Lithium News

Lithium-air batteries sound too good to be true—using the oxygen available in the air to produce electricity. Theoretically, they could become serious competitors to lithium-ion batteries; but so far, a commercial reality hasn’t emerged.

Now, a team of researchers from the University of Illinois and the Argonne National Laboratory have announced what could be a real breakthrough if their results can be replicated with identical performance of the battery.

First, how do lithium-air batteries work? They use oxygen from the air to combine it with lithium in the anode and produce lithium peroxide. This is what happens during the discharge phase. During the charge phase, the lithium peroxide gets broken down back into lithium and oxygen.

As simple as this sounds, there are several major challenges with the process.

Lithium peroxide, for one, is a bad electron conductor, which compromises the battery’s effectiveness. What’s more, deposits of it build up on the cathode, which eventually stops the chemical reaction producing electricity. On top of that, if you use oxygen from the natural air (which is the ultimate idea) you get other chemicals with it, notably carbon dioxide. When the lithium ions combine with the carbon dioxide and water vapors, they also build up on the cathode, again eventually leading to the end of the chemical reaction.

According to one of the authors of this new study, researchers have found a way around these problems by coating the anode with lithium carbonate and the cathode with a special catalyst made form molybdenum disulfate. They also made an all-new electrolyte that facilitates the reaction between lithium and oxygen, while minimizing the interaction of lithium with other chemicals.

The team claims their battery still worked after 750 charge/discharge cycles, which is probably a first for a lithium-air battery.

However, it’s too early to rejoice. Three years ago University of Cambridge researchers announced a battery breakthrough, claiming they had made a lithium-air cell that could make electric cars much cheaper while extending their range.

Just a few months later, a number of other scientists disputed the findings of their Cambridge colleagues, arguing the results of their experiments could not be replicated and that the research itself contained errors. Since then, nothing has been heard about that battery.

In case you’re wondering why so much effort is being put into making lithium-air batteries a reality, here’s the simple answer: they would be much cheaper. This is the same answer you would get for any other battery project. Everyone is in a race to find cheaper batteries that could compete with the lithium-ion technology and make EVs more affordable to facilitate their spread.

Batteries are fast turning into the Holy Grail of the EV industry, just as energy storage is the Holy Grail of renewable power generation. The latter has one over EVs, though. There are already a variety of energy storage solutions that are relatively affordable and their effect on solar and wind power adoption is becoming evident. That should be all the more reason for the battery race to intensify and come up—sooner rather than later—with a viable rival for the lithium-ion battery.

Colorado is the 12th largest solar state in the U.S., with nearly 1,000 megawatts of cumulative solar capacity installed and ranks 9th among states for solar employment. In 2017 alone, Colorado added more than 780 solar jobs. That all looks to continue after John Hickenlooper signed new energy storage legislation that will help the state’s solar market and jobs grow. The measure, Senate Bill 9, allows Colorado residents to install and use energy storage on their property without unnecessary restrictions or discriminatory rates. The legislation makes Colorado one of the first states to declare energy storage a “right” for consumers.

“This new law cements Colorado’s status as one of our nation’s renewable energy leaders. Pairing energy storage with solar will allow consumers to have the cleanest, most reliable and most affordable electricity,” said Sean Gallagher, SEIA’s Vice President of State Affairs. “The solar industry thanks Governor Hickenlooper and the legislature for continuing to support the state’s solar market by taking this important step on storage.”

“Energy storage paired with solar energy gives consumers and businesses a way to be truly energy independent, and we commend our state’s leaders for declaring that citizens have a right to use this exciting technology,” said Rebecca Cantwell, COSEIA’s Executive Director. “We believe that this new law will spark more interest in going solar and will pave the way towards adding storage to many projects.”

EDF is planning to develop an additional 10GW of energy storage projects around the world by 2035, on top of the 5GW already operated by the company.

The French energy giant said the move represents an investment of €8bn over the 2018-2035 period.

New facilities that will be delivered over the next 12 month include at least three battery storage facilities and an extension to battery/solar initiatives in Ghana and the Ivory Coast.

EDF said it is also increasing its research and development capabilities for energy storage, doubling investment to €70m for the 2018-2020 period.

The company’s EDF Nouveaux business will also allocate €15m over the next two years – one third of its investments – to projects and start-ups linked to storage and distribution flexibility.

EDF chairman and chief executive Jean-Bernard Levy said: “Electricity storage technologies have a potential to radically change the energy sector.”

At a small plant intended to help revitalize a town ravaged by the 2011 earthquake, Nissan Motor Co is giving its costly electric vehicle (EV) batteries new life after they pass their peak performance

Global automakers are looking for ways to make cheaper EVs and prolong the life of their batteries, which can account for up to one-fifth of each vehicle’s cost and are made from increasingly costly materials, including cobalt and nickel.

Starting in May, 4R Energy Corporation, a joint venture between the Nissan and Sumitomo Corp will begin selling rebuilt replacement lithium-ion batteries for the first-generation Leaf.

The batteries will be produced at the new factory in Namie by reassembling high-performing modules removed from batteries whose overall energy capacity has fallen below 80 percent.

They will be sold in Japan for 300,000 yen ($2,855.51), roughly half the price of brand-new replacement batteries for the world’s first and best selling mass-marketed all-battery EV.

“By reusing spent EV batteries, we wanted to raise the (residual) value of EVs and make them more accessible,” said Eiji Makino, CEO of 4R, which on Monday opened the plant in Namie, Fukushima Prefecture, around 5 kilometers north of the site of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, the world’s worst since Chernobyl in 1986.

The flat, rectangular battery packs that line the bottom of each Leaf chassis are trucked into the plant, where each module is assessed.

Sumitomo has come up with a way to analyze all 48 modules contained in each battery pack in four hours, a huge time savings from the 16 days Nissan engineers previously used for similar measurements.

Modules with capacities above 80 percent are assigned for use in replacement Leaf batteries; lesser modules are reassembled and sold as batteries for fork lifts, golf carts, and lower-energy applications such as streetlamps.

The plant can process 2,250 battery packs a year, and initially plans to refabricate “a few hundred” units annually, Makino said, adding that 4R would see whether the process could also be used for batteries from the latest Leaf model, which uses a different battery chemistry.

Bracing for a sharp increase in the price of key EV battery materials, including cobalt, nickel, and lithium, more automakers are focusing on reuse and recycling, with Toyota Motor Corporation announcing in January it would partner with a Japanese electric power company to explore such options.

Makino said it would be difficult for 4R to completely break down and recycle EV batteries on its own but may consider partnering with another company to retrieve reusable materials, a process industry experts say is key to sustainable EV battery production.

“Second use is potentially a really great option, but at the end of it all, batteries still need to be recycled,” said Jeff Spangenberger, energy systems researcher at the U.S. Argonne National Laboratory, adding that the profitability of battery recycling operations would depend on the highly volatile price of component materials.

Cypress Creek Renewables, which developed 1GW of PV projects in an 18-month stretch up to the beginning of this year, has used Lockheed Martin’s lithium-ion battery storage solutions in a dozen just-completed solar-plus-storage projects.

Executing PV projects primarily in North Carolina and announcing US$1.5 billion of investment for 2GW of solar in that state last November, Cypress Creek used the GridStar Lithium energy storage solution made by the US aerospace and defence giant for 12 projects in communities served by Brunswick Electric Membership Corporation.

The electric cooperative has 94,390 meters in place and around 160 employees, with only around 13 consumers per mile of line, according to its figures. Adding solar-plus-storage at communities in Brunswick, Columbus, Robeson and Bladen Counties, North Carolina, will reduce peak electricity costs and create dispatchable solar resources.

Totalling 12MWh, the projects were first reported by Energy-Storage.News last summer as work began, when original developer United Renewable Energy (URE) signed PPAs with the co-op. Cypress Creek since acquired them from URE.

“This collaboration will provide significant value to our members for years to come,” CEO and general manager of Brunswick EMC corporation Don Hughes said.

Lockheed Martin began its push into stationary energy storage for grid and renewables applications in mid-2016, with company representatives telling Energy-Storage.News at the time that this marked a long-term investment in energy storage. This later included the commercial launch of flow battery products at the beginning of this year.

GridStar lithium is certified to UL 9540 product safety standards, is modular from 100kW to multi-megawatt applications and are delivered by Lockheed with batteries, controls software and balance of system components.

Despite Cypress Creek’s prolific last couple of years in PV plant development, this 12MWh tranche of projects marks the company’s first foray into solar-plus-storage, with the company undertaking development, construction, financing and commissioning.

With lithium-ion batteries powering personal devices from smartphones to laptops, and a growing presence in renewable energy storage and electric vehicles, researchers are working to make them as safe and efficient as possible.

Lithium batteries have been in use for a quarter of a century, and offer long lasting portable energy and the potential to reduce our carbon footprint with cleaner energy storage and transport.

But there is still room for improvement.

As the demand grows for higher capacity, less expensive and sleeker lithium power packs, incidents such as exploding headphone batteries and the global safety recall of the Samsung Galaxy 7 smartphone have highlighted safety concerns for the technology.

While US safety consultant Ken Boyce told Gizmodo that the likelihood of a lithium battery powered device exploding is around 1 in 10 million – and most lithium battery defects are caused by design or manufacturing flaws or older technology – researchers at Japan’s Shinshu University have completed studies that could make these odds even better.

Safely increasing capacity

Lithium ion batteries operate using a positive electrode (cathode), negative electrode (anode) and electrolyte which allows lithium ions to flow from anode to cathode. This causes an electrical current to flow through the attached device.

Recharging the battery pushes the lithium ions back to the negative electrode, charging it up to deliver more power.

The materials used in the batteries are highly flammable, and fires and explosions can happen if the two electrodes make contact with each other (as was the case in the Samsung Note 7 battery).

They are also sensitive to heat, and overcharging or overheating can lead to similar issues. These risks can be reduced with built-in electronic controllers.

Some of the issues with safely increasing the capacity of current lithium batteries stem from the use of liquid electrolytes.

Nouyuki Zettsu from Shinshu University said that properties of liquid electrolytes, such as complex reactions at the interface of solids and liquids, as well as thermal instability and low transport of lithium ions, are holding the technology back.

“It has not been possible to simultaneously achieve high energy and power in any of the current electrochemical devices,” he said.

Zettsu and his colleagues have moved one step closer to developing an all-solid-state lithium battery by growing solid electrolyte crystals in molten lithium hydroxide.

The researchers’ experiment included crystalline ceramic separation, which they believe would be ideal to keep solid and electrolyte and electrode layers separate when stacked in a battery.

“We believe that our approach having robustness against side reactions at the interface could possibly lead to the production of ideal ceramic separators with a thin and dense interface,” Zettsu said.

While the crystal layer is currently too thick to be used in solid-state lithium batteries, Zettsu said that the team will work to bring it down to the required 100 micron thickness.

A second research team at Shinshu University is working to solve another safety problem for lithium batteries ‒ lithium “dendrites”, which are branches of material that can grow during the charge-discharge cycle and cause internal short-circuiting.

And higher capacity, safer, lithium batteries may not be too far off. According to Zettsu, researchers and industry in Japan are already collaborating to make solid-state lithium batteries a reality, with a view to displaying prototypes at Tokyo’s 2020 Olympic Games.