Battery Generation

Before purchasing a second-hand battery-electric vehicle, every buyer and seller asks themselves how the battery state of health (SoH) can be determined as precisely as possible.

First services, such as the "Aviloo Device", are already being offered in order to externally check the condition of the battery. But wouldn't it be much more interesting if there was a kind of "digital twin" of this exact battery that automatically saves all the information needed? A kind of "universal protocol" that provides the SoH - regardless of the manufacturer?

Here is the kicker: Such a "Battery Twin Model" could not only store all the important information, but also provides useful tips on how to handle this individual battery in real-time and in the future. (1) How to charge, (2) How to use the battery better and even (3) Predict its own service life under certain conditions. Brilliant, if such a thing existed!

Meanwhile, there are countless tips on the internet about the Do's and Don't of battery charging. But even research has not yet been able to provide a universal model that applies to every cell chemistry, every cell format, every charging profile, cooling system and type of use.

Our guest for today is Dr. Billy Wu. He is a Reader (Associate Professor) and Director of Research in the Dyson School of Design Engineering at Imperial College London. He works in the area of electrochemical design engineering.

Our guest for today's episode is John S. Kem, President of American Battery Factory. ABF is currently building up a 4-GWh LFP gigafactory in Tucson, Arizona. A business approach, you wouldnt necessarily see in Europe.

Asking John Kem about strong Chinese battery cell competitors such as BYD or CATL doesn't upset him much: The market for lithium-iron phosphate cells is growing largely within the US. Plus, in times of America-First politics the need for a domestic battery cell production seems to be substantial. So why not ramp-up an LFP line in Arizona?

LFP cells (compared to NMC battery cells) are considered to be much more (1) cost effective, (2) more durable, (3) more environmentally friendly and (4) safer. That's why John Kem is certain that there will be many battery producers in the United States building stationary storage systems in the foreseeable future.

https://americanbatteryfactory.com/

How battery modeling saves unnecessary investments and time! Today, we are talking to Gavin White (CEO About:Energy), a #battery software company from London. About:Energy operates an interesting business model!

(1) The startup is testing numerous commercially available battery cells in order to publish reliable data for European OEMs. Prior to a purchase deal between a car OEM and a cell manufacturer, About:Energy's data is an important external opinion, checking the battery's datasheet. The cell library "Voltt" serves as a cell library, battery producers may get licensed to.

(2) About:Energy helps manufacturers with their cell modelings, directly! By this approach, the lifespan of fresh cells could be prolonged. The cell models suggest different paths in research and development. Plus, they can reveal new unique selling points for the manufacturer.

Moreover, About:Energy offers a Battery #Pack configurator: Apparently, lots of European OEMs still struggle to build their battery packs without any help of modeling. About:Energy's solution, the configurator, provides reliable pack data such as temperatures, current flows, voltage models and physical circuit suggestions, so framework conditions and safety requirements can be met.

Source: https://www.aboutenergy.io

As electric vehicles are getting more popular battery technology has become a focus of interest. EV owners regularly ask themselves how to treat a vehicle’s battery. How should an EV be charged, parked or driven if the inside batteries should be kept in best possible shape?

Prof. David Howey from the University of Oxford researches topics such as the degradation of batteries and battery state of health. This follow-up podcast deals with the following user questions.

1) How to „use batteries better“ with battery lifetime models

Dear listeners, thank you so much for sending in all your questions. We unfortunately couldnt deal with all of them.

Prof. David Howey at the University of Oxford

Battery manufacturers around the world have been announcing solid-state cells for its groundbreaking characteristics. Yes, we see multiple outstanding (almost-) solid-state lab cells (some of which are already on the market!) but the high expectations have never really met reality: Not a single car manufacturer is currently placing all-solid-state cells in their EVs. So, whats taking them so long?

Our podcast guest Prof. Jennifer Rupp researches solid state materials for sustainable energy storage and conversion. Her research on batteries is currently centered on designing novel classes of lithium solid state conductors, inventing cheap battery solid state synthesis routes for new hybrid and solid cell designs and defining cyber-physical battery synthesis and high throughput analytics.

We ask her how solid-state batteries work and what types of ASSBs (All-Solid-State-Batteries) could deliver tomorrow's best performance. Obviously, like in current lithium-ion batteries, the interplay between anode, cathode and electrolyte is mystery but determinant of success at the same time.

So what material approaches for solid state electrolytes batteries are the experts talking about? Solid electrolytes can be divided into organic and inorganic electrolytes. For inorganic electrolytes, the advantages for safety are predominant as they are non-flammable and do not contain toxic materials. Oxide-based electrolytes usually have good chemical stability and are compatible with high-energy cathode materials. However, the ion conductivity is lower than for sulfide-based electrolytes. Sulfide-based electrolytes generally have a higher ionic conductivity, but are more chemically unstable. For more, click in, tune in and stay charged!

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This podcast episode deals with an energy storage technology that is still underestimated in materials science: Hybrid battery supercaps. Supercaps are installed, for example, for regenerative braking (recuperation) in vehicles such as buses, trains, cranes and trains. These powerful energy storage systems are also found in wind turbines. Now, the Estonian company Skeleton Technologies invented a new hybrid form of "battery supercaps".

Dr. Sebastian Pohlmann is Vice President of Business Development at Skeleton Technologies. Skeleton is a developer and manufacturer of energy storage devices for transport, grid and automotive applications.

There is few, but they do already exist today: Hybrid battery supercaps. The Estonian materials researchers are trying to take advantage of the characteristics of both worlds: The power density of supercaps and the energy density of batteries. This is historically not groundbreaking - but seems more promising than ever.

Skeleton's "SuperBattery" achieve up to 50,000 charging cycles with ultra-fast 1-minute charging. The "SuperBattery" - like every supercapacitor - is said to be free of cobalt, copper, nickel, and soon to be used in public transportation vehicles (i.e., buses, trucks) and charging infrastructure. The company is also hoping to soon equip large mining and off-road machines with its battery.

Link: https://www.skeletontech.com/superbattery

As Asian and Western battery manufacturers see India as a super attractive consumer market, India itself is trying to empower its own domestic battery producers. According to Prof. Amreesh Chandra, a growing part of India's young battery industry takes a bet on a specific domestic battery material mix: Sodium-ion batteries.

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These cell innovations rely on sodium carbonate, sodium hydroxide (electrolyte) as well as aluminum (current collectors), iron phosphate (cathode) and hard carbons (anode). "All of these materials can be mined, produced and deployed by companies in India, says Prof. Amreesh Chandra. His research at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) proves the following advantages of sodium-ion batteries for electric bikes:

India's Sodium-Ion Batteries

Prof. Dr. Maitane Berecibar is an expert for self-healing cell properties and battery sensors. She is the head of the Battery Innovation Center in the MOBI research group at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). Her expertise of the Battery Innovation Center includes emerging battery technologies, battery manufacturing, self-healing properties, sensor integration, modeling activities (electrochemical, thermal, electrical, lifetime), cooling system development, second life and safety. And that is what she is talking about.

The advantages of self-healing batteries and sensors are obvious: Very stable, sustainable, long-living, smart and safe batteries that provide valuable data for a secondary life. Sounds wonderful! But, Prof. Berecibar is not afraid of hiding the technology's downsides: Right now, scientists are still developing concept lab cells, that are yet quite expensive, complex to build and difficult to understand.

One of the most significant questions for the battery industry remains unclear, though. Is it possible to scale up self-healing battery production while implementing life-time prolonging properties to each and every cell chemistry, individually? And, why would a battery manufacturer actually consider selling "forever batteries" in the first place (serious question!)?

Our podcast guest for this episode is Prof. David Howey. He is a British Professor of Engineering Science at the University of Oxford and holds a Tutorial Fellow at St Hilda’s College. His research is focused on modelling and managing energy storage systems, for electric vehicles (EVs) as well as grid and off-grid power systems.

Battery state of health (SOH) is a measurement that indicates the level of degradation and remaining capacity of the battery. Expressed in a simple way, it describes the difference between the health of a new battery and the health of a used battery. Typically, this is represented as a percentage of its initial capacity and performance.

According to Prof. Howey's expectations, most EV batteries are projected to last hundreds of charging cycles (most LiBs) without a noticeable loss in SOH. However, EV batteries do age over time even if the battery isn't used at all.

Apparently, there are always minor losses in battery capacity: Especially fast charging does harm the battery in case of a bad thermal battery management. At higher temperatures, one of the effects on lithium-ion batteries' is greater charging performance & lower degradation. That's why many EVs heat their batteries up before charging them at higher speeds. In winter times, when temperatures are low outside, this can get quite important when looking at a high life-expectancy of an EV's battery.

As supply chains of battery materials are fragile, raw materials are getting expensive. At the same time vast amounts of old done (cobalt-rich) batteries are available for a circular economy. That's why battery recycling is getting more and more attention! Plus, the EU Battery Regulation now forces battery makers to strictly follow sustainability rules, anyways. Let's have a look at the recycling plans of Sweden's largest battery maker Northvolt.

Our podcast guest on this episode is Prof. Emma Nehrenheim. She is a Professor for Environmental Engineering at Mälardalen University. As an academic researcher and industry innovator she wants to deliver the world's greenest battery for her employer. She summarizes her innovation efforts as follows: “It’s clear to me that batteries are the enabler to so much of [my] vision for electrification, but there are better and worse ways to build a battery from an environmental perspective."

The "better way" of "building a battery" includes a functioning recycling strategy. Fortunately, scienists optimized two very sophisticated paths of how to recycle a useless, done battery: They are based on either (1) pyrometallurgic recycling and/or (2) hydrometallurgic recycling technologies. Pyrometallurgic techniques are already frequently used to get back common battery materials. But this comes with an enormous energy input. Northvolt‘s hydrometallurgical recycling technology on the other side retrieves lithium, nickel, cobalt, and other metals from its black mass. The process produces these metals at a rather high grade so they can be used to create new batteries afterwards. The hydromet technology works with all formats and chemistries of lithium-ion batteries and can recover almost all batteries’ materials. The following high-performing metal products produced from this black mass come with battery-grade purity levels: (1) Lithium carbonate, (2) Cobalt sulfate, (3) Nickel sulfate, (4) Manganese carbonate.

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