ATech Educator NewsCopyright ATech Training, Inc.

November 2019

Batteries not Simplified

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Let’s take a look at the industry and see what’s coming up and how that might affect us as automo-tive technicians.

Solid State

Solid-state batteries are the newest thing on the block that are close to implementation in vehicles. In modern Li-ion batteries, ions move from one electrode to another across the liquid electrolyte (also called ionic conductivity). In all solid-state bat-teries, the liquid electrolyte is replaced by a solid compound which still allows lithium ions to move back and forth within it. This concept is far from new, but over the past 10 years – thanks to inten-sive worldwide research – new families of solid electrolytes have been discovered. They have very high ionic conductivity, similar to liquid electrolyte, allowing this particular technological barrier to be overcome. Not only is the process more energy efficient at the manufacturing stage, it does not in-volve toxic solvents. A European battery manufac-turer has already partnered with these scientists to enable a pilot production facility to begin manufac-turing sodium ion batteries using the new coating and process. Lithium batteries for cars should fol-low soon after. The Sodium Ion Batteries or Na-Ion offer advantages for most applications except the automotive industry. They are cheaper to manu-facture but do not have the energy density that the Lithium Ion does. They are expected to be used in electric storage (i.e., wind and solar farms).

A battery is simply a pack (or stack) of one or more cells. Each of these cells has a positive electrode (the cathode), a negative electrode (the anode), a separator and an electrolyte. There are many types of batteries, and they use different chemicals and materials to produce power through a chemical reaction. These different chemicals and materials greatly affect the properties of the battery and its potential.

How Much:•Energy - potential current it can store and output available•Power - voltage that it can provide •Cycling capacity - number of times it can be charged and discharged

Due to the many different combinations, chemicals, materials, and mediums, battery companies and scientists are constantly experimenting. All of them are trying to find some combination that is cheaper, denser, lighter, and more powerful. Some work, some don’t, and while some are marvels, they are too costly to implement or just too dangerous. Most of the current battery-related breakthroughs are reported from the lab, and despite assurances that the newest technology is scalable, few have actually been tested in the manufacturing process. This is mostly due to costs and worry that the next new thing will make it obsolete before it makes it to market.

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Elon Musk says that the company plans to eventu-ally push that to 330 Wh/kg. That being said, our US Department of Energy is funding a research program aimed at 500 Wh/kg. Innolith has stated that their new battery technology should be viable for the automotive industry by 2023.

Graphene

Graphene is carbon in the form of a single layer of atoms in a two-dimensional hexagonal lattice in which one atom forms and bonds in a hexagonal pattern. Graphene has a unique set of properties which set it apart from other materials. In propor-tion to its thickness, it is about 100 times stronger than the strongest steel. It conducts heat and elec-tricity very efficiently and is nearly transparent.

Graphene batteries have a lot of potential. One company has developed graphene batteries that could offer electric cars a driving range of up to 500 miles on a charge. The company behind the devel-opment says the batteries can be charged to 100% in just a few minutes and can charge and dis-charge 33 times faster than lithium ion. Discharge is also crucial for things like cars that need vast amounts of power in order to pull away quickly. These are still pretty small-scale and years away from any viable large-scale usage.

Samsung Research has stepped into the graphene fray and developed “graphene balls” that are capa-ble of boosting the capacity of its current lithium-ion batteries by 45%, and recharging five times faster than current batteries. To put that into context, Samsung says its new graphene-based battery can be recharged fully in 12 minutes compared to roughly an hour for the current unit. These are still probably 10 years in the future and might never make it to the automotive industry.

High Density Lithium Ion or “Inorganic”

A German research lab owned by Innolith has de-veloped “High Density Li-Ion Batteries”. Their pro-cess still uses “wet” liquid electrolytes in its lithium-ion batteries, but there’s one major difference: they replace the organic (and highly flammable) solvent containing the electrolytes with an inorganic sub-stance that’s more stable and less flammable. The organic materials found in most lithium-ion batter-ies are the primary source of side reactions which, over time, can consume the active materials in the battery and turn the whole closed-loop system into a nonfunctioning “brick”. Innolith claims its new battery has done away with this problem. They also claim to have made batteries with an energy density of 1,000 Wh/kg (Watt Hours per kilogram of weight). By comparison, the batteries that Tesla uses in its Model 3 are an estimated 250 Wh/kg.

https://www.epectec.com/batteries/cell-comparison.htmlUsed with permission: www.epectec.com/

3D illustration of a graphene film, the formula of the nanostructures, atoms and symbols of carbon

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Zinc-air

Scientists at Sydney University believe they’ve come up with a way of manufacturing zinc-air bat-teries less expensively than current methods. Zinc-air batteries can be considered superior to lithium-ion because they don’t catch fire. The only problem is they rely on expensive components to work.

Sydney University has managed to create a zinc-air battery without the need for the expensive components but rather some cheaper alternatives. On the surface, the metal-air batteries would seem like a good match for electric vehicles, but these batteries are years away from being manufactur-able and, again, might never make it to the auto-motive industry. The problems are associated with the metal anodes, catalysts and electrolytes and seem to affect all of the metal air batteries. While they are great for some electronics and used quite safely, they have their limitations in the field includ-ing being rendered useless by simple overcharge and undercharge cycles or having poor cycling potential. However, they are improving both param-eters in the lab.

Sand or Sillicone

This alternative type of lithium-ion battery uses silicon to achieve better performance than current graphite li-ion batteries. The battery is still lithium-ion like the one found across many platforms, but it uses silicon instead of graphite or a combination of both in the anodes. Silanano is a battery tech start-up that’s bringing this technique to market and has seen big investment from companies like Daimler and BMW. The company says that its solution can be dropped into existing lithium-ion battery manu-facturing, so it’s set for scalable deployment prom-ising 20% battery performance boost now or 40% in the near future. Tesla has begun research in the

silicone field but are quite secretive about what goes on behind closed doors.

This is all pretty interesting stuff, and only time will tell which battery technology will come out on top as some of these companies are very close to get-ting developments into consumer electronics. You could also argue the benefits of super capacitors that work in conjunction with the car battery taking on the “heavy lifting” so to speak. This could allow for a smaller battery to be used in some vehicles.

Super capacitors have a positive and negative electrode separated by an electrolyte just like a regular battery. But unlike batteries, they store en-ergy electrostatically rather than chemically. Super capacitors have a very high energy storage density especially when compared to a normal capacitor and storing less energy than a similarly sized bat-tery. They are able to release that energy very rap-idly as the discharge is not dependent on a chemi-cal reaction taking place. These super capacitors have come a long way in the last 10 years and have dropped dramatically in price. However, the automotive industry has generally steered away from the knee-jerk reactions of some industries. It is far easier to incorporate new technology into smart phones. Battery technology is ever changing. Hopefully things will improve for electric vehicles in the near future. As always, I hope I have shed some light on the newest technology and reved-up your thinking cap.

Jeff Bogue, Product Representative

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metal%E2%80%93air_electrochemical_cell

Electric car lithium battery pack and power connections

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