Lithium News

In many parts of the world, it’s cheaper to build new renewable-energy projects than fossil-fuel power plants. To fully replace carbon-based fuels, however, we need solutions to store large amounts of energy for when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow.

So far, the answer has been lithium-ion batteries. However, because these batteries are expensive, installations on the electric grid in places like California and Australia are only able to store enough energy to provide power for at most a few hours.

The Boston-based startup Malta thinks it has one answer in the form of heat pumps, chilled chambers, and molten salt. On Dec. 19, it graduated from Alphabet’s secretive X lab and raised $26 million toward building its first full-scale pilot plant. The funding round was led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures, which was set up by Bill Gates with support from the likes of Jeff Bezos, Michael Bloomberg, Jack Ma, and Mukesh Ambani.

A huge refrigerator

Malta developed the technology based on the work of Nobel laureate Robert Laughlin. He explained the system in a research paper in the Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy, published in August 2017.

The idea is to use excess electricity from solar panels and wind turbines to run a large heat pump. “It’s essentially a refrigerator on steroids,” says Adrienne Little, the startup’s technical lead. It extracts heat from a chamber full of antifreeze-like chemicals, lowering the temperature to –50°C (–58 °F). That heat is dumped in another chamber where salt—not exactly table salt, but similar—is heated to as high as 550°C (1,000°F). These insulated chambers hold the energy until it’s needed. That’s when a heat engine—essentially like a steam turbine inside a power plant—is used to convert the heat and the cold back to usable electricity.

In many parts of the world, it’s cheaper to build new renewable-energy projects than fossil-fuel power plants. To fully replace carbon-based fuels, however, we need solutions to store large amounts of energy for when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow.

So far, the answer has been lithium-ion batteries. However, because these batteries are expensive, installations on the electric grid in places like California and Australia are only able to store enough energy to provide power for at most a few hours.

The Boston-based startup Malta thinks it has one answer in the form of heat pumps, chilled chambers, and molten salt. On Dec. 19, it graduated from Alphabet’s secretive X lab and raised $26 million toward building its first full-scale pilot plant. The funding round was led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures, which was set up by Bill Gates with support from the likes of Jeff Bezos, Michael Bloomberg, Jack Ma, and Mukesh Ambani.

A huge refrigerator

Malta developed the technology based on the work of Nobel laureate Robert Laughlin. He explained the system in a research paper in the Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy, published in August 2017.

The idea is to use excess electricity from solar panels and wind turbines to run a large heat pump. “It’s essentially a refrigerator on steroids,” says Adrienne Little, the startup’s technical lead. It extracts heat from a chamber full of antifreeze-like chemicals, lowering the temperature to –50°C (–58 °F). That heat is dumped in another chamber where salt—not exactly table salt, but similar—is heated to as high as 550°C (1,000°F). These insulated chambers hold the energy until it’s needed. That’s when a heat engine—essentially like a steam turbine inside a power plant—is used to convert the heat and the cold back to usable electricity.

Battery maker 24M just received funding for its SemiSolid lithium-ion battery that could have Tesla and other electric carmakers beat in energy storage and electric vehicle driving range.

The company, made up of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) scientists and a former A123 Systems co-founder, secured nearly $22 million that will take the battery pack to a commercial plant next year with delivery of batteries available in 2020. That funding goes to battery technology with more energy density and storage capacity than what Tesla offers.

Headquartered in Cambridge, Mass., a few blocks away from MIT, 24M brought in two Japanese companies to lead the funding round. That backing comes from ceramics and electronics giant Kyocera Group and Itochu, a textiles and trading business.

Tesla’s electric vehicles use battery technology that carries electrode current into and out of a battery cell. They’re arranged in a series of layers that become wound up into what auto engineers call a jelly roll. The way 24M’s battery varies is that it uses different materials that are four-to-five times thicker than what Tesla and other automakers offer. The SemiSolid can immediately pair up the anodes and cathodes together in a cell.

This will speed up the manufacturing process by cutting out a number of steps typically used in EV battery production. Li-ion batteries typically go through a multistep process that involves mixing, coating, drying, and recovering a solvent that eventually fills the battery with electrolyte. 24M’s battery uses the electrolyte as the solvent to deposit that ingredient onto both sides of the battery, cutting out the typical time and cost needed for production.

It also cuts down the need for inactive materials such as copper, aluminum, and plastics. That will bring down the battery’s costs and the amount of energy needed to charge it up. The company’s process also helps guarantee that more of the electrodes go to storing energy — helping 24M enter another profitable market segment that Tesla thrives in through its Tesla Energy unit.

The current version of 24M’s batteries have energy density between 280 and 300 watt-hours per kilogram (Wh/kg). That’s beyond the 250 Wh/kg available to car buyers willing to pay for high-end battery pack options on competitors’ EV models.

The company says its already demonstrated in the lab that its 350 Wh/kg version is feasible. The 24M engineering design team is on a path to building lithium-ion batteries capable of reaching energy density close to 500 Wh/kg, which is double the best of what’s on the market today.

The target market for the SemiSolid battery technology is EVs, promising longer EV driving range, lower battery cost, and faster manufacturing time. The company is also targeting the grid energy storage market, which would help customers better harness wind and solar power. That puts them in line to compete with Tesla Energy, Daimler, BMW, Renault, Nissan, and other automakers.

These and other companies are aggressively pushing toward batteries that will increase higher energy density. That may include alternative electrode chemistries and solid electrolytes.

Solid-state batteries is taking the lead in next generation li-ion batteries coming from Toyota, Volkswagen, Fisker, Hyundai, BMW, and others. VW is working with supplier QuantumScape to produce EV batteries going from the present 300 kilometers (186.4 miles) in the E-Golf up to 750 kilometers (466 miles) that would lead the market in range. The German automaker put $100 million into QuantumScape for a battery joint venture company with the solid-state battery startup.

VW is betting that its cell energy density will increase nearly a quarter between 2018 and 2025. That comes from higher nickel content and eventually from a higher-voltage electrolyte. Investing in the new battery technology is essential for the German automaker’s ambitious EV product lineup coming out by 2025 — in order for car buyers to take them seriously and make the purchase.

Another market trend impacting the future of EV batteries comes from reducing cobalt. That goes back to controversy of having to secure cobalt from the Democratic Republic of Congo, a country that has been under pressure for years to stop using child labor for mining cobalt. Tesla has been working on reducing the amount of cobalt going into its battery packs and PowerWalls for energy storage. The company says its batteries contain less than 3 percent cobalt, which is less than leading manufacturers in Asia are targeting for the future.

Daimler has been working to get away from higher cobalt prices by building in a higher ratio of nickel into the battery packs. Daimler and competitors have been researching a new ratio with a mix of nickel cobalt and manganese in their batteries.

The company sees NMC, lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide, as a very competitive route to go. Panasonic and its customer Tesla are using NCA, or lithium nickel cobalt aluminum oxide; while Nissan and LG Chem are using LMO, or lithium manganese oxide. Chinese manufacturers are trying out a composition called LFP that offers lower energy density without cobalt.

Korean manufacturer LG Chem is continuing to play a competitive role in the li-ion market. One of its top customers is General Motors and its Chevrolet Bolt electric car, which is competing directly with the popular Tesla Model 3. The LG Chem battery cells are using NMC, with the next generation, NMC 811, promising to extend the range on the Bolt. Currently, the Bolt’s battery pack weighs 960 lbs (435 kg), a bit less than the Model 3.

The race is on to find the leading battery technology that will be integral in EVs reaching mass-market sales.

Maruti Suzuki India Ltd has started work on its first full hybrid car, with the government finally signalling its intention to offer incentives for hybrid cars, along with electric cars. India’s largest carmaker is working on greater localization of parts for such vehicles while it prepares for the opening of a lithium ion battery plant in Gujarat being built jointly by the Suzuki-Toyota alliance. Maruti Suzuki currently sells a mild hybrid version of its Ciaz sedan.

Kenichi Ayukawa, managing director of Maruti Suzuki India, said on Wednesday that the company is expecting tax benefits from the union government for hybrid cars.

“We are pushing for localization of components like lithium ion batteries and others. We are already in the process of implementing the battery plant and are planning for a strong hybrid vehicle as well,” Ayukawa said in an interview on the sidelines of a press conference. “We are trying to collaborate with Toyota in pushing the hybrid system nationwide if the government supports (with some cuts in tax rates).”

The government was initially inclined to offer the incentives only to electric cars in a bid to promote the sale of such eco-friendly vehicles and arrest rampant pollution in its major cities. However, relentless lobbying by Japanese companies in favour of hybrid cars led to a shift in the stance.

Subsequently, the ministry of road transport and highways recommended a reduction in the rate of goods and services tax (GST) on hybrid cars. The department of heavy industry also sought incentives for 10,000 hybrid vehicles in the second phase of the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles (FAME).

The prime minister’s office is also in favour of incentivizing manufacture of lithium ion batteries that can be used for both hybrid and electric vehicles.

Suzuki and Toyota have formed a partnership to develop small electric and hybrid vehicles for the Indian market and it is expected that Suzuki will collaborate with Toyota for the first full hybrid car that will be launched by the company in India.

Suzuki has two alliances—one where it will produce lithium-ion batteries in Gujarat in collaboration with Denso Corp. and Toshiba Corp.; and another with the world’s largest automaker, Toyota Motor Corp., to sell electric cars in India by 2020.

“Globally, Toyota is the best when it comes to hybrid technology and we are trying to learn (from them). We will try to collaborate. We, at Suzuki, also have some system but Toyota’s technology is very advanced. We have to learn a lot of things,” said Ayukawa. “The hybrid technology is still not so much cheaper,” he said. “So, for small cars, we have to consider a different option.”

Carmakers, especially those from Japan, are lobbying the government to popularize hybrid vehicles as this will give them enough room to develop electric vehicles while reducing vehicle emissions and comply with stricter emission rules set to be enforced from 2022 under corporate average fuel efficiency (CAFE) norms.

From 1 April 2017, India adopted CAFE norms, which require cars to be 30% or more fuel-efficient from 2022 and 10% or more by 2021.

“Going forward, the government may offer incentives on manufacturing lithium ion batteries in the electric vehicle policy and tax rates on hybrid vehicles may also come down. So it makes sense for companies to invest in hybrid before moving to complete electric,” said Puneet Gupta, associate director, passenger vehicle forecast, IHS Markit, a global consultancy firm.

The government has been urging automakers to cut emissions from new vehicles.

“We have always been saying that hybrid technology needs to be encouraged till the time we can develop the electric technology. It helps reduce carbon emissions and will result in fuel import reduction by almost 30%,” Maruti Suzuki chairman R.C. Bhargava said at the press meet.

24M, a start-up angling to disrupt the already-disruptive lithium-ion battery industry with the design and production of semi-solid lithium cells, has raised US$21.8 million in a Series D funding round.

The company, founded by MIT materials scientist Yet-Ming Chiang, is developing “ultra-low cost” batteries for a range of energy storage applications, based on manufacturing processes and designs that it claims eliminate some of the most costly or painstaking steps of mainstream lithium battery making today.

Japan’s Kyocera Group, which has a background in traditional and advanced ceramics and latterly hi-tech equipment including solar power systems and energy storage and another Japanese corporation, Itochu, led the funding round. Itochu is one of Japan’s big trading houses and is active in a number of areas from chemicals and textiles to energy solutions and equipment. The company launched its own integrated energy storage systems in October this year along with a ‘smart tariff’ from Japanese utility TEPCO and then in early December announced a partnership with US residential PV-plus-storage system manufacturer Sunnova.

Other investors also participated, including North Bridge Venture Partners, a previous contributor to 24M funding rounds. 24M said this week that the Series D cash will be used to scale up its lithium-ion battery production. It will also go towards the development of “affordable and advanced high density” solutions for electric vehicles (EVs).

Energy-Storage.news tends to cover battery and other energy storage technologies that have arrived at commercialisation, having successfully crossed the notorious “bridge of death” that lies between laboratory testing and the realisation of a sustainable market opportunity. Back in 2015, guest blogger Lilia Xie of Lux Research wrote extensively on how 24M had exited stealth mode and appeared to be gearing up to bring its products to market. The company subsequently signed a handful of supply partnerships across the industry.

“Standard Li-ion cells contain films of solid electrode materials in contact with liquid electrolytes. 24M’s patented innovation replaces these films with semi-solid electrodes made of Li-ion cathode and anode materials suspended in conventional liquid electrolytes. The company claims this design is easier and cheaper to manufacture,” Lilia Xie wrote.

According to 24M, using electrolyte as the processing solvent can eliminate several steps in the standard process for lithium battery production which can be capital and energy intensive, including drying and electrolyte filling. The design of 24M’s cells reduces or eliminates the need for certain inactive materials in batteries such as cell separators or copper and aluminium parts. 24M also says the addition of electrolyte at an early stage of the manufacturing process, during slurry mixing, aids the creation of high energy density devices.

We’ve been working diligently to advance our innovative technology and manufacturing process to address both the low-cost grid market, and, more recently, the high energy density requirements of the EV market. We recognize the importance of a high-performance, low-cost solution to a market moving towards regional production, and are ready to scale our cells and manufacturing process,” Rick Feldt, 24M’s CEO and president said.

“Demand for lithium-ion batteries is escalating rapidly due to increasing interest in electric vehicles and renewable energy, and the differentiated 24M manufacturing process and radical approach to cell design offers a powerful solution to cost-effectively respond to this need with a superior product,” Itochu’s industrial chemicals division general manager Koji Hasegawa said, adding that his company looked forward to promoting the global production of “next-generation SemiSolid lithium-ion batteries”.

The globe is evolving with its movement towards everything green. Examples are the current 68% year on year growth in electric cars (2018 sales should exceed 2 million), or the rapid rise of lithium-ion battery energy storage for homes, businesses, and commercial scale power operators. All this needs batteries, and ideally better and cheaper batteries.Nano One Materials Corp. has a patented cost reducing technology of nano-structured cathode materials, which they believe can address global demand for better and cheaper batteries. Cathode materials are found in the lithium ion batteries that power consumer electronics, electric vehicles, and energy storage.Joint Development Agreement with Saint-GobainOn December 18, 2018, Nano One CEO Dan Blondal, announced that the company has entered into a Joint Development Agreement with Saint-Gobain. The goal of the collaboration is to enhance the high temperature processing of Nano One’s lithium ion battery materials. This agreement adds to Nano One’s other current efforts and strategic interests in the lithium ion battery supply chain. This marks the first time Nano One has disclosed a strategic agreement and a huge one at that. Terms remain confidential but are obviously moving in the right direction for Nano One.

Saint-Gobain is a multi-billion Euro French multinational corporation, founded in 1665, and produces a wide variety of construction and high-performance materials for applications in automotive, aerospace, health and energy. Saint-Gobain has more than 179,000 employees, operates in 67 countries, and had €40.8 billion in sales in 2017.Nano One should benefit from aligning with a billion dollar peerThis means Nano One potentially stands to benefit from many aspects that Saint-Gobain offer such as: Intellectual property (especially high temperature chemical processing), connections in the lithium ion battery supply chain, and perhaps at some point financial backing to help scale up towards bigger lithium-ion battery (or at least cathode) production facilities. Saint-Gobain has also said they will join Nano One’s cathode pilot plant project as a consortium member.The development agreement confirms Nano One is heading in the right direction to disrupt the marketSome of the more promising cathode materials being developed by others are using processes with 50 to 100 steps with production cycles of 4 to 7 days. Nano One’s technology can use lower grade raw materials and complete a production cycle in less than a day. Nano One’s technology could reduce costs by up to 50% delivering robustly structured cathode materials that last 2-3 times longer, store more energy, and deliver more power. For electric vehicles this could translate into fewer battery cells, creating less weight. For consumer electronics this could mean greater storage, faster charging, or more power. Clearly billion dollar Saint-Gobain think Nano One is heading in the right direction.

Christmas at Nano OneNano One really is a company to keep an eye on, as any process that can make products cheaper and more efficient has a huge place in any consumer market. Finally, there is some irony that the Nano One agreement with “Saint” Gobain occurs just a few days before Santa Claus arrives.Nano One Materials Corp. is headquartered in Burnaby, Canada; and has a market cap of C$ 86.5 m.

Paul Shearing of UCL explains thermal runaway in lithium-based battery systems. For more comprehensive information on this issue, check out his paper ‘Identifying the Cause of Rupture of Li-Ion Batteries during Thermal Runaway’ in Advanced Science.

Do we know what causes thermal runaway in lithium-ion batteries?

Thermal runaway is a term which describes a range of failure mechanisms associated with Li-ion batteries: failures by thermal runaway result from a sequence of exothermic (energy-releasing) events, which ultimately generate heat at a rate faster than the battery can effectively manage, leading to cell failures which are characteristically catastrophic. In recent years, there have been a number of high-profile cases of thermal runaway; however, these events are extremely rare, with failure events estimated to be as low as one in 40 million cells. However, with the increasingly widespread adoption of Li-ion batteries across a range of applications, alongside increasing energy density, it is important to understand and mitigate these problems.

There are a range of issues that can trigger thermal runaway processes: unexpected chemical reactions, lithium plating inside the cell, short circuit as a result of contamination during the production process, or poor ‘balance’ between the positive and negative electrode. Typically, during a thermal runaway process, one exothermic process will generate sufficient heat to trigger a second, and so on until the cell undergoes significant ‘self heating’, leading to failure.

What measures need to be taken to prevent this from happening?

Firstly, we start with the effective and safe design of materials, cells, and production processes: rigorous materials selection mitigates the risk of any failures, and the highly sophisticated and automated cell production ensures effective quality control.

There are a range of safety mechanisms in cell and system designs that aim to prevent thermal runaway: the battery management system (BMS) manages the current and voltage limits of the cell and also monitors capacity fade, preventing cell operation in extreme temperature. Inside the cell, thermal fuses (or positive temperature co-efficient devices), shutdown separators, current interrupt devices, and bursting valves all help to prevent thermal runaway or mitigate its impact if it does occur.

How close are we to solving this issue?

New batteries are expected to have increasing power and energy density, enhanced durability, and reduced costs. All of this must be achieved in parallel to improving safety standards, particularly for demanding applications such as electric vehicles, where peak power delivery rates may be expected to be hundreds of kilowatts.

There are a range of innovations to cell hardware and materials that are attempting to tackle this, for example, the production of new separators that are more resistant to short circuiting, safer current collectors, and continual improvements to the manufacture and QC processes for ‘Giga Factory’ scale LIB production. Meanwhile, completely different cell chemistries (such as Na-ion or Al–air battery systems) may offer completely new directions to ensure battery safety.

So long as we pursue continuing increases to energy density (packing more energy into the same space and weight), it is paramount that work on battery safety continues.