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New Manufacturing Technique Halves Cost of Lithium-Ion Batteries
An anonymous reader writes: Experts in materials science at MIT have developed a new process for creating lithium-ion batteries that will drop the associated production costs by half. The researchers say fundamental battery construction techniques have been refined over the past two decades, but not re-thought. "The new battery design is a hybrid between flow batteries and conventional solid ones: In this version, while the electrode material does not flow, it is composed of a similar semisolid, colloidal suspension of particles. Chiang and Carter refer to this as a 'semisolid battery.' This approach greatly simplifies manufacturing, and also makes batteries that are flexible and resistant to damage, says Chiang. ... Instead of the standard method of applying liquid coatings to a roll of backing material, and then having to wait for that material to dry before it can move to the next manufacturing step, the new process keeps the electrode material in a liquid state and requires no drying stage at all. Using fewer, thicker electrodes, the system reduces the conventional battery architecture's number of distinct layers, as well as the amount of nonfunctional material in the structure, by 80 percent."
I'm going to call Bullshit on the price claims.
Reality... Experts at MIT have developed an idea that looks very promising as a source for funding dollars.
If this pans out it probably means the end to the claims that solar PV and wind power can't affordably supply us with all of our electricity needs. It also makes electric cars all that much more affordable. Elon Musk may need to redesign his battery factory.
Raw lithium is wildly abundant, supply greatly outstrips demand.
moox. for a new generation.
"New Manufacturing Technique Doubles Profit of Lithium-Ion Batteries"
There, now it feels right.
Also from TFA, they have made 10,000 samples on their production line. They are initially aiming at the power company market, thus huge batteries with huge price tags. They are targeting $100 per kilowatt hour by 2020. One of the co-founders also co-founded A123. So there is some experience at bringing batteries to market.
Lots of companies fail for reasons besides their technology. I won't be surprised if this one fails too. On the other hand, it is more real than most such slashdot stories.
Most of the announcements by Eastern/South East Asian Academicians, either in east/south east Asia, or in the states, are normally just total BS.
However, Dr. Chiang is the exact opposite. When he speaks, it is always straight forward R&D that he has done. Basically, this is something will make a big difference in batteries.
Now, I wonder, what kind of impact this will have on Tesla and the gigafactory?
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Read the article closer...
This analysis demonstrates that while a flow-battery system is appropriate for battery chemistries with a low energy density (those that can only store a limited amount of energy for a given weight), for high-energy-density devices such as lithium-ion batteries, the extra complexity and components of a flow system would add unnecessary extra cost.
The way I read this, it tells me that they will not be able to get high energy densities (small size/weight) without adding a LOT to the cost if you use "flow batteries". How they then claim that this will be helpful to automobile applications is somewhat of a mystery to me. For autos, space and energy density are very important, as is weight. Where there are apparently benefits to flow batteries, it doesn't seem to me that these benefits really work in a electric vehicle application if the delta in cost is as high as it seems.
I don't know though, because elsewhere they start making grand claims that seem to contradict the above statement. So I'm wondering if we have a case of an article written by someone with a really bad understanding of the technology, who just strung together some pull quotes from their notebook and didn't realize that the context of the interview they are pulling from really means something totally different. My guess is that the reporter just asked some questions about EV applications because that's all they knew about, but the answers from the researcher, while positive, had provisos that the reporter didn't under stand or choose to ignore to make the story interesting.
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
If you read the OP, it mentions that the electrolyte doesn't flow in this battery, so it's not a flow type. What they DID do was take some knowledge from flow battery technology and use it to improve 'conventional' non-flow batteries by changing up how the electrolyte works.
I don't read AC A human right
Uh, no. The real costs is the high temps that are needed.
I recently watched an interview with one of the founders of A123, and he explained that their lithium-ion chemistry doesn't require high temperatures. The only high-energy part of their manufacturing process comes during initial charging and testing.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Where does cost of lithium end up $300 / lb, i.e. ~ $660 / kg ?
I'm seeing prices of bulk lithium carbonate at $6000 per metric ton, i.e. about $6 per kg.
Molecular weight of lithium carbonate is about 74, which has two lithiums in it at about 6.9 each, so total lithium is ~13.8 of the 74,
so cost of elemental lithium ignoring reduction costs is ~ $32 per kg.
Where do you get anything near $300 / lb?