Lithium News

BMW adds plug-in hybrid 330e to its 3-series lineup

November 17, 2018 By Editor

BMW unveiled the seventh generation of the 3 Series compact sedan at the Paris Motor Show earlier this year. Added to that series is a new plug-in hybrid 330e that the automaker announced this week. This PHEV includes BMW’s latest eDrive Technology to enhance both efficiency and performance.

A key component of the new BMW 330e plug-in is the addition of XtraBoost, a system that allows the sedan to increase system output temporary by up to 41 horsepower (30 kW). That drives the 330e’s already powerful 252 horsepower (185 kW) output up to 293 hp (215 kW). The 330e also sees its all-electric driving range increased to up 50 percent, to 37 miles (60 km) over the previous generation 3 Series plug-in. Fuel economy is improved by about 10 percent in the process.

The BMW 330e’s drivetrain starts with a 2.0-liter four-cylinder twin-turbocharged engine that outputs 184 horsepower (135 kW). That engine is mated to a 68 hp (50 kW) motor with a peak output of 109 hp (80 kW) for a total system output of 252 horsepower. An eight-speed Steptronic automatic transmission houses both the motor and gearing, allowing for integration of recuperative braking to restore power to the car’s batteries.

BMW says that together, the engine, motor, and transmission propel the 330e from 0 to 62 mph (100 km/h) in six seconds. Top speed for the car is 143 mph (230 km/h) and top speed in all-electric driving for the 330e is up to 87 mph (140 km/h), an improvement of 18 and 12 mph (30 and 20 km/h) respectively.

Power for the BMW 330e is stored in a 12.0-kWh lithium-ion battery pack. This gives the 330e that aforementioned all-electric range of up to 37 miles per charge. The high-voltage battery rests beneath the rear seating and the fuel tank sits behind that over the rear axle, helping to create an even weight distribution. Fuel economy for the BMW 330e is now up to 1.7 l/100km (about 138 mpg) using the European WLTP test cycle for NEDC.

The BMW 330e has several drive modes for the driver to select from. These include Hybrid, Electric, and Sport mode. Sport mode allows the use of XtraBoost for more power output and gears the 330e towards performance. XtraBoost is dependent on battery pack charge state to operate.

BMW says that the 330e will have the full range of optional equipment available for the 3 Series, including model variants such as the Advantage, Sport Line, Luxury Line, and M Sport. A full range of driver assistance and advanced safety equipment can be included with the 330e, depending on packages chosen. Standard with the BMW 330e will be passenger cabin pre-conditioning, heating or cooling the cabin to a set temperature using the BMW app suite and a connected smartphone. This remote-control system works regardless of the 330e’s battery charge state.

The new BMW 330e will launch in the summer of 2019 (Northern Hemisphere). At launch, BMW says it will have new digital services to make charging the 330e more convenient when out and about. This will work through the navigation system, and includes services such as pointing out nearby hotels, restaurants, cafes, and tourist attractions near charging stations. Some connected charging stations can even show their availability in real time, allowing the driver to navigate directly to the plug. Charging station reservations will also be possible in the near future, BMW says.

Sequestering Carbon Dioxide Using a Novel Lithium Battery

November 16, 2018 By Editor

A scanning electron microscopy image of the carbon cathode of a carbon dioxide lithium battery after discharging shows a build-up of carbonate material on the surface. If the carbon dioxide came from power plant emissions, the carbonates might be one way to sequester the greenhouse gas. The inset shows the original surface without carbonate build-up.

The prototypes of electrical power plants that are equipped with carbon capture systems can use up to 30 percent of their generated electricity just to power the capture and storage of carbon dioxide (CO2). It’s hard to make the economics of such systems work favorably, which is why new research by MIT has sparked interest. Researchers there are looking into a lithium battery that converts CO2 into a solid mineral carbonate during discharge.

Beyond the Usual Approach

There are basically two thoughts when it comes to carbon capture and sequestration (CCS). The first is to capture the CO2 from the combustion gases from a fossil fuel power plant, liquefy it under extremely high pressures, and inject it into geologically stable structures deep underground for long-term storage. The second approach is to take the captured CO2 and alter it into a fuel or chemical feedstock to make other materials. Typically, this method uses expensive catalyst materials to initiate the required chemical reactions.

The MIT research team has come up with a new approach:

Use the CO2 in a power plant waste stream and combine it with other materials to form one of the main components of a battery. The battery could then continuously convert carbon dioxide into a solid mineral carbonate as it discharges. The carbonate byproduct could be used for other purposes or disposed of by burying it in landfills.

Generally, because CO2 is not very reactive, it requires large energy inputs in the form of high voltages in order to get it to exhibit significant electrochemical activity. This is both expensive and inefficient, according to a news release about the research from MIT.

There has been recent interest in the development of lithium carbon dioxide batteries that use the gas as a reactant during the discharge of the battery. The low reactivity of CO2 has typically required the use of costly metal catalysts to promote the reaction, which is difficult to control and not well understood.

Using CO2 Capture to Build Batteries

MIT mechanical engineering professor Betar Gallant and her team of researchers have expertise in the electrochemical reactions that underlie lithium-based batteries. They decided to look into “…whether carbon-dioxide-capture chemistry could be put to use to make carbon-dioxide-loaded electrolytes—one of the three essential parts of a battery—where the captured gas could then be used during the discharge of the battery to provide a power output,” according to the MIT release.

Using CO2 in a liquid state, the team found a way to achieve electrochemical carbon dioxide conversion using only a carbon electrode. This was done by preactivating the carbon dioxide by incorporating it into an amine solution—a solution similar to that used to capture CO2 during CCS. The amine acts as a molecular promoter that is not consumed in the reaction. “What we’ve shown for the first time is that this technique activates the carbon dioxide for more facile electrochemistry,” Gallant said. “These two chemistries—aqueous amines and nonaqueous battery electrolytes—are not normally used together, but we found that their combination imparts new and interesting behaviors that can increase the discharge voltage and allow for sustained conversion of carbon dioxide.”

Future Potential

The system developed by the MIT team is not in any way ready for prime time. The cycle life of the battery is limited to just 10 charge-discharge cycles before the components degrade, for example. “Lithium-carbon dioxide batteries are years away” as a viable product, Gallant said. The research by the MIT team covers just one of several needed advances to make them practical.

Nevertheless, Gallant believes that the concept offers great potential—especially if a continuous operation version of the process can be developed. This would allow a steady stream of carbon dioxide under pressure, mixed with the amine solution, to deliver steady power while capturing a power plant’s emissions—converting them into usable products. “It’s one way to sequester it as a useful product,” Gallant said.

What happens to old lithium-ion battery packs from electric cars?

November 16, 2018 By Editor

Electric cars are a critical subject, and are likely to remain so as buyers respond to knee-jerk legislation by turning to electric vehicles (EVs) – be it plug-in hybrid or pure electric. Sales of those cars eligible for the (now reduced) government plug-in car grant are up 30 per cent year-on-year in the UK according to the SMMT, with 26,482 registered in the first half of 2018.

Notwithstanding the issues of excavating precious metals, there is a significant environmental burden associated with plug-in cars that must be considered: the batteries.

The scale of the issue

Most modern EVs use lithium-ion batteries; much the same as those that power your phone, toothbrush, tablet and most portable electrical items. Given how unfathomably numerous these small batteries are, it says a lot that EV batteries are expected to account for 90 per cent of the lithium-ion battery market by 2025 according to a recent forecast by consultancy firm Roskill.

For a longer-range forecast, consider that the UK government intends for all new cars and vans to be plug-in EVs by 2040. Assuming the new car market remains as buoyant as it is now, that equates to about 2.5 million new cars – and therefore battery packs – each year.

While the sheer volume of EV batteries that will need to be re-purposed or recycled is undoubtedly daunting, it’s worth starting on the positive note that these batteries have a long lifespan, and have proven very reliable. Most lithium-ion batteries will last about eight to 10 years before their performance drops to around 70 per cent (or less) of what it was when new.

So what can be done with these batteries when they reach the point that they need to be re-used or recycled?

Power storage for your home and business

One popular solution is to re-use them as power storage for domestic and commercial buildings. Nissan recently launched the largest power storage facility in Europe to use both new and used car batteries; the Johan Cruyff ArenA in Amsterdam uses 63 used EV battery packs and 85 new battery packs, which feed off of 4,200 solar panels on the stadium roof.

This does not mean that the ArenA is entirely “off grid”. It still relies heavily on mains power, but the EV battery-powered energy storage system acts as a back-up generator that can run the stadium during a major event (the equivalent power drain of around 7,000 homes) for up to an hour. It will also be used to back up the stadium’s energy supply during times of heavy power usage, which will reduce the drain on the grid.

Nissan also offers an off-the-shelf home or commercial energy storage unit called xStorage – a rival to the Tesla Powerwall 2 system – although Nissan’s is different in that you can choose to have used or new EV batteries.

As with the ArenA, getting solar panels and a Powerwall 2 or xStorage system fitted to your home doesn’t actually mean that you’ll be “off grid”. Rather, it will significantly reduce your dependence on mains power, reduce strain on the grid at peak hours and, of course, you can use it charge your EV.

There’s an appealing circuitousness to the situation if used EV batteries can provide a home energy solution to solve the potential issue of increased electric car charging putting too much strain on the power grid at certain times.

Even so, energy storage is not a one-shot solution for the used EV battery issue, and some don’t think it’s a solution at all.

Transport applications require a highly energy-dense battery to provide the necessary range, which makes batteries that contain cobalt very desirable, but stationary energy storage units don’t need to be so compact and relatively light. Cobalt is a critical issue in battery production. Much of it is sourced from the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the mining process raises serious ethical and human rights concerns. This is likely to be one of the greatest challenges as demand for lithium-ion batteries rises.

Dr Gavin Harper, a Faraday Institution Research Fellow at the Birmingham Energy Institute’s project on recycling and reuse of lithium-ion batteries, stated that “if we face constraints around cobalt, some feel we should focus this precious resource on more demanding applications such as EVs. It may make more economic sense to recycle EV batteries for use in brand new batteries rather than using them in a used state in a less demanding application [such as power storage]”.

Mercedes-Benz would agree. The German manufacturer also launched a home energy storage system using lithium-ion batteries from its range of EVs in April 2017, but the product was axed only a year later, with the company claiming that “it’s not necessary to have a car battery at home. They don’t move, they don’t freeze, it’s overdesigned.” So, for Mercedes-Benz at least, the costs didn’t add up.

Nissan, however, is adamant that EV battery technology is transferable to home use. A spokesperson stated that Nissan “is committed to operating in the energy services market and is strongly placed to utilise both new and second life EV batteries for energy storage in a way that is commercially viable”.

Tesla is also heavily invested in home and commercial energy storage with its Powerwall 2, although this uses new, rather than used, batteries.

What about recycling them?

Recycling EV batteries is difficult but not impossible. It’s not like a standard petrol or diesel car’s lead-acid battery (used for starting the engine), which can be smashed up and have the plastics and lead recycled easily.

Belgian-based Umicore is among the companies already offering recycling for lithuim-ion batteries, reclaiming the valuable metals using a process based on the combination of pyro-metallurgy and hydro-metallurgy. While the company currently runs a pilot plant, it can still recycle about 35,000 EV batteries per year and, according to a company spokesperson, “can easily scale up our recycling activities when the market grows, which we expect to happen in 2025”.

Even better, metals are infinitely recyclable, so they can be reclaimed from used batteries and employed to produce new batteries that are as good as any other.

Tesla is also open about its intentions to recycle its batteries in this way, to the point where recycled metals from its batteries would negate the need to mine new metals. Tesla’s chief technical officer JB Straubel said earlier this year that Tesla is “developing more processes on how to improve this recycling process to get more of the active materials back and, ultimately, what we want is a closed loop that reuses the same recycled materials. That is where we are headed with this”.

Another aspect for manufacturers to consider is to actually design batteries for recycling. For example, Tesla’s batteries are constructed using an epoxy resin that makes recycling problematic. Dr Harper points out that “if we want to move towards a circular economy of batteries, we need to ‘design out’ the recycling challenges”.

What if other battery technology replaces lithium-ion?

There’s significant interest around sodium-ion batteries, which are similar to lithium-ion ones except that sodium is much more widely available – and cheaper. These batteries would be similarly recyclable to lithium-ion items.

The other big hope for the future is solid state batteries. This battery tech uses a solid electrolyte (the chemical mixture that allows and regulates the flow of current) rather than the liquid electrolyte used today, which promises to make the batteries safer and able to provide more energy. Toyota, BMW and Dyson are among the significant players which have stated a clear intent to be using solid state batteries in the near future.

According to Peter Slater, professor of materials chemistry and co-director of the Birmingham Centre for Energy Storage, the recyclability of solid state batteries “would present different challenges in terms of separating the components. In particular, it is likely that it would need chemical separation routes, such as those being developed through the Faraday Institution’s ‘ReLib’ project”.

Ultimately, if the appalling environmental implications of putting batteries into landfill weren’t persuasive enough, the other cold truth is that the metals they contain are too valuable to waste.

So, while there may be many and varied answers to the question of “where do used EV batteries go?”, ecological and economic good reason are unanimous on one thing: not into the ground.

Polymer sponge lining could double life of lithium ion batteries

November 16, 2018 By Editor

A 3D cross-linked polymer sponge that attaches to the metal plating of a battery anode could lead to lithium metal batteries that last longer, charge faster and are safer.

This is the claim of researchers from Penn State University whose findings have been published in Nature Energy.

“This project aims to develop the next generation of metal batteries,” said Donghai Wang, professor of mechanical engineering and the principal investigator of the project. “Lithium metal has been tried in batteries for decades, but there are some fundamental issues that inhibit their advancement.”

Fast-charging scenarios – such as with electric vehicles – put lithium ion (Li) batteries under additional strain that leaves them vulnerable to dendritic growth, which are needle-like formations that can reduce cycle life and potentially cause catastrophic safety issues.

“Our approach was to use a polymer on the interface of Li metal,” Wang said. The material is said to act as a porous sponge that not only promotes ion transfer but also inhibits deterioration.

“This allowed the metal plating to be free of dendrites, even at low temperatures and fast charge conditions,” he said.

Wang, who is an affiliated faculty member at the Penn State Institutes of Energy and the Environment (IEE), also belongs to the Battery Energy and Storage Technology Center (BEST), a research institute in energy storage.

A critical component of both IEE and the BEST Centre’s mission, this project brought together researchers from different disciplines within the university.The collaboration in this cohort really helped drive this paper forward,” Wang said. “It allowed us to examine the different aspects of this problem, from materials science, chemical engineering, chemistry, and mechanical engineering perspectives.”

In this collaborative work, Long-Qing Chen’s group in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering conducted modelling work to understand the improvement of Li metal anodes.

The practical applications of this work could enable more powerful and stable metal battery technologies integral to everyday life, the researchers said.

“In an electric vehicle, it could increase the range of a drive before needing a charge by hundreds of miles,” said Wang. “It could also give smartphones a longer battery life.”

Looking to the future, the team will explore the practical applications in a large-format battery cell to demonstrate its advantages and feasibility.

Wang said, “We want to push these technologies forward. With this work, I’m positive we can double the life cycle of these Li metal batteries.”

Alliance Ventures invests in lithium-ion-battery company

November 16, 2018 By Editor

Alliance Ventures, the strategic venture capital arm of Groupe Renault-Nissan Motor Co.-Mitsubishi Motors, recently invested in in advanced lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery technology company Enevate Corp.

Enevate has developed Li-ion batteries capable of charging extreme quickly and with high energy density. The silicon-dominant technology has the potential to enable electric vehicles (EVs) to recharge in the same amount of time it takes to refuel conventional vehicles.

The technology also allows for low-temperature operation in cold climates.

The continued development of Li-ion batteries is critical to speed up the adoption of EVs, Alliance Global said.

“We share the common goal of making electric vehicles easier to use and adopt in mass markets,” Robert A. Rango, Enevate president and CEO, said. “We look forward to our strategic partnership with Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi, as they are a global leader in electric vehicles and they understand the market needs of EV consumers worldwide.”

Alliance Ventures was launched this year with the goal of supporting entrepreneurs, early-stage development, and start-ups creating next-generation systems for the automotive industry.

Enevate, based in Irvine, Calif., licenses its technology to EV automotive and battery manufacturers and suppliers worldwide. Other company investors include Samsung, Lenovo, LG Chem, Infinite Potential Technologies, and Draper Fisher Jurvetson.

Alliance Ventures backs US Li-ion battery co Enevate

November 15, 2018 By Editor

Alliance Ventures, the strategic venture capital arm of Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi, has invested in the latest funding round of California-based lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery technology company Enevate Corporation.

The financing, of an undisclosed size, aims to advance Li-ion battery technology for electric vehicles (EVs).

“This strategic investment allows us to support the development of Enevate proprietary cutting edge electrode technology. Continued development in this critical field will help us accelerate the electrification of our vehicles,” said Francois Dossa, Alliance Global Vice President, Ventures and Open Innovation.

Enevate says its Li-ion batteries are capable of extreme fast charging with high energy density and safety. The technology makes it possible for EVs to be charged in the same time as refuelling conventional cars, the announcement mentions.

The company’s HD-Energy Technology allows for five-minute fast charging, currently the shortest charging time provided by a Li-ion technology according to Enevate. It also enables low-temperature operation in cold climates.

BMW adds plug-in hybrid 330e to its 3-series lineup