Lithium News

Chinese scientists have found a way to solve the common problem of lithium batteries for phones, tablets and laptops losing power quickly or even catching fire, according to a study.

The solution, published in the Science Advances journal on Friday, involves turning batteries’ liquid into a solid or quasi-solid, with the help of a chemical compound called LiPF6.

The resulting gel-like substance was found to be more stable than the conventional liquid, remaining inert for more than 400 hours of testing, compared with the traditional substance, the study said.

While lithium batteries have high energy density – energy carried by a battery relative to its weight – they are plagued by a common problem called dendrite, which can drain their power and even cause fire.

“The uncontrolled lithium dendrite growth in liquid electrolytes still impedes lithium metal batteries from real commercialisation,” said Guo Yuguo, one of the lead authors on the study and a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing.

“Upgrading the traditional electrolyte system from liquid to solid and quasi-solid has therefore become a key issue for future lithium metal batteries.”

Dendrite are spikes and strands of lithium that grow on the battery’s anode – one side of the battery. When one charges a phone or an electric car, lithium ions move from one side to the other within the battery, travelling inside electrolyte, liquids or gels that can conduct electricity. After recharging a certain of number of times, enough dendrites accumulate to shorten battery life.

“The scientific community considers the lithium dendrite formation one of the biggest hurdles of the lithium metal batteries for real applications,” said Wei Bingqing, a material scientist with the University of Delaware in the US who was not involved in the research. “This study reports a simple but practicable approach to tackle the dendrite problem.”

The chemical compound they use to trigger the liquid-to-gel process, LiPF6, is widely employed in commercial lithium-ion batteries, said Wei.

“This is a smart move in the sense of both lithium dendrite suppression and compatibility to the state-of-the-art technologies applied in the lithium-ion battery industry.”

The problem could also cause phones to catch fire when charging. This may have caused the spontaneous ignition and explosion of a Samsung Galaxy Note 7 in late 2016, said Sina Ebnesajjad, a chemistry editor with scientific journal publisher Elsevier.

Scientists have been studying ways to improve the life expectancy and safety of lithium batteries for years. In September, a Pacific Northwest National Laboratory research team in the US developed a new electrolyte. Guo and his team at the Chinese Academy of Sciences have now also designed a special electrolyte that suppresses dendrite formation earlier this year.

Guo said the newly published study can be adapted to current battery system technologies, suggesting promise in its future application.

Executives from the battery maker Alevo, which went bankrupt last year, are hoping to relaunch the business with a different focus, under a new brand.

Alan Greenshields and Sergey Buchin, Alevo’s chief technology officer and chief operating officer, respectively, have purchased the intellectual property held by Alevo in Switzerland. They also bought its research and development facility in Bruchsal, Germany, and its only operational battery plant, located in the U.S.

Because of Alevo’s distressed position, a company administrator said earlier this year that the sale price was shaping up to be “surprisingly low.”

The company is now being rebooted this week under a new name, Innolith, and with a focus on R&D rather than battery manufacturing.

Innolish, which is registered in Basel, Switzerland, will look to license its technology to third-party manufacturers. The firm is about to sign agreements with a contract manufacturing company and a large production line machine maker, Buchin told GTM.

“It is important we secure our production strategy through partnerships,” he said.

In this respect, Greenshields, who is acting as Innolith’s board chairman, and Buchin, the CEO, are clearly keen to avoid the mistakes made with Alevo. The company ran into financial trouble after betting big on manufacturing capacity.

It leased a 900-hectare site with 300,000 square meters of floor space, formerly owned by the cigarette company Philip Morris, in Concord, North Carolina, before securing a reliable pipeline of projects. Alevo ended up only using around 3 percent of the space, Buchin said.

“It was a huge leapfrog attempt to go from small, lab-scale production in Germany, which worked well, to full-blown manufacturing at a high pace in a different country,” he said. “This was very challenging. Given the cost structure, it was not really feasible for the company.”

The cost of the plant upended Alevo’s U.S. finances and brought down the parent company in Switzerland.

After Alevo filed for Chapter 11 in the U.S. the manufacturing assets were snapped up by a battery development consortium called Imperium3 New York, which paid $5 million for equipment worth more than $200 million.

Buchin revealed that Innolith had been in a position to buy the factory equipment but had opted not to. Instead, it acquired all of Alevo’s remaining assets, including the R&D facility with all its staff.

Buchin said the acquisitions were privately funded and Innolith was “well financed.”

He said the company was supported by a strategic investor, but did not disclose or whether there was any connection between Innolith and Dmitry Rybolovlev, the Russian billionaire who originally bankrolled Alevo.

Innolith’s final acquisition was Alevo’s only operational GridBank battery system, nicknamed Snook, which has been connected to the PJM Interconnection electricity network for a year.

Greenshields and Buchin see Snook as crucial to rekindling interest in the sulfur-based inorganic lithium-ion electrolyte chemistry that Alevo created.

The battery chemistry is said to be capable of completing 50,000 complete cycles without failure or loss of power density, while operating at close to room temperature. This could make it highly suited to delivering ancillary services such as frequency response.

Snook is “the top of the heap in PJM, based on accuracy, timeliness and precision, demonstrating very good revenues,” Buchin said.

Future iterations of the technology are likely to have even better performance, thanks to improvements to the battery management, cooling and interconnection systems, said Greenshields. These are due to be tested on Snook, he said.

“The system is not perfect, but its scores are astoundingly good,” he said. “By upgrading some of the peripheral control systems, we anticipate the system will achieve even higher scores.”

On commissioning, Snook achieved a 98.5 percent score within the PJM network, he said. This means the battery is among the first to be brought into play on the network, allowing it to earn more money than poorer-performing assets.

With the planned improvements, the battery’s performance on PJM could get close to 100 percent, Greenshields said.

Another benefit of the technology is that it appears able to deliver eight to 10 cycles a day, indefinitely for many years, without any measurable change in impedance.

Although the capacity of the original chemistry had tended to fade, Greenshields said further technology development had yielded a 2.5 increase in the throughput, while improving the cell-level energy and power density of the battery.

As a result, Innolith is hoping to be able to offer three times the lifetime economic value that Alevo had achieved with the GridBank, he said.

What is a lithium ion battery and what are its benefits?

Lithium ion, or Li-ion, batteries are a type of rechargeable battery. They are a popular choice because when well looked after, they can be drained and charged literally thousands of times which makes them superior to commonly used lead acid batteries.

Li-ion batteries – like other batteries used to store energy – act as a buffer between power generation and consumption. The batteries are charged when power is available from, example, a wind turbine, solar panels or the grid, and then provide power when it’s not.

If Li-ion batteries could be manufactured in Africa, on the appropriate scale, they would become cheaper and power users could rely more on renewable energy than they do now. This would open the path for clean, sustainable energy, mitigating the effects of climate change. It could also boost economies.

Africa already has part of the solution: photovoltaic (PV) panels are common and the energy they produce in South Africa is approximately 40% cheaper than that generated from fossil or nuclear fuelled power stations. The main drawback of PV power is that it can only really be generated between 10am and 5pm. That’s not when most people need to use it, so it has to be stored cheaply.

Li-ion batteries have been commercialised elsewhere in the world. Why not in Africa yet?

Li-ion batteries are used in many commercially available products, like power tools, toys, electric bikes, laptops and mobile phones. Large Li-ion battery packs in home and grid-power applications are becoming rapidly more popular in many countries, including Africa.

There are only a few Li-ion battery factories in the US, Poland, South Korea, Japan and China. Most of the companies that run them work closely with electric vehicle manufacturers and consumer good production sites. Some of the top 10 companies manufacturing the batteries include; Panasonic, Toshiba, Samsung SDI, LG-Chem and Tesla.

There are a few small companies in South Africa who assemble battery packs using imported cells. And, to the best knowledge of the author, there’s only one facility on the African continent that has the capability to produce Li-ion battery cells at pilot scale: the University of the Western Cape’s Energy Storage Innovation Lab. The lab has already been laying the groundwork for industrial Li-ion batteries assembly. Though I cannot say with certainty that Li-ion cells are not being produced elsewhere in Africa, it would be hard for a commercial plant to go unnoticed as it would have to be very large to be profitable.

There is huge opportunity. South Africa has almost 80% of the world’s known reserves of manganese – an important component of the most popular battery. Because the companies that produce Li-on batteries have deep pockets, and because the price of manganese is relatively low, they have been able to import it from South Africa.

A growing market will eventually justify the creation of a local battery production plant. But to produce batteries at a competitive price, a large scale facility with an investment of at least $1 billion is required. Only in a facility that produced millions of excellent quality cells per day would the cost per cell be able to compete with cells produced on other continents. It will be challenging to raise the required capital in Africa.

What would be the major challenges in commercialising Li-ion across the continent?

To achieve commercialisation across the continent, the cost of a Li-ion battery system needs to be lower than any alternative energy storage system. Currently, Li-ion batteries cost between $500-$1000/kWh, significantly more than Lead Acid batteries, but since they last much longer than Lead Acid, they can offer a better deal.

The desired shift away from our unsustainable fossil-fuel-based economy can be realised when we produce Li-ion batteries that last many years and cost as little as $300/kWh. Economy of scale is crucial to achieve these costs.

The electrification gains could be huge. Renewable energy – such as wind or solar solutions – combined with an energy storage device that could deliver electricity at the cost of electricity from a power station would be a game changer. And because Africa’s power distribution network is still underdeveloped, investors in the device could see returns sooner than in regions with a fully developed transmission network that’s already paid for.

Ricardo says it will work on a partially UK government funded collaborative ‘PowerDrive Line’ project to develop a lithium-based solid-state battery for EVs and PHEVs, and establish a pre-pilot line for this solid-state battery cell technology.

Solid-state lithium battery technology is widely seen as having the potential to transform the performance and safety of electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (EVs and PHEVs). The major benefits of solid-state batteries derive from their use of non-flammable solid electrolyte as opposed to the organic solvent used in current lithium-ion batteries, which is both flammable and has a relatively short useful life. In terms of performance, solid-state lithium batteries offer the prospect of much faster charging times, increased energy density, increased life cycle of up to 10 years, and extremely low discharge leakage.

This 30-month collaborative PowerDrive Line project will develop a lithium-based solid-state battery for EVs and PHEVs, and establish a pre-pilot line for this solid-state battery cell technology, building upon Ilika’s Stereax manufacturing experience. The project will also develop materials and processes for a new UK-based solid-state materials supply chain.

The innovative solid-state battery technology will enable cells that are both safer more energy and power dense. This will facilitate ultra-fast charging, enabling a PHEV or EV driver to charge their car in as little as 15 to 25 minutes. It will also put the UK on a path to produce materials for the manufacture of solid-state battery cells and packs and in a world-leading position to exploit the technology globally.

Ricardo will design and construct a prototype battery module to demonstrate its potential in-vehicle performance. The company will also apply its industry-leading expertise in EV Battery Management Systems (BMS) technology. By its incorporation of high processing power and model-based control capability, Ricardo’s approach is ideally suited to the evaluation of new and innovative cell chemistries, where the careful monitoring and close control of every aspect of battery cell and pack performance can be essential for effective development and evaluation. Ricardo will additionally develop the BMS to enable a capability for super- and ultrafast charging at ratings of 50-350 kW, in a manner that can be demonstrated in the prototype battery module.

“Ricardo is pleased to be working alongside partners including Ilika, the Centre for Process Innovation and University College London, in this important project for the future of electrified vehicles,” commended Ricardo director for the passenger car and motorcycle market sector, Martin Tolliday. “Solid-state lithium battery technology offers the potential of significant improvements in performance and safety, in a more compact and lighter weight package than current electric vehicle battery technology. If successful, solid-state battery systems could have a transformative effect on the market for EVs and PHEVs, helping the world decarbonise road transportation more quickly and effectively than would otherwise be possible.”

The PowerDrive Line project has been awarded funding under the UK Government’s Faraday Battery Challenge: Innovation R&D, round 2, with balancing contributions from the project’s commercial partners. Funding will be provided via the UK’s innovation agency, Innovate UK.

Aiming to achieve a breakthrough in battery life, Huawei Consumer Business Group on Monday unveiled the industry’s first patented lithium-silicon battery that promises to greatly improve fast-charging capability and ensures safety.

This patented technology is an iteration of the battery that is likely to be used in upcoming Huawei smartphones, the company said in a statement.

The silicon anodes in the Lithium-Silicon battery hold more power than graphite-based versions, thus making the battery more durable and increasing its power-retention capacity.

“Just like how multi-touch technology changed the way displays work, Huawei’s ultra-fast charging technologies will redefine the way people use smartphones and free users from nomophobia — the fear of having no access to phones,” said the company.

The new batteries are coated with a 3D nitrogen-doped carbon network and this coating can be synthesized at a relatively lower temperature and has high conductivity, resulting in ultra-fast charging.

Unlike traditional fast-charging solutions, the ultra-fast technology employs a relatively low-voltage and high-current formula that aims to maximize the amount of current going into the device while minimizing efficiency losses, heat as well as throttling.

“This innovation is based on electrochemical kinetics advancements, which enable ultra-fast charging batteries to support greater power efficiency and current input. Leveraging the nitrogen-doped carbon frame, Huawei improved the stability intercalation and deintercalation of lithium,” the company added.

The handset maker’s ultra-fast charging battery is the result of material innovation and fully compatible with the existing battery solutions.

The FBI CRC is one of six applicants that have been shortlisted to deliver new research under the Commonwealth’s A$731 million program.

The proposed CRC would support Australian research into the battery minerals industry as the sector grows to meet surging demand for batteries to support renewable energy and power electric vehicles.

The shortlisted applicants also include the Future Cities CRC, Blue Economy CRC and Advanced Medical Biotechnologies CRC, Future Food Systems CRC and SmartSat CRC.

The applicants will now proceed to the next stage of assessment, which includes developing a comprehensive business case and attending an interview with the CRC Advisory Committee.

WA mines and petroleum minister Bill Johnston said the second stage FBI CRC application would be submitted before the end of November.

“The Commonwealth government has recently acknowledged the growing importance of the battery and energy materials sector to the Australian economy. This CRC bid has never been more relevant,” he said.

“Our state is the ideal place to host the CRC; we have the resources, highly skilled workers and technical expertise, and we’re also the largest producer of lithium in the world.”

FBI CRC chairperson-elect Tim Shanahan and other members of the bid team will be invited to present in person to the committee in Canberra in February.

Earlier, Shanahan said to have a battery mineral mining boom without a cohesive research and development effort would be a missed opportunity to encourage more investment, with the immediate focus expected to be on lithium, which is expected to remain a key battery component well beyond 2030, according to a recent report from the Association of Mining and Exploration Companies.

A decision on the winning bid is expected by March next year.

If successful, Perth will host the FBI CRC headquarters and the state government will invest $6 million through the Minerals Institute of Western Australia, and the WA Department of Jobs, Tourism, Science and Innovation.

The funding would be disbursed by mid-2019, with the FBI CRC expected to be in operation for five years at an expected cost of $50 million, with WA businesses expected to commit $25 million. The Commonwealth will then match the funds.

The CRC is backed by three of WA’s five universities (Murdoch, Curtin and UWA) and companies ranging from BHP, Pilbara Minerals and Tianqi Lithium down to unlisted junior Multicom Resources.

It is estimated the global lithium value chain will grow from $160 billion in 2018 to $2 trillion in 2025.

Other metals such as nickel, cobalt, vanadium, rare earth elements, graphite and magnesium are expected to be lifted by the battery boom, and as economies around the world decarbonise, demand for energy products using these “new energy materials” is forecast to increase 10-fold by 2030.

News of the progress of the FBI CRC came at the same time that the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a comprehensive report into the dire, existential risks of climate change, which showed humanity was running out of time to even limit global warming to a mere 1.5C – the level set by the 2015 Paris Agreement.

The report said to reach even that goal would require urgent and “unprecedented and collective climate action in all areas” to cut emissions by half by 2030, and reach net zero emissions by 2050.

That would require ending coal use by 2050, dramatically reducing the use of oil and gas, and accelerating the use of renewable energy such as wind and solar, backed with battery storage.

Globally, governments have been given a failing grade for a lack of real effort to keep temperature rises below even 2C.

Australia is a major contributor to global warming as the world’s largest exporter of coal and gas, while the FBI CRC aims to feed into a transition for the new energy future.

WA is already the world’s largest hard rock lithium supplier, and the nation wants to develop a full-cycle battery supply chain, however the Morrison government has dug in behind the continued use of highly polluting coal-fired power.

Speaking on the ABC’s AM program this morning newly appointed Federal Environment Minister Melissa Price – not a scientist – suggested the thousands of scientists who fed into the peer-reviewed IPCC report had gotten the science wrong.