The continuum of battery technology development has been varying from stagnant periods to significant breakthroughs, in an almost unpredictable fashion. The inception of the idea about a battery charged-electric vehicle is indeed as old as the motor car itself. The trend has been consistently directing away from heavy and acid batteries to compact, light and far more efficient nickel/metal (NiMH) accumulators. One of those significant breakthroughs mentioned above came with the introduction of lithium-ion technology. Of course, many additional technological advances seem to be imminent, within the next years, through the introduction of post-lithium-ion technology.
Lithium-ion batteries are named after the movement of lithium ions within them, and they power most rechargeable devices today. The element lithium (Li) has some interesting properties that allow batteries to be both portable and powerful; the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to scientists who worked on the idea during the 1970s. But despite their widespread use, lithium-ion batteries remain extremely complicated and still intrigue scientists to unlock their secrets and open up the road for optimal efficiency.
▶1. Nickel Powering Battery Nickel (Ni) has long been widely used in batteries, most commonly in nickel cadmium (NiCd) and in the longer-lasting nickel metal hydride (NiMH) rechargeable batteries, which came to the fore in the 1980s. Their adoption in power tools and early digital cameras revealed the potential for portable devices, changing expectations of how we work and live. The mid-1990s saw the first significant use of NiMH batteries in vehicles in the Toyota Prius. Around the same time, the first commercial applications for Li-ion batteries emerged, initially in camcorders and eventually finding their way into smartphones, laptops and the numerous other portable devices we now take for granted.
The major advantage of using nickel in batteries is that it helps deliver higher energy density and greater storage capacity at a lower cost.
▶ 2. What is a solid-state lithium-metal battery? A solid-state lithium-metal battery is a battery that replaces the polymer separator used in conventional lithium-ion batteries with a solid-state separator. The replacement of the separator enables the carbon or silicon anode used in conventional lithium-ion batteries to be replaced with a lithium-metal anode. The lithium metal anode is more energy dense than conventional anodes, allowing the battery to store a greater amount of energy in the same volume. Some solid-state designs use excess lithium to form the anode, but the QuantumScape design is ‘anode-free’ in that the battery is manufactured anode free in a discharged state, and the anode forms in situ on the first charge.
▶ 3-1. Vanadium Redox-Flow Battery | Schmid Construction looks set to begin on a factory building flow batteries, as a joint venture (JV) formed by German tech company Schmid Group and Saudi Arabian investment company Nusaned closed the transaction to seal its partnership.
The JV's formation was announced this time last year and Schmid emailed Energy-Storage.news yesterday with news that the transaction has received regulatory approvals and satisfied its closing conditions. Schmid and its partner Nusaned – which is owned by SABIC, a chemical manufacturing subsidiary of Saudi Aramco – will focus on developing vanadium redox flow battery technology as well as manufacturing.
▶3-2. Vanadium Ion Battery | Standard Energy Standard Energy, a vanadium ion battery developer, announced today it has raised a $8.9 million Series C from SoftBank Ventures Asia. The South Korea-based company says its batteries’ advantages over lithium ion include less risk of ignition and the ease of sourcing vanadium. The latter is an important selling point, as electric vehicle makers face a potential shortage of lithium ion batteries.
Instead of serving as a replacement for lithium ion batteries, however, Standard Energy chief executive officer Bu Gi Kim said they complement each other. Vanadium ion batteries have high energy, performance and safety, but they are not as compact as lithium ion batteries.
Norma is CEO of Ashlawn Energy up in Painesville and it's a company that provides multi-megawatt
energy storage solutions using, and I have no idea what this is, vanadium redox fuel cells.
That's one of the coolest things I've ever said out loud.
Nickel, the hidden metal in the batteries that power our world.
Phones, laptops, electric vehicles and large-scale energy storage systems all rely on it.
Nickel is present in many of the new energy sources that are helping us move towards a
more sustainable, greener future. But what role does nickel play?
A lithium-ion battery is made up of a cathode, anode, electrolyte, separator
and two current collectors. When charging, lithium ions move from the cathode,
which contains nickel, to the anode. When discharging, the anode releases lithium ions
to the cathode, generating electric current. The reason so many electric vehicles are powered by
nickel-containing batteries is because the metal delivers the highest possible capacity,
with increased power and energy density, whilst being highly cost-effective.
This allows the battery to be smaller and lighter, contributing to a longer drive range.
In fact, nickel is the cornerstone metal in many battery types, each with different applications,
including high-performance cars, trucks, buses and even windmill and solar energy storage.
And as new battery technologies are developed, nearly all of them have one thing in common,
nickel. Its physical properties mean that it will continue to be an
indispensable part of a greener, more efficient future.
What are solid-state lithium metal batteries? Let's start by looking at conventional lithium-ion
batteries. A conventional lithium-ion battery cell consists of three main layers,
a positive electrode or cathode, a negative electrode or anode, a porous polymer separator
that keeps the electrodes apart, and two electrical contacts, one at each electrode.
The electrodes are made of particles of material capable of storing energy.
The entire cell is flooded with a liquid that serves as the electrolyte, which is the medium
through which lithium ions travel. Let's zoom in to look at what happens inside the cathode
particles. Each cathode particle is made up of a lithium containing metal oxide,
such as lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide, commonly known as NMC. These elements form a
stable structure to hold the lithium ions when the battery is in a discharged state.
As the battery charges, the lithium leaves the cathode particle and makes its way through the
liquid electrolyte, passing through the pores and the separator on its way to the anode.
There, the lithium enters the anode particle, commonly made of sheets of carbon,
sometimes adding silicon. The sheets of carbon host the lithium until the energy is needed,
with six carbon atoms holding a single lithium ion. Now let's see how solid-state lithium metal
works. In a quantum-scape solid-state lithium metal battery, there are only two main layers,
a cathode or positive electrode with an electrical contact and a solid-state ceramic separator,
which replaces the porous polymer separator found in the conventional lithium ion batteries.
Where there used to be an anode, there is now just an electrical contact.
The cell is manufactured without an anode. As the battery charges, the lithium leaves the cathode,
traveling through the atomic lattice of the non-porous solid-state ceramic separator.
Once the lithium is through the separator, it deposits between the separator and the
contact, forming an anode of pure metallic lithium.
A lithium metal anode allows the energy of the solid-state battery to be stored in a smaller
volume, enabling a higher energy density as compared to conventional lithium ion batteries.
Solid-state lithium metal allows for greater range from higher energy density,
a 15-minute fast charge, and safer operation by eliminating the organic polymer separator.
QuantumScape. The future is solid.
The Schmid Vanadium Redox Flow Battery consists of two tanks storing vanadium analyte and
catalyte. Pumps are used to flow these electrolytes through adjacent half-cells,
separated by an ion exchange membrane. Within the half-cells, the electrolytes are chemically
oxidized and reduced to reversibly convert electrical to chemical energy.
An external electrical power source, like PV installation,
supplies the energy to charge the vanadium redox flow battery.
The two vanadium electrolytes are flown through the cell stack,
in which the electrical energy is converted to chemical energy.
The electrolytes charged within the cell are flown back to the tanks,
increasing the battery's state of charge. Looking into the cell at the molecular level,
vanadium-3 and vanadium-4 enter the electrochemical cell.
At the catalyte half-cell, the vanadium-4 is oxidized to vanadium-5.
This chemical reaction yields an electron, which is drawn off by the conductive electrode material,
and a hydronium ion, which diffuses across the membrane to the opposite half-cell.
At the anode half-cell, the electron which has traversed the external circuit
reduces vanadium-3 to vanadium-2. The hydronium ion, which has passed the membrane,
balances the overall charge of the half-cell. The two electrolytes leave the half-cells
in a charged state as vanadium-2 and vanadium-5. Once the grid cannot provide energy to the
battery system, the vanadium redox flow battery swaps to discharge.
Vanadium-5 and vanadium-2 ions carry the chemical energy into the cell stack.
The chemical energy stored within the two electrolytes is converted to electrical energy,
feeding the external load. At the molecular level,
the reverse of the charging reaction occurs. Vanadium-2 is oxidized to form vanadium-3,
releasing an electron which carries the electrical energy. For charge balancing,
a hydronium ion crosses the ion-conductive membrane.
Vanadium-5 is reduced by an electron under consumption of a hydronium ion.
The electrolytes leave the cell in their discharged states in the form of vanadium-3 and 4.
The vanadium redox flow battery delivers electrical power until the electrolytes within the two tanks
are completely discharged. The Schmid vanadium redox flow battery
can be independently scaled for appropriate power and energy.
Power can be adjusted through cell size and number. Energy is defined by the tank volume
to perfectly meet the customer's needs. As the electrochemical reaction takes place
in the electrolyte solution, no loss in power or capacity takes place due to side reactions
as observed in conventional batteries. This fact ensures lifetimes superior to
any other electrochemical storage. Even deep discharge does not influence battery health.
Unlike other flow battery types, the all-vanadium redox flow battery incorporates vanadium in both
electrolytes, eliminating battery deterioration through cross-contamination. The composition
of the electrolytes, vanadium salts solved in dilute sulfuric acid, guarantees low hazard potential
and best possible ecologic properties. With all these benefits in cooperation with low
production costs, the Schmid VRFB is the appropriate means for renewable energy storage.
