Lithium News

“Building something this size and at this level of complexity as a startup is insane.”

Eviation CEO Omer Bar-Yohay is talking about the Alice Commuter, an electric aircraft the Israeli startup — which was founded in 2015 — plans to bring to market in 2021. The Alice will hold up to nine passengers, fly up to 650 miles between charges, and reach a cruising speed of 276.19 mph. While Bar-Yohay didn’t disclose the company’s clients, he said he expected to sell “a few dozen” aircraft between 2021 and 2022.

But first, Eviation has to build them, a process the company began in 2017, and one that brings challenges at each step.

“It’s extremely difficult, extremely costly, and the level of talent that you need to compete for, the level of supply chain agreements you need with the big players is very, very significant,” Bar-Yohay said in an interview with Business Insider.

Batteries are one of the biggest remaining hurdles to electric flight
Look to the auto industry, and you’ll find plenty of ambitious startups with flashy concepts that never reach the market. According to Bar-Yohay, Eviation won’t meet a similar fate.

“We do intend to build the aircraft, which is a big statement,” he said.

The reward for doing so at a sustainable cost could be an impact on regional aviation that echoes how Uber and Lyft have reshaped the ride-hailing industry. Bar-Yohay said the Alice will have lower operating and maintenance costs than traditional aircraft, which could make some short-haul routes that are only available to those with private jets affordable for a wider range of customers.

In addition to long-term cost advantages, electric aircraft will be quieter than those powered by jet fuel and able to maintain stability in difficult weather conditions. But there’s one problem that needs to be solved before they can make commercial flights: batteries. Much of the technology the Alice needs to operate has been worked out, but there’s no universal standard in the aviation industry for batteries that can power electric engines. Bar-Yohay thinks that standard will arrive by the end of the year.

“Without a clear path to certification, everybody’s bleeding money,” he said. “No one really knows what’s going to work and what’s going to be accessible to the regulators, which really makes for uncertainty in terms of the time to market.

“While motors, high-power electronics, and a lot of other solutions are already set in stone in terms of the way forward, the batteries are still a bit vague.”

Electrification will pave the way for autonomy

As in the auto industry, electrification is expected to pave the way for autonomy. Bar-Yohay said fully-autonomous flight will become available in the next 15 years, but before that can happen, aviation companies need to master the necessary technology and convince both regulators and the public that it’s safe.

According to Bar-Yohay, it’s easier to build autonomous planes than cars, since planes don’t have to deal with pedestrians and unexpected objects suddenly blocking their path. And much of the technology necessary for pilot-less flight is already available.

“It really is easier, technology-wise, to build an autonomous aircraft, and a lot of the technological components are already there,” he said.

The Alice will have autonomous capabilities when it begins service, and Eviation plans to use them to move the aircraft without passengers and transport goods, in the hope that demonstrating reliable, autonomous flight will build trust with lawmakers and potential passengers.

Eviation and its competitors will also use what Bar-Yohay called “extreme pilot augmentation,” which will resemble the semi-autonomous driver assistance systems car companies like Tesla, General Motors, and Volkswagen have introduced in their vehicles.

Eviation wants to match Tesla’s success, not its manufacturing strategy

Any startup developing electric transportation designed for consumers lives in the shadow of Tesla, which, under the guidance of CEO Elon Musk, has achieved a market capitalization that rivals General Motors and Ford’s just fifteen years after its founding. While Bar-Yohay hopes Eviation will replicate Tesla’s success, he noted a significant difference between their strategies. Tesla has defied auto industry conventions by controlling much of the manufacturing process for its vehicles, but Eviation is not attempting that level of independence for financial and regulatory reasons.

We do not intend to go it alone the way Tesla did, because we don’t see the kind of financial resources that they had in the very beginning,” Bar-Yohay said. “In aviation, there is a lot more to respect in legacy, because you need those certified facilities and you need the brand name in front of the regulator.”

Eviation may not reshape the airplane manufacturing process in the way Tesla has attempted to (with great difficulty) for cars, but according to Bar-Yohay, being able to work with big names like Siemens and Honeywell suggests Eviation is onto something.

“If they want to play with us, we’re doing something right,” he said.

As anyone who gets out on the water in the United States knows, Hinckley Yachts have built innovative yachts since the company was founded in Maine in 1928. But, the sexy “all-electric” 28-foot, 6-inch Dasher is unlike anything the company has ever built before.

This 21st century design is aptly called Dasher after the original, game-changing, Hinckley Picnic Boat that created a whole new genre of yachts in the 1990’s—and are still incredibly popular today. It sports a carbon-epoxy composite hull designed by Michael Peters to provide superior performance and handling.

And it sports amazingly realistic hand-painted “teak” brightwork that never needs to be oiled and saves power-sapping weight.

Titanium hardware and iPad-like controls are elegantly modern.

Dasher’s twin 80 horsepower electric motors and dual BMW i3 lithium ion batteries provide Tesla-like electric performance. And according to Hinckley CEO Peter O’Connell, “The Hinckley Whisper Drive silent propulsion system combines the latest hydrodynamics, electric power and digital control systems to achieve the performance handling and maneuverability that discerning clients will expect.”

According to the company, Dasher is a zero emissions boat that requires zero time at the fuel dock. It can be charged with dual 50 amp charging cables that are standard in most marinas, and charge twice as fast as the most popular plug-in electric cars.

Since its cruising speed is a modest 10 MPH with fast cruising at 18-27 MPH, and its range on a single charge is limited to 40 miles or less, Dasher is not intended to be an offshore boat

But, when it comes touring Nantucket Harbor on a sunny Summer afternoon aboard a truly American original, there’s nothing else like it.

Batteries are made up of three parts: the anode, the cathode, and the electrolyte. The anode, which is the negative electrode, and the cathode, which is the positive electrode, gather all the glamour and headlines. Yet it is the electrolyte that does all the heavy lifting. That’s because the electrolyte facilitates the transfer of ions between the anode and cathode during charging and discharging, allowing the battery to operate.

Electrolytes in lithium-metal and lithium-ion batteries have an especially difficult and complex role to play. The electrolyte is in contact with both the anode and the cathode and must not react with either. It must allow a high degree of mobility of lithium ions between the two electrodes, but must be an electronic insulator to avoid self-discharge of electrons between the electrodes. It should be thermally stable and relatively non-toxic so that it doesn’t present an environmental hazard in the event of an accident. Lastly, it must be inexpensive if the price of batteries is to continue to fall.

The typical electrolyte for a lithium-ion battery is a lithium salt (typically lithium hexafluorophosphate or LiPF6) mixed into an organic solvent. That solvent is often a mix of ethylene carbonate, dimethyl carbonate, propylene carbonate, dimethyl carbonate, and ethyl methyl carbonate. Recent market demands for higher-voltage lithium-ion batteries have researchers looking for new electrolytes, as these current commercial electrolytes are unstable above 4.5 V. Organic fluoro-compounds, for example, have been found to have greater stability at higher voltage conditions (up to 5.7 V).

These organic solvent materials are all flammable. Indeed, when a lithium-ion battery catches fire, it is usually the solvents that provide the primary fuel source. This is proving to be an ever-increasing problem, as lithium-ion batteries power nearly all of our personal electronic devices. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in the U.S. has reported 191 fires between 1991 and January 2018 from lithium batteries carried on-board aircraft as cargo or baggage. Ominously, of those, 46 were reported in 2017.

The search for safer, non-flammable electrolytes for lithium-ion batteries has focused on water-based (aqueous) formulations. Although aqueous electrolytes are inherently safe and relatively cheap, they have shown poor cycling performance in discharge and recharging. Because water (H2O) breaks down into hydrogen and oxygen at electrochemical potentials of higher than 1.23 V, the applications for this type of battery cell are further limited.

Another area of significant electrolyte research is solid-state batteries. Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, BMW, and electric-vehicle startup Fisker have all committed significant research energy and dollars to developing solid polymer electrolytes to make safer and more compact rechargeable batteries. Solid-state batteries pose several challenges, however. As lithium ions pass in and out of the crystal structure of a lithium battery’s anode and cathode, the action causes the electrodes to swell and contract. This is not a problem with a liquid electrolyte. With a solid, though, the dimensional changes can lead to a buildup of high stresses, possibly leading to cracks in the solid electrolyte.

A bigger problem faced with solid electrolytes is the conductivity of lithium ions across the electrode-electrolyte interface. In a 2017 paper published in Nature, it was noted that “Interfacial conductivity is shown to depend strongly on the preparation method and demonstrated to drop dramatically after a few electrochemical (dis)charge cycles due to both losses in interfacial contact and increased diffusional barriers.”

Fisker, Inc., a California-based electric-vehicle start-up, has claimed, in a press release, to have developed a solid-state battery with three-dimensional electrodes and 2.5 times the energy density of lithium-ion batteries. The company has applied for patents that claim “…novel materials and manufacturing processes…” and project its new technology will cost one third of the 2020 costs for lithium-ion batteries. In Fisker’s press release, Dr. Fabio Albano, VP of Battery Systems at the company, said, “We are addressing all of the hurdles that solid-state batteries have encountered on the path to commercialization, such as performance in cold temperatures; the use of low cost and scalable manufacturing methods; and the ability to form bulk solid-state electrodes with significant thickness and high active material loadings.” Fisker says the technology may be ready for automotive applications after 2023.

The use of lithium metal foil as a battery anode shows great promise for increased energy capacity and power output. The problem is that during charging, the lithium metal ions that travel from the cathode through the electrolyte do not evenly attach themselves to the lithium metal that makes up the anode. Instead, they form spiky crystalline dendrite structures. These dendrites can grow large enough to reach the cathode and short out the battery, sometimes causing a fire.

One way to prevent dendritic growth on the surface of lithium metal anodes is the use of a solid electrolyte. Solid electrolytes made from polymer or ceramic materials have been shown to help reduce the growth of dendrites. There are problems, however. The anode and cathode of the lithium battery change volume when they receive or give up lithium ions during charging and discharging. This change makes a ceramic solid electrolyte prone to cracking, causing a degradation of performance. Polymer electrolytes, however, can have the flexibility necessary to adapt to the changes in electrode volume during the battery operation.

The downside to a polymer electrolyte is its poor ionic conductivity and weak mechanical properties. A great amount of research is underway to examine the incorporation of inorganic fillers to help improve the ionic transport and mechanical strength of polymer electrolytes.

Now, as reported in Nano Letters of the American Chemical Society (ACS), a group of researchers from Zhejiang University of Technology in China has incorporated nanowires made from magnesium borate (Mg2B2O5) into a polyethylene oxide (PEO) based solid-state electrolyte. The wires were approximately 200 nm in diameter and 4,000 nm long.

The researchers examined loadings of 5%, 10%, 15%, and 20% of nanowires into the solid polymer electrolyte. The addition of the nanowires to the polymer electrode were found to increase the number of lithium ions and allow them to move through the material at a faster rate. The mechanical properties of the polymer electrolyte were also enhanced by the addition of the nano-materials, as was its flame resistance when exposed to fire.

The researchers attributed the increase in ionic conductivity to the improved motion of the PEO polymer chains and the increase in the number of lithium ion pathways afforded by the nanowires. An experimental battery using a lithium metal anode and LiFePO4 cathode demonstrated both improved rate performance and higher cyclic capacity when compared to a battery without the nanowires.

Although the research reported is quite preliminary, the concept of incorporating nano-materials into solid-state polymer electrolytes may provide another avenue to improve the safety and viability of lithium metal batteries.

EL CENTRO, Calif. – Imperial County is about to become the lithium capital of the nation.

Senator Ben Hueso announced at the El Centro Chamber of Commerce that $2.5 million will be invested in Imperial County for a geothermal project that will generate 50 megawatts of energy. The county will also take part in the mining for lithium.

“It’s going to really put Imperial County on the map as an energy producer and also as a county that will, in addition to important agricultural products, be producing important elements such as Lithium,” Hueso said.

The project starts its design phase this month and will be ready to break ground in about a year creating hundreds of jobs.The new geothermal project will be located at the south end of the Salton Sea.

Hitachi Ltd has developed a lithium-ion (li-ion) rechargeable battery that can be safely used at high temperatures, in collaboration with Itaru Honma, professor at Tohoku University, and others.

The flash temperature of the new battery is 120°C or higher while that of an existing product is 20°C. Even if liquid leakage occurs, the battery is unlikely to catch fire. As a result, it becomes possible to simplify safety and cooling components and improve the capacity density of a battery pack.

This time, a battery with a capacity of 100Wh was prototyped, and it was confirmed that the battery does not ignite in a nailing test.

The electrolyte of the battery is based on organic materials. The development of the materials was conducted by using computer simulation. The ionic conductivity of the electrolyte is several millisiemens per square centimeter (mS/cm2), which is lower than that of existing electrolytes, but is expected to be improved.

The side reaction between the electrolyte and positive/negative electrode was mitigated to prevent the capacity from lowering. When the prototype was repeatedly charged/discharged, it was possible to keep a capacity that is close to the theoretical value. Therefore, the occurrence of the side reaction seems to be limited. Also, measures for uniform dispersion were taken so that aggregation, which can lower the reliability of electrolyte, does not occur.

The new battery is expected to be applied to (1) electronic devices installed in the engine compartment of a vehicle, (2) medical devices that are required to be sterilized at high temperatures, (3) outdoor-use power storage systems to be used in high-temperature regions, etc. The new electrolyte can be applied without making major changes to the existing battery manufacturing process.