The future of sustainable mobility is about being able to provide customers with a complete vehicle, and of course, this includes a stable, reliable and long-lasting battery pack. It is no secret that lithium-ion batteries lead this sector, so manufacturers and those dedicated to developing these technologies must focus on strengthening these aspects as a priority.
Battery Technology and SAE International hosted the Battery and Electrification Summit. There, several topics about lithium were discussed, highlighting the processes and advances to achieve the desired solid state, where the capability to work despite breaking its outer casing, weight, smaller size and low fuel compounds make them have the best success rate in the market for use in electrified vehicles.
These batteries are in fact expected to reach a density of 350 kWh per kilogram. However, there is still a long way to go to reach this success rate, especially when it comes to removing graphite from the anodes and replacing them with silicon or metallic lithium, two less aggressive compounds under development by several companies, such as StoreDot.
The Future of Lithium-ion Batteries
Graphite anodes are one of the obstacles for developing and getting the most out of lithium-ion batteries, according to Timothy Holme, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of QuantumScape. The company is working closely with German automaker Volkswagen on solid-state development to extract a volumetric energy density of 1,000 Wh/liter from its anode-free battery.
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QuantumScape is not the only company doing this, as the startup Sionic Energy sees it through its Chief Technology Officer, Surya Moganty, who states the need to reduce graphite in order to counteract it with silicon, as they have been developing positively, achieving a 12% reduction of the total cost after building more than 60% of the anode with this element, offering an additional 33% of autonomy in comparison with a battery using graphite.
The ultimate goal now is to eliminate the anode entirely to improve the lithium-ion chemical architecture to solid-state. StoreDot revealed progress in one of their research and claimed to have two studies. The first features a high-performance solid-state XED cell, while the second is without the anode.
Finally, these developments demonstrate the road ahead to strengthen the battery sector with the most stable element (lithium), but at the same time, it is necessary to reduce its impact on the planet to become a 100% sustainable element.
Written by | Ronald Ortega
