dilution performance of the binder PDVF, and is widely used in the lithium battery industry. Specifically, in the batching stage, NMP serves as a solvent for PVDF and participates in the dispersion of the slurry to form a slurry with a uniform medium and a stable viscosity within a certain viscosity range for a long time; in the coating stage, NMP serves as the main liquid carrier of the slurry. The slurry can be evenly coated on the metal substrate with a stable thickness; during the coating and baking stage, NMP evaporates from the wet film at a stable rate to form a porous microelectrode structure with uniform pore diameter.

Thanks to the development of new energy, electric vehicles, energy Internet and other fields, China’s lithium battery shipments are growing rapidly. In 2021, China’s lithium battery shipments will be 324.0GWh, with a growth rate of 104.4%, driving China’s N-methylpyrrolidone Demand has grown significantly. In addition to being one of the more critical upstream materials in the new energy industry, NMP is also an essential chemical solvent that participates in chemical reactions and dilution in the manufacturing process of aramid fiber, polyphenylene sulfide and other polymer materials. With the support of national policies, China’s polymer materials industry has developed rapidly, and the demand for NMP in aramid fiber, polyphenylene sulfide and other industries has grown rapidly. According to the “2022-2026 NMP Industry In-Depth Market Research and Investment Strategy Suggestions Report released by the Industrial Research Center, in 2021 China NMP demand exceeds 550,000 tons.

Driven by downstream demand, the number of domestic NMP companies continues to increase, but most of them are recycling and purification manufacturers with small scale and low market share. At this stage, the major domestic N-methylpyrrolidone manufacturers include Binzhou Yuneng Chemical Co., Ltd., Maiqi Chemical Co., Ltd., Ganzhou Zhongneng Industrial Co., Ltd., Shandong Changxin Chemical Technology Co., Ltd., and Jingrui Electronic Materials Co., Ltd., etc. In recent years, China’s N-methylpyrrolidone production capacity has continued to expand and has now become the world’s largest NMP producer.

Industry analysts said that because the recovery rate of N-methylpyrrolidone is generally higher than 80%, its loss rate in the lithium battery field Small, most N-methylpyrrolidone can be recycled and reused. Recovering waste N-methylpyrrolidone for recycling can not only save raw material costs, but also greatly reduce environmental pressure. It complies with the development needs of the country’s circular economy and is expected to develop rapidly in the future. In recent years, large domestic NMP manufacturers have been increasing the production scale of recycling and purifying NMP.