Batteries & Energy Storage news and discussions

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weatheriscool
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New EV Battery Reaches 98 Percent Capacity in Less Than Ten Minutes

By Adrianna Nine on June 15, 2022 at 10:24 am
https://www.extremetech.com/electronics ... en-minutes
A northern California lithium-ion battery company has devised an electric vehicle (EV) battery that reaches a full charge in just over ten minutes.

Enovix’s specialty is a silicon-anode lithium-ion battery it calls 3D Silicon. The name refers to a proprietary 3D architecture and constraint system, as well as the cells’ 100 percent active silicon anode. Enovix has previously used this technology to create batteries for smartphones, laptops, smart watches, and mobile radios. Its latest development, however, is a super fast-charging EV battery that will put even the Lucid Air to shame.

The company has demonstrated its 0.27 Ah test cells to be capable of charging from 0 to 80 percent “in as little as 5.2 minutes,” according to a press release. They’re able to reach 98 percent capacity within 10 minutes. Enovix conducted the tests as part of a three-year Department of Energy grant program challenging the company to create high-capacity, fast-charging EV batteries—an achievement it seems so far to have met. Even after 1,000 charge cycles (some under particularly high temperatures), the 3D Silicon batteries retained 93 percent of their capacity. Enovix therefore estimates its batteries will last at least 10 years.
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caltrek
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Is Sodium the Future for the Electric Mobility Transition?
by Kushan Mitra
June 17, 2022

Introduction:
(Observer Research Foundation) The warnings are everywhere, too much sodium is bad for your health as we have been told by adverts and even doctors suggest that patients move to low-sodium salts. However, it is sodium that might turn out to be an environmental saviour in the green energy transition. Until now, a vast majority of batteries that have been used in electric vehicles are of various lithium-ion chemistries. Whilst lithium-based batteries take advantage of the light elemental weight of lithium, there are significant issues around thermal stability and more importantly, going forward major issues around resources, since lithium is not used alone in batteries but in conjunction with other metals and minerals that have their own resource problems.

The most popular battery chemistry used by the global automotive industry currently is known as Lithium-Nickel, Manganese and Cobalt (Li-NMC). The dramatic growth of demand for electric vehicles across the world has led to a shortage of lithium and prices per ton touching US$60,000 and more on the spot markets recently, quadrupling in under a year. Persistent concerns about the ethical sourcing of cobalt, primarily mined in the Democratic Republic of the Congo also are not going away. The recent war in Ukraine has led to prices of Nickel shooting skywards increasing 10 times in the space of a few days which even led to the London Metals Exchange stopping the trade in the metal, has led to a situation where prices for battery packs for electric vehicles which after years of decline have increased between 10-20 in the past few months.

Lithium-NMC batteries which cost US$ 1,200 per kWh of capacity in 2010 had fallen to as low as US$ 132/kWh in 2021 (and on a per-cell basis for unfinished batteries, prices were as low as US$ 100/kWh) and have seen prices nearing US$ 200/kWh in global markets in 2022, but a shortage of lithium coupled with a global semiconductor shortage has meant that there will be a shortage of batteries by 2024-2025, followed by a lack of raw materials by 2027–2028.
The remainder of the article includes a discussion of “Sodium-Ion (Na-Ion) battery chemistry development.”

Read more here: https://www.orfonline.org/expert-speak ... ansition/
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caltrek
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New Membrane Improves Reversibility of Zinc-air Batteries
June 20, 2022

Introduction:
(EurekAlert) The long-standing challenges to the practical implementation of rechargeable zinc-air batteries (ZABs) are the electrochemical irreversibility of the Zn anode and degradation of the air cathodes in alkaline electrolyte, which eventually results in poor cycle life and low cell voltage.

To improve the reversibility of ZABs, exhaustive efforts have been made to exploit highly survivable catalysts for the air cathode while weakening the corrosion of the Zn anode through electrode design or electrolyte additives. These strategies can alleviate but not completely overcome the core challenges associated with the strongly alkaline electrolyte.

Taking a different approach, a research team led by ZHANG Xinbo from the Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry (CIAC) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences recently developed a high-voltage, stable hybrid ZAB by using a neutral Zn anode, an acidic cathode, and a dual-hydrophobic-induced, proton-shuttle-shielding membrane to separate the two electrodes.

Their findings were published in Joule.

The researchers found that highly reversible Zn plating/stripping can be achieved in neutral electrolytes, while acidic electrolytes are essential for making the air cathode immune to CO2 poisoning issues. Therefore, they proposed a hybrid ZAB by decoupling the functional environments of the acidic air cathode and neutral Zn anode.
Read more here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/956343
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caltrek
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New Model Offers Potential Solutions for Next-generation Battery Challenges
June 20, 2022

Introduction:
(EurekAlert) A new study by Stanford University researchers lights a path forward for building better, safer lithium-metal batteries.

Close cousins of the rechargeable lithium-ion cells widely used in portable electronics and electric cars, lithium-metal batteries hold tremendous promise as next-generation energy storage devices. Compared to lithium-ion devices, lithium-metal batteries hold more energy, charge up faster, and weigh considerably less.

To date, though, the commercial use of rechargeable lithium-metal batteries has been limited. A chief reason is the formation of “dendrites” – thin, metallic, tree-like structures that grow as lithium metal accumulates on electrodes inside the battery. These dendrites degrade battery performance and ultimately lead to failure which, in some instances, can even dangerously ignite fires.

The new study approached this dendrite problem from a theoretical perspective. As described in the paper, published in the Journal of The Electrochemical Society ( https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10. ... 111/ac7978), Stanford researchers developed a mathematical model that brings together the physics and chemistry involved in dendrite formation.

This model offered the insight that swapping in new electrolytes – the medium through which lithium ions travel between the two electrodes inside a battery – with certain properties could slow or even outright stop dendrite growth.
Read more here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/956431
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Yuli Ban
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And remember my friend, future events such as these will affect you in the future
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caltrek
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New Biobatteries Use Bacterial Interactions to Generate Power for Weeks
June 28, 2022

Introduction:
(EurekAlert) BINGHAMTON, N.Y. -- Researchers at Binghamton University, State University of New York have developed a “plug-and-play” biobattery that lasts for weeks at a time and can be stacked to improve output voltage and current.

As our tech needs grow and the Internet of Things increasingly connects our devices and sensors together, figuring out how to provide power in remote locations has become an expanding field of research.

Professor Seokheun “Sean” Choi — a faculty member in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Binghamton University’s Thomas J. Watson College of Engineering and Applied Science — has been working for years on biobatteries, which generate electricity through bacterial interaction.

One problem he encountered: The batteries had a lifespan limited to a few hours. That could be useful in some scenarios but not for any kind of long-term monitoring in remote locations.

In a new study, published in the Journal of Power Sources and supported by a $510,000 grant from the Office of Naval Research, Choi and his collaborators have developed a “plug-and-play” biobattery that lasts for weeks at a time and can be stacked to improve output voltage and current. Co-authors on the research are from Choi’s Bioelectronics and Microsystems Lab: current PhD student Anwar Elhadad, and Lin Liu, PhD ’20 (now an assistant professor at Seattle Pacific University).
Read more here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/956876
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weatheriscool
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One step closer to fire-safe, recyclable lithium-metal batteries
https://techxplore.com/news/2022-06-clo ... eries.html
by University of Chicago
To power our increasingly electrified society, energy storage technology must evolve and adapt to meet the growing demand. Lithium-ion batteries, already essential to myriad technology, will require dramatic improvements in high-energy density, safety, temperature resilience, and environmental sustainability in order to provide the type of emission-free future that so many envision.

Now, a team of engineers led by Y. Shirley Meng, professor at the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, have demonstrated liquefied gas electrolytes that can simultaneously provide all four essential properties. The research, performed between Meng's University of California San Diego and UChicago labs, provides a path to sustainable, fire-extinguishing, state-of-the-art batteries that can be developed at scale. Their work was published in Nature Energy.

Yijie Yin, a nanoengineering Ph.D. student and co-first author of the paper, shares how this work came about.

"In 2017, a team of UC San Diego nanoengineers discovered hydrofluorocarbon molecules that are gases at room temperature and will liquefy under a certain pressure," Yin said. "They then invented a new type of electrolyte, which is called Liquefied Gas Electrolyte (LGE)." The related results were published in Science.
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andmar74
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https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-61996520
Finnish researchers have installed the world's first fully working "sand battery" which can store green power for months at a time.

The developers say this could solve the problem of year-round supply, a major issue for green energy.
Maybe this could replace some of the Russian gas used for heating in Europe. You could fill the sand batteries in the summer, with energy coming from solar, and use it to heat buildings in winter. It seems cost effective (maybe?).
weatheriscool
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Thermally regenerative battery produces ample energy using low-grade waste heat
https://techxplore.com/news/2022-07-the ... nergy.html
by Jennifer Matthews, Pennsylvania State University

Thermally regenerative ammonia batteries can produce electricity on demand from low-grade waste heat. A new process for creating these batteries improves their stability and affordability and may help address the country's growing grid-scale energy storage problem, according to a team led by Penn State researchers.

"We can use ammonia as an energy carrier to harness waste heat and recharge some battery chemistries," said Derek Hall, assistant professor of energy engineering. "But previous battery chemistries used metallic zinc or copper electrodes, which had major setbacks in terms of electrode stability. What we did was replace these deposition-based reactions with a novel copper complex chemistry to solve a lot of the major problems facing previous researchers."

Low-grade waste heat is a significant source of unused energy in the U.S. and around the world, with 60 terawatt-hours of energy discarded into the environment each year by power plants and industry, according to recent studies. Technologies exist that can turn this low-grade waste heat into energy, including thermo-electrochemical cells (TECs), thermally regenerative electrochemical cycles (TRECs), and thermally regenerative ammonia batteries (TRABs); however, there are still a lot of limitations to these battery configurations.

Solid-state TECs are simpler to operate than electrochemical systems but exhibit exceptionally low power densities and lack the ability to store energy. TECs and TRECs have higher thermal efficiencies but still suffer from low power densities, limiting their viability. Of them, TRABs have the largest power densities with energy efficiencies that are competitive with the other low-grade heat technologies but have relied on either cost-prohibitive precious metals like silver or used metal electrodes that degraded quickly, the scientists said.
weatheriscool
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Panasonic Scaling Batteries for 26 Million EVs Per Year to Supply Tesla
July 18, 2022 by Brian Wang

https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2022/07/p ... tesla.html
Panasonic Energy is building a pipeline of 2 terawatt-hours (TWh) of battery and raw material supplies for Tesla as part of a new mandate from the Elon Musk-led company, according to Chief Technology Officer Shoichiro Watanabe.

2 Terawatt-hours per year is enough for about 26 million electric cars per year.

Panasonic will need to build up its battery supply chain including mining to meet the goal, Watanabe said at the Sydney Energy Forum. Panasonic plans to spend $4 billion to build a second gigafactory in Kansas to target growth in the US auto market.
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