A123/Solid Power Partnership – A Safe Bet?

Dean Sigler Batteries, Electric Aircraft Components, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

A123 Systems has worked with buffering chemistries to reduce the volatility of lithium batteries for the last decade.  Solid Power Inc. has taken a set of interesting new technologies to make batteries more energy dense and safer.   The two companies are combining efforts to make a more powerful, less-volatile battery, according to recent press releases. A123 produces nanophosphate (lithium iron phosphate – LiFePO4) and ultraphosphate batteries.  Their nanophosphate batteries are used in Porsche’s 919 hybrid, a LeMans Prototype (LMP1) endurance racer that was outright winner of the event this year.  They also power Eva Hakansson’s Killajoule and Bill Dube’s Killacycle – both record-holding electric motorcycles.  Their Ultraphosphate line is designed to work at low voltages and low temperatures, including 48-Volt mild hybrid applications.   Solid Power, a startup based on research done at University of Colorado Boulder, combines (“an exceptionally”) high-capacity cathode with a high-capacity lithium metal anode and a high ionic capacity solid separator.  This combination produces, according to …

Cambridge Crude Reborn in Simplified Battery

Dean Sigler Electric Powerplants, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

We first saw the appellation, “24M” four years ago in our report on research done at MIT to produce an ionic liquid called “Cambridge Crude,” usable in flow batteries.   Dr. Yet-Ming Chiang headed up that work in collaboration with Professors Angela Belcher and Paula Hammond at MIT and Glenn Amatucci at Rutgers, among others.  They formed a commercial spinoff and seemingly went underground for the next four years. Dr. Chiang and his associates had previously gone commercial with A123, which went through the trial of bankruptcy and being acquired by overseas investors.  It’s now solvent and looking to double output.  24M is a spin-off of A123. We found that Professor Chiang had resurfaced when friend and blog reader Marshall Houston sent an article from Quartz about Chiang’s work with Dr. W. Craig Carter to expand on the foundational energy storage technology of 24M – based on the thick black electrolyte they’d created and a resulting semisolid electrode. Their semi-solid lithium-ion …

What Did You Do Over the Labor Day Weekend?

Dean Sigler Electric Powerplants, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

KillaJoule is the world’s fastest electric motorcycle with a top speed of 241 mph (388 km/h) so far.  About 80 percent of this sleek bullet is the design and work product of co-owner and driver Eva Håkansson, who has graced the stage at two Electric Aircraft Symposiums, the last appearance with her husband and crew chief, Bill Dube’.  Their web site explains, “KillaJoule is really eco-activism in disguise. The only purpose of this 19 foot, 400 horsepower, sleek, sexy motorcycle is to show that eco-friendly doesn’t mean slow and boring.” Over the Labor Day weekend, Eva lowered her petite frame (she’s about five feet tall) into the cockpit of her speedy sidecar to break her old world record and set a new mark 25 miles per hour faster than anyone else has gone before in or on a motorcycle.  The sidecar definition comes from the outrigger wheel and platform that thankfully, doesn’t require a rider for these speed attempts. The …

EAS VIII: Ultra High Energy Density Lithium Battery

Dean Sigler Electric Powerplants, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

Qichao Hu is ​Cofounder, President and interim CEO of SolidEnergy, a battery company with a different technology and a unique business plan.  According to his company’s web site, he “Cofounded SolidEnergy while a PhD student at MIT, and led it through early stage business plan competition, fundraising, licensing and collaboration negotiation, and technology development. 2012 Forbes 30 Under 30 in Energy, and is a graduate of MIT and Harvard University.”  His team was also the Deployment and Infrastructure Category Winner in the 2012 MIT Clean Energy Prize competition. In his presentation to the eighth annual Electric Aircraft Symposium on April 25, Hu told about his Waltham, Massachusetts startup’s strategic partnership with A123, the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Argonne National Laboratory.  The firm’s laboratory and intellectual depth enables creating a battery that is safer, lighter and smaller, as Hu told attendees at the Symposium. Solid Energy Systems Corp. is now affiliated with A123 Venture Technologies Corp.  This allows Hu and his …

SolidEnergy Teams with A123 for High Energy Density Battery

Dean Sigler Electric Powerplants, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

Take two Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) business incubator realizations, mix their strengths and watch for the potential breakthroughs that could come in the form of high-energy-density batteries. According to its web site, “SolidEnergy is developing a safe, high energy density, and wide temperature capable rechargeable battery that has the potential to transform the consumer electronics, electric vehicle, and downhole exploration (as in well drilling) industries. The core technology is called a Solid Polymer Ionic Liquid (SPIL) lithium metal battery.” Founded in 2012, “one of the toughest years in the battery industry,” SolidEnergy’s “…objective is to develop an insanely great next generation battery and commercialize it in the fastest and most efficient way.” This decidedly brash approach needs a steadying hand at the wheel, which is where its partnership with A123 Systems comes into play. A123’s first collaboration under its expanded research and development model combines SolidEnergy’s SPIL technology with “the mature cell design and prototyping capabilities of A123.” This would help …

Battery Prices and Lithium Futures

Dean Sigler Electric Powerplants, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

EV World has a weekly email update to which your editor subscribes.  Because they provide a collection of articles and opinions from different sources, one often comes away questioning trends and even facts – or sometimes the meaning of it all. This week, an article referenced from Green Car Reports says that EV batteries may already have fallen to $250 per kilowatt hour.  This would be a godsend for sales of battery-powered cars, because sticker prices would drop sharply.   The article quotes Wolfgang Bernhart, a partner at Rolan Berger Strategy Consultants, that battery prices are already much lower than previous predictions would have indicated, possibly as low as $250 per kilowatt hour.  His analysis credited economies of scale for this drop, which is based on 2015 demand. This paradoxical approach notes that battery manufacturers must begin planning production now for 2015 EVs, with prices quoted to those manufacturers based on that future demand.  Such prices would be an optimistic five …

Cambridge Crude and Range Euphoria

Dean Sigler Electric Powerplants 1 Comment

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) scientists have announced what they claim is a “Significant advance in battery architecture [that] could be breakthrough for electric vehicles and grid storage.”    According to a story by David L. Chandler from the MIT News Office, the new battery system is lightweight and inexpensive, and could make recharging “as quick and easy as pumping gas into a conventional car.” Seemingly requiring some active components within the battery, this “semi-solid flow cell” pumps solid particles suspended in a carrier liquid which form the cathodes and anodes through the system.  According to the MIT news item, “These two different suspensions are pumped through systems separated by a filter, such as a thin porous membrane.”  Mechanically more complex than today’s batteries, the system still has a claimed “10-fold improvement over present liquid-flow batteries” (not necessarily that much better than lithium ion, then), but lower manufacturing costs. The different fluids are contained in two different containers and not …

Buckeyes Bullet to Record

Dean Sigler Electric Powerplants Leave a Comment

Engineering and design students with Ohio State University’s Center for Automotive Research heated the Bonneville Salt Flats August 23, 2010 with a speed record for electric vehicles on the famed white wasteland – 307.66 miles per hour for the average of two one-mile runs.  The Buckeye Bullet BBV2.5 flew through the flying mile at 320 mph under the experienced hand of Roger Schroer, a professional race driver who has worked with the University team for the last six years.  The Buckeyes await certification of their record by the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile, the worldwide motor sports governing body. The team comprises graduate and undergraduate students in multiple engineering disciplines.  Center Director Giorgio Rizzoni acts as team advisor, undergraduate David Cooke is team leader, graduate mechanical engineer Gary Bork heads up the grads, Rob Ewing is mechanical leader, and graduate electrical engineer R. J. Kromer is the electrical leader. Graphic design major Kelly Hartnett keeps the world updated on team activities through …