Browse Topic: Battery cell chemistry
While Daimler Truck and Paccar are pursuing LFP battery cells, Volvo Trucks employs lithium-ion batteries in which lithium nickel cobalt aluminum oxide (NCA) is used as the cathode — for now anyway. The Swedish truck maker is continuously exploring other battery technologies.
While Daimler Truck, Paccar and Accelera by Cummins are pursuing lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery cells with technology partner EVE Energy (www.sae.org/news/2023/09/lfp-battery-cell-production-for-electric-commercial-vehicles), Volvo Trucks employs lithium-ion batteries in which lithium nickel cobalt aluminum oxide (NCA) is used as the cathode - for now anyway. The Swedish truck maker is continuously exploring other battery technologies. “If you look back at least three years, maybe five years, LFP was not really on the map. There has come some new evolvement on LFP which would make it better in many ways, [improved] things that were problematic with it before. It might very well be a solution in the future,” Peter Granqvist, senior vice president of Volvo Group Electromobility Technology, said at a media event at the company's headquarters in Gothenburg, Sweden, in late 2023. “Right now, we are not on that path, but I'm not excluding anything.” Granqvist said it's possible
There is an urgent need to decarbonize various industry sectors, including transportation; however, this is difficult to achieve when relying solely on today’s lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery technology. A lack of sufficient supply of critical materials—including lithium, nickel, and cobalt—is a major driving force behind the research, development, and commercialization of new battery chemistries that can support this energy transition. Many emerging chemistries do not face the same supply, safety, and often durability challenges associated with Li-ion technology, yet these solutions are still very immature and require significant development effort to be commercialized. This chapter identifies and evaluates various emerging battery chemistries suitable for deployment in the automotive industry and describes the advantages, disadvantages, and development challenges for each identified technology. Additionally, the chapter outlines development timelines, contending that, to benefit from
As companies continue to trumpet their next-gen EV battery tech, it seems like new chemistries face more momentum from the established champ, lithium-ion. There's no shortage of alternatives to lithium-ion EV batteries in development. From lithium-iron phosphate to sodium-ion to multiple solid-state chemistries, companies are racing to perfect these technologies and figure out how to manufacture them at scale. But to an outside observer, it can feel like breathless coverage of future battery technology is much ado about not much. Lithium-ion batteries seem to have all the momentum, seeing as they're the power supply of choice for most EV manufacturers. And if there's anything that's true in the automotive industry, it's how hard it is to buck momentum. Here are just a few of the big issues lithium-ion batteries have in their favor: Already built factories that manufacture batteries and face tremendous costs to retool for a different technology. An economy of scale that has driven down
Lithium-ion batteries are the ubiquitous energy storage device of choice in portable electronics and more recently, in electric vehicles. However, there are numerous lithium-ion battery chemistries and in particular, several cathode materials that have been commercialized over the last two decades. In recent time several automakers have followed trend by announcing their own plans to move their EV production to LFP, due to its high intrinsic safety, fast charging, and long cycle life and cobalt free batteries as well as avoiding other supply chain constrained metals like nickel. Accurate estimation of the state-of-charge (SOC) is crucial for efficient and safe battery applications. However, existing SOC estimation methods (coulomb count, SOC-OCV methods) fail to provide accurate SOC estimation for LFP batteries that have a flat voltage-SOC relationship, and these present model-based methods can be ascribed to their inability to simultaneously accommodate the differences in voltage
This paper proposes a novel reconfigurable battery balancing topology and reinforcement learning-based intelligent balancing management system. The different degradations cause a significant loss of battery pack available capacity, as the pack power output relies on the weakest cell due to the relevant physical requirements. To handle this capacity drop issue, a reconfigurable battery topology is adopted to improve the usability of the heterogeneous battery. There are some existing battery reconfigurable topologies in the literature. However, these studies rely on the limited options of topology designs, and there is a lack of study on the reconfigurability of these designs and other possible new designs. Also, it is rare to find an optimal management system for the reconfigurable battery topology. To fill these research gaps, this paper explores existing battery reconfigurable topology designs and proposes a new reconfigurable topology for battery balancing. Besides, the battery
There's a mild irony in a battery company called ONE that believes the way to increase electric vehicle adoption actually relies on two. Two battery chemistries in one pack, that is, according to ONE founder and CEO Mujeeb Ijaz. We spoke with Ijaz about ONE's dual-chemistry pack in early 2022, but the company recently shared more details on how it plans to make EVs with a 600-mile range feasible in the coming years. Our Next Energy is working on two new battery types (the Aries and Gemini series), both of which start with a lithium iron phosphate (LFP) chemistry. The whiz-bang, 600-mile (966-km), dual-chemistry Gemini pack isn't due to go into production until 2025 or 2026, but ONE is currently testing its Aries II pack. The Aries II is a structural cell-to-pack singlechemistry battery based on the Aries I battery now available for class 3-6 commercial trucks, buses and utilities or in the Aries Grid energy storage system. ONE is working with partners Bollinger Motors, Motiv and the
Mid-September of 2023 brought a United Auto Workers (UAW) strike against each of the Detroit Three automakers. Apart from the face-value issues of a strike, the UAW's extraordinary choice to hit all three automakers - at an unusually unsettled inflection point in the industry's technology progression - may have generational implications. By some accounts, there are more than a few untied shoelaces tangling the industry's march toward electrification. The cost of EVs (their batteries, specifically) is emerging as a persistent impediment to mainstream adoption in the U.S. and Europe. The situation is magnified by post-pandemic inflation that's pressuring consumers and hiking the cost of EV-related materials; battery prices aren't declining and manufacturers and battery developers are scrambling for options - less-expensive but lower-performing lithium-iron phosphate battery chemistry is emerging as one immediate alternative.
NMC and LFP lithium-ion batteries find favor in different regions as OEMs move to electrify larger excavators and loaders. The success of electric vehicles in the construction industry will largely be determined by battery prices being low enough that the total cost of ownership is cheaper than diesel alternatives. IDTechEx's new report, “Electric Vehicles in Construction 2023-2043,” shows that there is a battery price tipping point, under which it will be cheaper over the vehicle lifetime to operate an EV. Selecting the right chemistry will be imperative for getting a low enough vehicle price. So why is a clear dichotomy seen between the batteries being deployed in China compared to Europe? Electric vehicles in construction are an emerging market. IDTechEx has built a database of more than 100 example makes and models across seven different construction-vehicle categories: mini excavators, excavators (>6 tonne), compact loaders, backhoe loaders, wheel loaders, telehandlers and mobile
Many owners of electric vehicles worry about how effective their battery will be in very cold weather. Now a new battery chemistry may have solved that problem.
ABSTRACT Cornerstone Research Group (CRG) developed a lithium metal (Li-metal) battery cell for military applications. Utilizing a Li-metal anode, high energy density cathode, and an advanced low-temperature fluorinated electrolyte, the cell was designed and developed to provide high-power and low temperature capabilities. The 1.5 Ah Li-metal pouch cell had a specific energy of 247 Wh/kg and was able to discharge at ultra-low temperatures (-57 °C). Moreover, the Li-metal cell demonstrated extremely high-power by fully discharging at 10 C while maintaining over 70% its initial capacity. To demonstrate the Li-metal cell’s utility for military vehicle use, CRG modeled the cell into the 6T battery platform. A novel module housing was designed to evenly apply compression to the Li-metal cells to improve cell performance. Based on these projections, the Li-metal 6T battery could have a capacity of 163 Ah with a specific energy of 179 Wh/kg. Citation: J. Hondred, F. Zalar, P. Nikolaev, B
As the industry quickly shifts its focus from ICE to BEVs, there is a prime opportunity to rethink the basics of the vehicle/propulsion development, manufacturing, procurement and the customer-facing go-to market strategy. OEMs and suppliers are using the electrification shift to evaluate all aspects of their enterprises. As the ICE propulsion system dominated our industry structure for the past 120 years, we became accustomed to a slow-but-steady speed of ICE technology change and innovations. As virtually every traditional OEM - and scores of startups - focus on electrified propulsion, the speed of innovation and required flexibility will be a blur compared to the last couple of decades. It will be standard practice for all entities to use this transition as a level-setting event - to essentially rethink the enterprise. As such, industry players will need to innovate at a swifter pace and need to adopt partnerships to fill gaps and defray risk, while ensuring any investment has
By the end of 2023 there will be 10 Chinese electric passenger vehicles using advanced semi-solid-state batteries (ASSB) - an industry-first application for EVs and a milestone for vehicle electrification, according to Paul Haelterman, North American VP at Autodatas, a vehicle benchmarking and research firm. It's “a huge step for the industry's production pursuit of all-solid-state batteries,” Haelterman told SAE Media ahead of his presentation on China's EV market at SAE's WCX 2023 conference in Detroit. A semi-solid-state battery can be one in which one electrode does not contain a liquid electrolyte and the other electrode does. Or it can be a battery in which the mass or volume of the solid electrolyte in the monomer accounts for half of the total mass or volume of the electrolyte in the monomer. Some battery experts view semi-solid-state as a compromise technology, offering a faster route to scale, but is heavy and requires more volume.
The saying ‘Two steps forward, one step back’ describes the overall progress of CASE - Connected, Autonomous, Shared and Electrified vehicles and infrastructures. While electrification and connected technologies arguably have each taken a step forward, funding four industry-changing secular shifts in unison was always a lot to ask. The resulting investment head-winds are not surprising, given the added impacts of COVID, microchip and labor shortages, the Russia-Ukraine war, and inflation/higher interest rates dampening vehicle sales. Viewed from 30,000 feet, CASE's uneven takeoff trajectory has been governed by often unproven technologies being deployed within unrealistic timelines. OEMs and suppliers have devoted billions to the development and implementation of electrified propulsion in the major developed markets. Regulations have made the ‘E’ in CASE the highest priority. This includes battery-electric vehicle development and assembly, battery chemistry R&D, cell plants, strategic
Silicon-infused anodes, already widely considered one of the most promising candidate technologies for the next significant performance-improvement phase of electric-vehicle (EV) Lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries, enjoyed a significant boost in September 2022, when GM and OneD Battery Sciences revealed a joint research and development agreement to study the potential to use OneD’s silicon nanotechnology in GM’s Ultium battery cells. General Motors and Volta Energy Technologies also invested in a $25-million Series C funding for OneD, a move interpreted by some as a vote of confidence that silicon-anode technology is poised to make a comparatively imminent impact on EV battery development.
Engineers at the University of California San Diego have developed lithium-ion batteries that perform well at freezing cold and scorching hot temperatures, while packing a lot of energy. The researchers accomplished this feat by developing an electrolyte that is not only versatile and robust throughout a wide temperature range, but also compatible with a high energy anode and cathode.
High energy and power density Lithium-ion batteries are used as energy storage devices for indispensable applications ranging from cell phones to hybrid electric vehicles, unmanned aerial vehicles and commercial passenger aircrafts. To monitor the health of the battery and its various performances, it is crucial to understand the electrochemical behavior of the battery. The Doyle-Fuller-Newman (DFN) model is a popular electro-chemistry-based model, which characterizes the solid and electrolyte diffusion dynamics in the battery and predicts current/voltage response. However, the DFN model requires many parameters that need to be estimated to obtain an accurate battery model. In this article, an electro-chemistry based cell model is developed using GT-AutoLion to simulate and validate the performance for two different commercially available Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePO4) and Nickel Cobalt Aluminum (NCA) cells. GT-AutoLion is a powerful tool for physics-based modeling to predict
Engineers at the University of California San Diego have developed lithium-ion batteries that perform well at freezing cold and scorching hot temperatures, while packing a lot of energy. The researchers accomplished this feat by developing an electrolyte that is not only versatile and robust throughout a wide temperature range, but also compatible with a high energy anode and cathode.
A team of researchers led by chemists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory has learned that an electrolyte additive allows stable high-voltage cycling of nickel-rich layered cathodes. Their work could lead to improvements in the energy density of lithium batteries that power electric vehicles.
Electric vehicle batteries typically require a tradeoff between safety and energy density. If the battery has high energy and power density — required for uphill driving or merging on the freeway — then there is a chance the battery can catch fire or explode in the wrong conditions. But materials that have low energy/power density, and therefore high safety, tend to have poor performance. There is no material that satisfies both.
Battery engineers targeting electric vehicles (EVs) continue to research designs with solid-state electrolyte because of the alluring twin promises of significantly higher energy densities – which lead to longer driving range – and greatly enhanced safety that comes with eliminating liquidous electrolytes. Additional presumed advantages for solid-state batteries are quicker recharging and longer lifespan – not to mention the potential to reduce the amount of critical, high-cost minerals required for lithium-ion battery chemistries.
Metal-air batteries can be used in a variety of applications ranging from range extenders for electric vehicles to emergency power systems. Metal-sea-water batteries are primarily used for underwater applications ranging from torpedoes to underwater unmanned vehicles. A team of researchers at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, MIT, has developed an oil displacement system to mitigate open-circuit corrosion in metal-air and metal-seawater batteries.
Items per page:
50
1 – 50 of 192