{"id":10582,"date":"2015-11-24T23:18:25","date_gmt":"2015-11-25T06:18:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cafe.foundation\/blog\/?p=10582"},"modified":"2015-12-13T22:19:49","modified_gmt":"2015-12-14T05:19:49","slug":"ornl-and-solid-power-sign-lithium-sulfur-agreement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/cafe.foundation\/blog\/ornl-and-solid-power-sign-lithium-sulfur-agreement\/","title":{"rendered":"ORNL and Solid Power Sign Lithium-Sulfur Agreement"},"content":{"rendered":"

Solid-state batteries are becoming the next big thing in energy storage, with the promise of low volatility, high energy density and lower-cost manufacturing.\u00a0 With academia, industry and government collaborating on the next wave of development, we may see progress in this realm.<\/p>\n

Recently, the Department of Energy\u2019s Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Solid Power Inc.<\/a> of Louisville, Colo.,\u00a0signed\u00a0an exclusive agreement licensing lithium-sulfur materials<\/a> for next-generation batteries.<\/p>\n

\"Rather<\/a>

Rather than sloshing around in aqueous electrolyte, anodes and cathodes press against solid electrolyte<\/p><\/div>\n

A team of current and former ORNL researchers including Chengdu Liang, Nancy Dudney, Adam Rondinone, Jong Keum, Jane Howe, Wujun Fu, Ezhiylmurugan Rangasamy, Zhan Lin and Zengcai Liu developed the technology.\u00a0 This included designing and testing an all-solid lithium-sulfur battery \u201cwith approximately four times the energy density of conventional lithium-ion technologies.\u201d\u00a0 It featured a \u201cnew Oak Ridge-designed sulfur-rich cathode and a lithium anode with a solid electrolyte material, also developed at ORNL.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oak Ridge has also licensed a method of forming lithium-containing electrolytes using wet chemical synthesis, which may comprise \u03b2-Li3<\/sub>PS4<\/sub>\u00a0or Li4<\/sub>P2<\/sub>S7<\/sub>.<\/p>\n

Reportedly, Solid Power will use this technology to develop solid-state rechargeable batteries with two to three times the energy of conventional lithium-ion technologies, and an absence of lithium-ion volatility.\u00a0 Such batteries should be less expensive to manufacture since they can dispense with \u201cmany of the expensive safety features typically associated with lithium-ion systems.\u201d<\/p>\n

Solid Power will leverage industry standard manufacturing processes to bring the battery to market, using a simple battery cell architecture that will rely on a 700-square foot dry room facility with roll-to-roll processing that can scale up to production capabilities.\u00a0 They hope to be in production by year\u2019s end.<\/p>\n

ORNL research and development on the lithium-sulfur materials was supported by DOE\u2019s Office of Science and the Vehicle Technologies Office in DOE\u2019s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. Materials synthesis and characterization were conducted in part at ORNL\u2019s Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, a DOE Office of Science User Facility.<\/p>\n

\"Solid-state<\/a>

Solid-state batteries have been running on the streets of Paris for years in Bollore’ Blue Cars<\/p><\/div>\n

Perhaps surprisingly, vehicles with solid-state batteries are now plying city streets.\u00a0 AutoLib, a car-sharing service<\/a> similar to Car2Go and others, has been running in Paris for several years and now has 3,000 cars and over 20,000 subscribers.\u00a0 It now operates in London as Bluecars with an initial batch of 100 cars and in Indianapolis, Indiana under the BlueIndy name.\u00a0 Five cars are currently operating in this country.<\/p>\n

The Bollore\u2019 Group, headquartered in Paris, runs their cars on Bollore\u2019 designed battery packs, the first plug-in vehicles to run on solid-state rather than liquid electrolyte batteries.<\/p>\n

Early indications are that these batteries are relatively trouble free.\u00a0 BlueIndy president Herv\u00e9 Muller says, \u201cWe haven’t had an issue in Indianapolis, nor in Paris with the 3,000 cars in service there that have driven more than 10 million miles.\u201d\u00a0 He points out that the batteries are early models not yet ready for the mass market.\u00a0 Although they can power a small car for 240 kilometers (148 miles), they need to be warmed up first, taking some of their mileage potential away.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=C55ZyE1h8TY<\/p>\n

Others working on solid-state batteries, including the recent Seeo-Bosch acquisition and Ann Marie Sastry\u2019s Sakti 3 operation, have not yet achieved vehicle scale systems.<\/p>\n

Solid Power, though, \u201cbased in the Colorado Technology Center in Louisville and a spin-off from the University of Colorado at Boulder, says it has made lab-scale cells that have reached 400 to 500 watt-hours per kilogram, and up to 500 charging\u2013discharging cycles of durability. Company founder Doug Campbell says that Solid Power is targeting the automotive sector, although its first market may be the armed forces, for use in communications equipment. \u2018Troops in the field can carry 60 pounds of batteries, and if we can cut that in half, it’s a strong value proposition for the US military,\u2019 he says.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since so many developers are studying the limitations and working to overcome them, these solid-state batteries may have a solid future in transportation.\u00a0 2X or even 4X energy densities would certainly be welcome in aircraft.<\/p>\n