https://cleantechnica.com/2018/07/12/researchers-in-norway-claim-lithium-ion-battery-breakthrough/
[It's a long road from using nanotech in a lab to scaling it up to mass
production. Still, it provides an indicator of how much further battery
storage technology can still improve over today's performance. Suppose
you buy an EV today, and 10-15 years from now you could replace the
current battery pack with this technology, doubling or tripling the
range, all while operating at lower energy costs and lower emissions
relative to fossil liquid fuels.]
Researchers In Norway Claim Lithium Ion Battery Breakthrough
July 12th, 2018 by Steve Hanley
It seems like just yesterday we did a story about Hyundai investing in
US solid state battery company Ionic Materials. Oh, wait. That actually
was yesterday! And yet here it is tomorrow already and there is fresh
news on the battery front. Researchers at Norway’s Department of Energy
Technology (IFE) in Kjeller say they have perfected a way to substitute
silicon for the graphite commonly used in the anodes of lithium ion
batteries.
The discovery will lead to batteries that can power an electric car for
600 miles or more, the researchers claim. “You can say we have found the
X factor we’ve been looking for. This has enormous potential and is
something scientists around the world are trying to make,” says IFE
research director Arve Holt, according to a report by Bergens Tidende.
Pure silicon has ten times more capacity than graphite but it loses
capacity faster than graphite. The researchers have found a way to mix
silicon with other elements to create an anode that is stable and long
lasting and which has three to five times higher capacity than a
conventional graphite anode. Laura Brodbeck of Kjeller Innovation works
to commercialize research results from IFE. She says the new technology
is already being tested by both material manufacturers and battery
manufacturers to determine if it can be marketed successfully.
“In order to reach consumers, the new material and batteries with the
technology must be manufactured on an industrial scale. This is
something we are working with together with our partners, “says
Brodbeck, who declined to name the companies involved with testing the
new technology. She did say that some Norwegian companies are involved
as well as companies in other countries. “Kjeller Innovation and IFE are
actively working to make the technology available as quickly as possible
and we aim to enter into a production agreement with one or more players
during the project period,” says Brodbeck.
“We have tested that it works on a lab scale with good results. Now that
we have received support from the Research Council in the FORNY2020
program, we will test it further with international industry partners
and see if it works in their industrial processes. The project that will
focus on bringing the new material to the market — we call it SiliconX —
is becoming very exciting to work towards such big goals together with
Kjeller Innovation,” says Marte O. Skare, one of the researchers in the
project.
Professor Ann Mari Svensson of the Department of Materials Technology at
the Norwegian University of Science and Technology finds the results of
the research interesting but adds a note of caution. “They have achieved
good results, but when it comes to industrialization of such research,
costs are important. It is possible to make better batteries than those
on the market today, but they are often too expensive to pay off,” she says.
As usual with stories like this, the prospects are tantalizing but we
are still a long way from being able to buy one of these batteries at
your local AutoZone store. But you can almost feel the pace of
development in battery technology accelerating day by day if not moment
by moment. We certainly do live in interesting times.
=======================================================================
https://nordic.businessinsider.com/norwegian-scientists-reveal-a-new-battery-with-five-times-more-energy-capacity--next-step-is-industrial-testing--
Norwegian nanoscientists reveal a battery boasting five times
conventional energy capacity – pushing EV range over 1000 km
Vilhelm Carlström
13 Jul 2018 10:06 AM
Norwegian researchers at the Institute for Energy Technology have found
a way to improve the capacity of conventional batteries by 300-500%.
That would imply smartphones and computers that don’t need to be charged
for several days, and electric cars that can drive upwards of 1000 km on
a single charge, NRK writes – not to mention the myriad of other medical
implants, gadgets, appliances and machines that use lithium ion batteries.
The secret is silicon and nanoengineering.
The new technology exploits the fact that silicon has a much higher
energy capacity than the graphite used in conventional batteries. For
twenty years, battery manufacturers and researchers have attempted to
improve battery performance by mixing small amounts of silicon into the
graphite, with limited effects on capacity. The obstacle to using more
silicon is that its volume varies almost 400% as lithium ions move in
and out of it with battery charge. The swelling makes the material break
and pulverize, which causes the battery to degrade quickly.
The trick is to find the right proportions and structure of the silicon-
graphite mix, to maximize silicon content while minimizing breakage, so
that the battery is stable over time. Nanotechnology has opened for the
possibility of engineering materials with a microstructure that makes it
inherently resistant to degradation. That is what the Norwegian
researchers have done. While the mix doesn’t achieve the maximum 10-fold
increase in capacity that pure silicon would offer, a 3 to 5-fold
improvement in battery energy content is still a huge improvement
compared to the batteries we use today.
Kjeller Innovation is now working on commercializing the tech.
“You can say we’ve found the X-factor we’ve been looking for. This has
enormous potential and is something scientists all over the world are
trying to accomplish,” research director Arve Holt at the Institute of
Energy Technology says in a press release.
The next steps in bringing the results to the markets will be to test
the batteries in industrial processes with international partners and
patenting the nanotechnology, NRK reports. Kjeller Innovation will lead
the work towards commercializing the technology, calling the project
SiliconX.
Ramping up from lab testing to an industrial setting hopefully means
electric cars, smartphones and implants will soon get an enormous
performance boost. Many other research groups and companies are also
trying to solve the limitations of lithium ion batteries. In the end the
solution that dominates the market will be one that offers high capacity
and low degradation in relation to production cost.
Before batteries that improve capacity by hundreds of percent reach the
market we can expect a generation of batteries that offer more modest
but still significant improvements, the Wall Street Journal predicts.
========================================================================
https://techxplore.com/news/2018-07-norwegian-silicon-jackpot-battery-solution.html
Norwegian researchers hit silicon jackpot for top battery solution
July 16, 2018 by Nancy Owano, Tech Xplore
Steve Hanley certainly wrote what we are all thinking—groan, not another
story about a battery "breakthrough." So many blares from a trumpet
begin to fall on deaf ears, but the bleats go on. So what and who are we
to take very seriously?
Well, we need to continue paying attention to claims because battery
research is ongoing and scientists want better solutions. "CleanTechnica
readers sometimes tire of all the stories about new breakthroughs in
battery technology—it seems like there is at least one every week—but
that is only because there is so much news to report about," Hanley said.
Hanley remarked that "you can almost feel the pace of development in
battery technology accelerating day by day if not moment by moment."
On to the latest buzz in batteries. Has a corner been reached and
turned? Can we consider a jackpot hit in a way to stabilize silicon
anodes for Li-ion batteries? As the news stories go, battery researchers
at the Department of Energy Technology (IFE) have solved a challenge
facing scientists worldwide .
IFE's battery researchers in Norway are talking in terms of
revolutionized range and lifespan as they announce that a way has been
achieved to put in silicon as a replacement for the graphite used in
anodes of lithium ion batteries. The group thinks they found the X
factor regarding batteries.
They are boasting over a solution that allows for far better batteries
with higher capacity. Numbers? Business Insider Nordic said the
Norwegian researchers found a way to improve the capacity of
conventional batteries by 300-500%.
Hanley clarified what the technical hurdle which they knocked down.
"Pure silicon has ten times more capacity than graphite but it loses
capacity faster than graphite. The researchers have found a way to mix
silicon with other elements to create an anode that is stable and long
lasting and which has three to five times higher capacity than a
conventional graphite anode."
Research director Arve Holt. who earned a PhD from the University of
Oslo, built up the institute's solar cell processing laboratory and the
solar cell characterization laboratory. His specialty is significant as
related to the battery research. Holt and colleagues underwent several
years of targeted research and experimental trials with nanoparticles,
including silicon, in IFE's laboratories, at Kjeller in Norway.
The IEF reports that "research results show that with the new
IFE-developed technology, it can achieve three to five times the charge
capacity of the negative electrode (anode) as with today's common
graphite technology."
Are you thinking what this means in terms of your daily life?
Think about mobile phones that do not need to be charged for days or
think about range vis a vis electric cars. Hanley reported that one of
the claims for this discovery is that it will lead to batteries that can
power an electric car for 600 miles or more.
Business Insider Nordic reminded readers of the potential impact, too,
on medical implants, gadgets, appliances and machines using lithium ion
batteries.
All in all, said Business Insider Nordic, "Ramping up from lab testing
to an industrial setting hopefully means electric cars, smartphones and
implants will soon get an enormous performance boost soon."
What's next? IFE said it is ready to take the research into the
marketplace. IFE is working on patenting the technology.
"The Institute will work in parallel with several Norwegian and
international companies to test the new battery.
The Department of Energy Technology (IFE) is an independent research
foundation; one of its better known tasks is managing the Halden
Project, which is OECD's largest and longest collaborative project on
reactor safety.
