BatteryBits

Battery quality is among the most difficult issues facing the industry today due to the complexity of both battery failure and gigawatt-hour-scale battery production. Yet the human, environmental, financial, and reputational stakes are enormous. The challenge of battery quality deserves much more academic, industrial, and regulatory focus. Our industry needs a clear view of the tradeoffs intrinsic to battery quality control, such as performance vs. quality.

This article is contributed by Scaling new battery technologies is not as straight-forward or "drop-in" as it may be for other industries because of the complexity of rechargeable batteries and the interplay between different components during formation and operation. The established route is for a new market entrant to take a technology from lab to full-scale cell manufacturing all on their own, which is a time and capital intensive process.

This article is contributed by Lithium-ion batteries (LiBs) power electric vehicles (EVs), with the anode playing a crucial role in their performance. Graphitic materials, chosen for their exceptional conductivity, thermal stability, and high performance, serve as the main anode materials in LiBs. Nevertheless, graphite anodes still suffer from initial capacity loss and limited first cycle efficiency.

Second-life batteries present an immediate opportunity, the viability of which will be proven or disproven in the next few years. Second-life batteries can considerably reduce the cost as well as the environmental impact of stationary battery energy storage. Major challenges to second-life deployment include streamlining the battery repurposing process and ensuring long-term battery performance. Can used EV batteries be repurposed for second life applications?

Direct lithium extraction (DLE) technology will double the current production of lithium while reducing the environmental impact. DLE recovers 70%-90% of lithium from brine compared to 30-40% for evaporation ponds at a competitive CapEx / OpEx. Commercial demos are set to come online as early as 2025. Lithium producers are struggling to meet today's lithium demand, which has risen steadily in the last few years, from 310,000 mt in 2020 to an estimated 917,000 mt by the end of 2023.

This article is contributed by Jai Makhija A battery thermal management system is required to allow the next generation of electric vehicles (EVs) to compete with internal combustion engine (ICE) powered vehicles in terms of range, lifetime and fast charge. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) can be used to rapidly iterate and optimize the thermal management system of the vehicle.

Figure 1. Global primary energy consumption projection from 2000-2050. Note. Data referenced from Enerdata. (2021). Total primary energy consumption. Global Energy & Climate Outlook 2050. Figure 2. Estimated share of major primary energy sources in global primary energy consumption (left) and estimated share of CO2 emissions from global fossil fuel consumption (right) in 2050. Note. The estimated share of primary energy sources in global primary energy consumption are referenced from Enerdata. (2021).

Image source: Unsplash/Atharva Tulsi Like every EV origin story, the Indian one has an unlikely star: the Lovebird. The Lovebird was created in Chalakudy in the state of Kerala, home to Eddy Current Controls. Eddy still proudly displays the vehicle on its website, but Eddy has only ever sold a handful of units. The small two-seater electric car with a nominal range of 60 km suffered from the same issue as a lot of early EVs - impracticality.

This article is contributed by While a graphite anode works by intercalating lithium into the interstices between the layer structure, a silicon anode reacts with lithium via intermetallic alloying, which gives silicon the potential to store ten times more lithium than graphite for a 30% increase in the energy density of the cell.

Most alloying anodes, such as silicon, tin, and germanium, have higher gravimetric and volumetric capacities than graphite. Alloying anodes face challenges to adoption, however, due to the large volume changes that typically accompany the alloying mechanism, changes that have negative consequences at multiple levels of the battery. Most of the current solutions focus on trying to solve the challenges stemming from volume expansion that include pulverization and repeated SEI destruction and growth.