Lithium News

Saubermacher and Redux Recycling have installed a battery recycling plant in the German town of Bremerhaven after jointly researching the process over years. The plant is capable of processing all types of lithium-ion batteries and has a capacity of 10,000t a year.

Redux Recycling and Saubermacher Group (literal translation: Cleaners Group) have invested 3 million euros in their plant. To receive a recycling rate up to 40 percent higher than usual targets, the companies have worked out a process over years.

Still, recycling of batteries is time-consuming, multi-stage process. It runs from discharge and disassembly over thermal treatment to mechanical processing but the effort is worth it. Gerhard Ziehenberger, COO of Saubermacher AG explains: “At present, we’re achieving around 60 % to 70 %,” a recycling rate that is higher than usual.

The plant recovers secondary raw materials such as stainless steel, aluminium, copper, plastic and active materials. The energy obtained from the batteries in the discharge process is fed into Redux’s own grid.

Developing the idea to the scale model took six years and another two to actually realise the large-scale plant. Still the goal has not been achieved fully. “Our vision is zero waste, so in the long-term, we’re aiming for a recycling rate of 100 %,” continues Ziehenberger.

Saubermacher is working with technology partners like AVL List GmbH and their internal R&D team on various approaches, such as using used battery systems as storage media.

Saubermacher Dienstleistungs AG is an international disposal and recycling company based close to Graz, Austria.

EnerDel, a leading manufacturer of advanced lithium ion energy storage systems, is partnering with PlugVolt, a leader in fostering joint development of advanced battery and energy storage technologies, to host the July 2018 Battery Seminar in Plymouth, MI. The Battery Seminar will take place July 17-19 with industry leaders, policy makers, key stakeholders, and technical experts meeting to learn and discuss the latest industry updates and trends for automotive and grid/utility applications.

The Battery Seminar will include presentations by experts from more than 30 companies, including global OEMs, tier 1 system developers, researchers, battery manufacturers, major utilities, suppliers and more. EnerDel will be hosting the first day of this event, giving attendees an in-depth training on lithium ion battery technology. “According to several independent industry analysts, the lithium ion battery market has grown to >$25B last year, and has experienced an unprecedented 26% CAGR between 2010-2017,” said JC Soman, Director of Marketing at PlugVolt. “EnerDel is a proven industry member and a key subject matter expert in the field of lithium ion technology, and its use in automotive and stationary storage applications. We are looking forward to our attendees learning more from them about the future of electrification.”

As the day 1 host, EnerDel will present on the following topics:

– Introduction to battery technologies, markets and applications
– Lithium ion theory of operation, cell components and design principles
– Design criteria for modules, packs, systems and battery management systems (BMS)
– Overview of manufacturing processes and implementing quality systems

“We are extremely pleased to be partnering with PlugVolt to help facilitate an entire day of lithium ion battery education,” said Vice President of Business Development, Tomasz Poznar. “This is an exciting time for the electrification industry, and we are looking forward to sharing EnerDel’s knowledge of advanced lithium ion battery technology with attendees of the July 2018 Battery Seminar.” The team at EnerDel recently achieved a major milestone of shipping its 1,000th drop-in replacement ESS for the Allison approved H 40/50TM system and has over 30 million road miles on units in the field. Aside from mass transit, EnerDel has experience in industrial equipment and has strong partnerships with utility and grid customers.

PCs powered by Qualcomm’s first-generation Snapdragon PC processor struggled with performance issues while providing incredible all-day battery life. Qualcomm has addressed these problems with the new Snapdragon 850, adding 30 percent more performance while extending its already incredible battery life another 20 percent to what it now calls “multi-day” longevity.

If you expected this second generation of Always Connected PCs (ACPCs) to be powered by the Snapdragon 845 Qualcomm showed off last year, you’d be forgiven. But that chip was specifically designed for phones, while the new 850—powered by a 2.95GHz Kryo CPU—was optimized for the PC, Miguel Nunes, senior director of product management at Qualcomm, said in advance of the Computex trade show in Taipei.

What makes the Snapdragon 850 PCs special, boils down to three numbers: 30 percent more performance (including graphics) than the Snapdragon 835, with 20 percent more battery life and 20 percent faster gigabit LTE speeds. For example, the first-generation Asus NovaGo ACPC using the Snapdragon 835 yielded a whopping 17 hours, 22 minutes of battery life in our tests. With the Snapdragon 850, close to 21 hours of battery life seems within reach. For a PC.

Expect Qualcomm to announce at least one hardware partner to ship a Snapdragon 850 PC by the holidays, Nunes said. The most likely choices were among the three who have committed to PCs using the existing Snapdragon 835: Asus, HP, and Lenovo. But it won’t be: Samsung appeared on stage to announce that it will have a new ACPC platform later this year.

Why this matters: Remember that a number of issues held back the first PCs powered by Snapdragon processors, including buggy Windows 10 builds, app compatibility, and performance issues with app translation. Some of those issues remain. But the basic premise of an Always Connected PC has always been fantastic battery life, terrific connectivity, nearly instant-on resume—all requirements the first-generation PCs met with flying colors. Snapdragon 850 PCs will apparently improve upon these, while Microsoft and Qualcomm straighten out some of the app issues.

Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 850 optimizes performance

With the Snapdragon processors, Qualcomm’s taking a slightly different tack than what you’re used to within PCs. “With these Always Connected PCs, our goal was to try and bring those smartphone capabilities to the PC and hopefully change the way people look and use their computers,” Nunes said.

If necessary, Intel can push through problems like AI with its powerful Core processors. Qualcomm’s legacy as a mobile chip provider calls for dedicated logic blocks to solve specific problems, and the Snapdragon 850 is no exception: Nunes said his company has worked closely with Microsoft to accelerate Microsoft’s new AI API, Windows ML, within a dedicated AI block within the chip.

Like the 835, the Snapdragon 850 is a 10nm part, meaning that Qualcomm had to find other ways beyond a mere die shrink to improve performance. It did so by boosting the Snapdragon 835’s clock speed from 2.6GHz to 2.95GHz within the 850’s Kryo 385 CPU, while improving the dedicated logic blocks for audio and video—which add 4K capture capabilities with the 850 generation. The GPU is the Adreno 630, which first appeared within the Snapdragon 845.

The other piece of the puzzle—connectivity—has improved as well, with added support for LTE spectrum that will allow nearly all global operators to deploy Snapdragon PCs with gigabit speeds. One of the keys is support for additional bands that will improve connectivity when the PC is at the edge of the cellular tower’s range, Nunes explained.

Nunes also pledged that ACPCs will support 5G next year, and that Qualcomm will “lead in that category”.

Some of the capabilities of the Snapdragon 850 make more sense within the context of the 845, designed for Android phones. A case in point would be the Spectra 280 image signal processor, whose capabilities, described in detail here, are more suited for the video playback and capture capabilities of smartphones. But Nunes said that with more users choosing to archive videoconferences and other streamed video, the company saw value in including it versus the playback-optimized version of the Spectra included within the Snapdragon 835.

Likewise, the thin depth of most ultrabooks and tablets mean that it’s not likely you’ll see much benefit from the combination of Qualcomm’s Aqstic and aptX audio, at least where external speakers are concerned. Though the audio logic supports both high dynamic range and low noise, only headphones will reveal the real nuances of music played back through the chip. Qualcomm Aqstic supports both standard 3.5mm jacks as well as USB-C ports.

Software is still the real obstacle

Anyone who used a first-generation Always Connected PC, though, knows that while the hardware generally delivered on Qualcomm’s promises, app performance generally lagged. Windows wouldn’t accept any 64-bit apps, period. Any 32-bit apps not written specifically for the ARM architecture that the Snapdragon chip used—like the x86 instruction set used by AMD and Intel chips—were automatically translated. Translated apps could run on Windows 10 Pro, but performance could suffer because the app wasn’t running natively.

Several things will need to happen for PCs powered by the Snapdragon chips to improve. More app developers must code their apps to the ARM architecture. Qualcomm must increase the performance of the Snapdragon PC processors to overcome the translation penalty. Microsoft also has to step up and provide an SDK to allow 64-bit apps. At the recent Build conference, Microsoft did just that, publicly releasing a 64-bit preview SDK for the Snapdragon ARM64 architecture.

That still leaves some hurdles for Qualcomm and its partners. Qualcomm needs to offer a faster processor than its competition for apps that need to be translated, such as Google’s Chrome browser. Nunes said that there’s a lot of “badly written software” that doesn’t take advantage of the Snapdragon’s full capabilities.

For every app that Windows runs natively, though, including Edge, Mail, the Office suite, and more, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 850 is on an equal footing. Nunes added that Qualcomm is in it for the long haul, comparing it to a marathon. It sounds like you’ll have a choice between powerful laptops and optimized mobile PCs for years to come.

Siemens-Gamesa, the world’s largest wind turbine manufacturer is planning to step up the development of battery storage technology.

This will be done along the company’s activities in the wind division, said it’s head, Marcus Tacke.

Tacke said that Siemens Gamesa will make renewable energy sources available on demand, even when the wind was not blowing and the sun was not shining, thereby requiring more resources in storage.

“The missing part is storage,” Tacke said in an interview with the Financial Times. “To unlock the potential growth limitations, that is the piece of technology that needs to be developed.”

He noted that since the cost of wind turbines had come down, it made sense to pair them with solar or storage to create a more consistent source of power.

As part of its push, Siemens Gamesa has invested more in batteries and other types of energy storage, including a hot rock plant (where surplus power is retained by heating rocks) that helps provide power for an aluminium smelter in Hamburg, according to Power Engineering International.

The company is also testing a vanadium redox-flow battery system — a niche technology that some people believe could eventually rival lithium-ion batteries for energy storage — at a research facility in Spain.

“Wind is an industry that needs scale to deliver — to leverage research and development costs, to leverage global spread, to leverage suppliers,” said Tacke. “Volume helps to be competitive in the current environment.”

Tacke added that more consolidation could be on the way for the wind industry, particularly among tier two and tier three suppliers. Prices for wind turbines have fallen sharply over the past decade, and as margins have become thinner the number of turbine manufacturers has also fallen.

Despite global wind installations falling since 2015, according to the Global Wind Energy Council, Mr Tacke said he believed the market would soon return to growth.

The market for offshore wind turbines will grow more than twice as quickly as for onshore wind turbines, according to Tacke, who predicted 13% annual growth offshore, and 5 per cent annual growth onshore.

The future of solar power has looked increasingly bright in recent years thanks to the plummeting cost of silicon solar panels and a global push for clean energy sources to address climate change. In the most optimistic scenarios for the power source, solar generation will increase 16-fold between 2016 and 2040, according to data from the International Energy Agency.

But now new research into a class of materials known as perovskites underway in U.S. government labs and other facilities around the world promises to accelerate rapidly even the most optimistic projections for solar deployment. If they make it from the lab to commercial use perovskites could dramatically change the market for the renewable energy source offering potential for panels to capture energy virtually any surface facing the sun.

“The future of perovskites is breathtaking,” says Varun Sivaram, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and author of “Taming the Sun,” a book on the future of solar power. “For solar to really anchor a clean energy transition we’re going to need technological innovation and perovskite is the frontrunner in my mind.”

You don’t need a physics or engineering degree to understand the primary reasons why perovskites potentially serve as a superior alternative to traditional solar cells. For one, perovskite solar cells are flexible and easy to produce. They can be painted or sprayed on a surface from an ink solution or churned out of a printer like a newspaper. That flexibility means they can be attached to virtually anywhere.

During a visit to the National Renewable Energy Lab in Golden, Colo., researchers Joseph Berry and David Moore excitedly point out the various research projects underway to transform perovskites from a lab phenomenon to a commercial reality. Moore lifts a small surface with visible perovskite solar cells he painted on himself with a brush purchased at a local craft store, showing how easily the cells can be applied. Berry points to an experiment where perovskite cells are being held under bright light to test their durability. Moore holds up a light to a solar cell that dims in response to the light, mimicking potential protection against sunlight.

“The materials have the right properties that make them good at this,” says Berry.

Researchers also think they are a more efficient material for capturing the sun’s energy. Silicon solar panels, the primary type used today on rooftops and in utility-scale power plants alike, tend to achieve about 20% efficiency, meaning they capture a fifth of the energy that passes through and turn it into electricity. A perovskite solar cell reached a record 22.7% efficiency last summer and researchers say that number is likely to continue to rise with continued to research. The theoretical maximum efficiency of perovskites tops 40%. And because perovskites are so thin, they could be applied to silicon modules that have already been built, boosting electricity production.

In the past, various solar technologies have offered either flexibility or efficiency, but researchers have struggled to combine the two. “Perovskites shatter that trade off and promise to do better on literally every performance characteristic,” says Sivaram.

Still, challenges remain. Perhaps most importantly, silicon solar panels have been tested for decades and proven durable while the lifespan of perovskites remains largely unknown. And, given the urgency of climate change, the world does not have 30 years to find out. “Four years ago, you could make it for maybe a day,” says Berry. “Now we’re out to 5,000 hours.”

The technology — like others under development in federally funded labs — also faces challenges from an administration that has sought to undermine renewable energy sources in hopes of propping up coal and other fossil fuels. The Trump Administration’s proposed 2018 budget would have cut funding to the Department of Energy’s renewable energy office by more than 70%. That office provides the bulk of NREL’s $293 million budget.

That budget cut was rejected by Congress, which actually increased the renewable office’s budget. And even members of the Trump Administration have praised NREL and the Department’s other national energy labs. Energy Secretary Rick Perry is a self-described “cheerleader” of the labs. Undersecretary of Energy Mark Menzes specifically praised perovskites at an appearance at an American Council on Renewable Energy conference earlier this year while walking a tightrope to defend the proposed budget cuts.

“It’s an extraordinary thing what our labs are capable of doing,” he said after telling a story about NREL’s perovskites research. “We’re able to take early stage research to be able to develop the technologies to make it apply.”

Ultimately, perovskites may not be a solution that transforms solar energy. They face a slew of challenges, from outdoor weather conditions to entering a crowded market. But clean energy experts say that the federal government needs to continue investing in in different technologies even if they cannot be certain that a particular one will succeed.

“Our global competitors are drastically increasing their R&D funding for these technologies,” says Timothy Olson, Policy and Research Manager at ACORE. “We don’t want the U.S. to fall behind.”

AIT presents its know-how for industry and e-mobility at the international hot spot for power electronics PCIM Europe

Power electronics has become a key technology for renewable energy and e-mobility. Intelligent grids and e-cars rely on these electronic components for power controls and conversion. The AIT Austrian Institute of Technology will present the intelligent converter concepts for smart grids and e-mobility at the world’s leading trade fair for power electronics, intelligent drive technology and renewable energy, on June 5-7 in Nuremberg.

AIT as the innovation partner

AIT is continually growing as an innovation partner for the power electronics industry, offering the expertise in smart grids and electronic drive technologies: from concept, to “Hardware-in-the-loop” design, and further to laboratory testing. This approach saves valuable time-to-market to industrial companies investing in development of the new renewable energies and e-mobility products, and thus contributes to their competitive power in the future markets.

Smart Interfaces

Energy systems are getting increasingly complex with the growing share of renewable energy sources, and therefore the precise co-ordination becomes essential to ensure the energy supply stability. A real-time simulation converter model (digital twin) greatly benefits the developers of smart grid algorithms before the roll-out of the solution in the field could take place. Apart from the grid-building AIT Smart Grid Converter, which is an intelligent converter supplying the smart and microgrid, AIT hereby presents the bidirectional power supply which can be used as solar modules- and battery simulators to supply and test satellite systems, developed in co-operation with an industrial partner. In addition, the wide-band-gap demonstrator solutions shall be presented.

The highly efficient electric vehicles’ “brain”

Power electronics provides for the electric vehicles’ “brain”, controlling the complete power unit, and the transformation of the accumulator- into the motor voltage. The converter platform AIT presents at the PCIM allows for the testing of the entire electric power train, thus improving and optimizing the efficiency and power density.

AIT Austrian Institute of Technology

The AIT Austrian Institute of Technology is Austria’s largest non-university research institution. With eight centers it is a highly specialized research and development partner of the industry. Research is performed on the key infrastructure topics of the future: Energy, Health & Bioresources, Digital Safety & Security, Vision, Automation & Control, Mobility Systems, Low-Emission Transport, Technology Experience, and Innovation Systems & Policy. About 1.300 co-workers are making research all over Austria – at the main premises Wien Giefinggasse, Seibersdorf, Wiener Neustadt, Ranshofen and Leoben – to develop those tools, technologies and solutions for Austria’s economy which will allow them to keep pace with future requirements., according to our motto “Tomorrow Today”.