The push for this service has been swift and strong: As the new scale-up facility is being constructed, Argonne has already brought two interim labs online -- one for cathode materials and one for electrolyte materials. The battery electrolyte setup is for research to "improve safety, lower flammability limits [and] prevent thermal runaways," according to Krumdick. "Cathode material is where you improve your energy density, improve your performance, improve your cycle life of your battery."
In an expansive warehouse-like building on Argonne's campus, over the din of compressors and fans, scientists working under fume and powder hoods mix solutions in glass co-precipitation reactors. The resulting blue-green liquid sits in large 20-liter containers, with brown cathode materials settling at the bottom. This material is washed, dried, mixed with lithium salts and heated.
Leaping from the bench to the Volt
The final black powder, weighing about a kilogram per batch, is placed into silver pouches to be made into test batteries, usually the standard 18650 cells, which are about the size of AA batteries, or pouch cells, like those used in mobile phones. "This size is what industry could really test and make substantial numbers of cells to determine 'Is this material good?'" said Krumdick. The material is also compared to the substances produced in small batches to make sure it still behaves the same way.
The interim electrolyte facility, which has been running for over a year, uses conventional equipment for mixing and processing organic substances. Researchers have already scaled up six electrolyte compounds. They began transferring equipment to the new scale-up facility last week, though parts of the site are still under construction. With the improved safety systems in the new lab, Krumdick expects to increase production throughput further with a 200-liter reactor.
The cathode facility proved more challenging. "Being able to make and scale up a cathode material is not a trivial task, and the equipment needed is not readily available," Krumdick said, noting that the hardware, like calcining furnaces with precise atmospheric controls, had to be purchased from South Korea, Japan and Germany.
The temporary lab has been operational for six months, and the team is still ironing out the process. "We've made material, but we don't feel it's been fully optimized, and we're still working on improving its properties," he said. Eventually, Krumdick anticipates making 100-kilogram batches of cathode compounds.
This quantity is an important threshold. "You could easily take it up to the ton quantity and your economic calculations would be linear, so you would be able to calculate out just what it would cost to make that material," said Krumdick. The lab is now negotiating licensing agreements for its materials with several companies. A cathode material developed at Argonne is already used in the 2011 Chevrolet Volt, General Motors Co.'s plug-in hybrid electric car.
With new materials, researchers can also build batteries for testing. At the Electrochemical Analysis and Diagnostics Laboratory, researchers put devices -- individual cells and full-size multicell modules, ranging from tall metal cylinders to flat boxes -- through tests that simulate a lifetime of use to see how things fail and how performance degrades.
The O'Hare/Palm Springs tests
Behind glass doors in beige cabinets, batteries are charged and discharged repeatedly under a spectrum of ordinary, not extraordinary, temperature and atmospheric conditions, to see how the batteries would respond if they were left in the long-term parking lot at Chicago's O'Hare Airport in the winter or if they would still function after a hot week in Palm Springs, Calif. The computer-controlled testing system runs 24 hours a day.
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9 Comments
Add CommentI don't know, but I think I smell a skunk. Lithium has been used since the 70s and the improvements have been near zero, just like the ICE engine has been in use for over one hundred years and is still a crappy, dirty, stinking source of providing transportation. What does this company think that they can change about lithium in ten years that will make a difference? I think we should give up lithium and try thorium. 8 grams of thorium in a stainless steel encased battery - ignited by a laser can get you over 300,000 miles. So why are we still playing with children's chemistry sets and not advanced physics? I would rather have a battery that I can hand down to my great great grandchildren than I would a battery that will not even make it to my son's (and 'no', I do not have a daughter, so get off the politically correct bull sh**) 40th birthday.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisLithium is not the technology that can replace the worlds fleet of one billion ICE vehicles with electric. "Analysis of Lithium's geological resource base shows that there is insufficient economically recoverable Lithium available in the Earth's crust to sustain Electric Vehicle manufacture in the volumes required, based solely on LiIon batteries."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thiswww.meridian-int-res.com/Projects/Lithium_Problem_2.pdf
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAlso:
"Two other battery technologies exist which could provide “Sustainable Mobility” in a world without oil, without the same resource constraints. These are:
● The “Zebra” Sodium Nickel Chloride battery
● The Zinc Air battery and Fuel Cell".
In addition to the above the Sodium Iron Chloride battery could power the world's fleet of vehicles.
All of the above are also much cheaper than Li.
In the computer industry, I've seen an improvement in both price and performance for lithium-ion -- though admittedly, not a large one.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI still hear rumors of ways to use lithium more efficiently -- particularly lithium-air. But who knows?
In any case, we have to move forward in research, rather than listening to the ever-present curmudgeons who are always claiming "it can't be done" and "you're wasting your time." If people like this ruled research science, we'd still be living in caves!
Don't know about the other two, but fuel cells require significant amounts of platinum to work efficiently. That's why they are a more dominant player already.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf research finds a substitute for platinum, though, fuel cells could be the answer.
"Grassahol" could be a solution to -- but it still has problems.
The point is, we must continue research on *all* possible fossil fuel substitutes until we find one (preferably more than one) that will keep civilization going.
Some fuel cells do require platinum as a catalyst but zinc air doesn't.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel-cells#Comparison_of_fuel_cell_types
I agree all areas should be investigated. However, as pointed out in the link I posted previously, the majority of research is in Li and not nearly enough in other more sustainable solutions.
One of the statements of this article caught my eye...that they(the battery) does not like to stay inactive...If I remember correctly, the ten year plus storage life of the original lithium batteries is what got them where they are today...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThat study by William Tahil has been widely discredited. The article mentions a couple later studies, on in response to Tahill's that refers to it as both “alarmist” and “ludicrious.”
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://www.cleanbreak.ca/2009/01/26/lithium-glut-maybe-but-what-about-after-2020/#more-1471
". Lithium has been used since the 70s and the improvements have been near zero,..."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThat, sir, is an utterly false statement. Both energy and power density of lithium batteries have increased greatly in the past 10 years alone. Currently, lithium batteries increase in energy density about 8% a year with the very real prospect of that figure rising exponentially with the advent of lithium air, lithium sulphur or other promising configurations.