By John Nolan, Staff Writer Updated 10:45 PM Friday, November 20, 2009

DAYTON – The University of Dayton Research Institute’s new solid-state technology for a rechargeable lithium battery, which would draw oxygen from the air around it, could offer the long service life that is needed for electric transport power in a car, according to the leader of UDRI’s battery technology team.

Manufacturers and owners of hybrid and all-electric cars would want power batteries that would last as long as the vehicle, perhaps a decade, said Binod Kumar, a research engineer and leader of UDRI’s electrochemical power group. The UDRI technology could meet that need, he said Thursday, Nov. 19.

Today’s hybrid cars have gasoline engines to supplement the electric motor. All-electric cars would require advanced batteries, with the capability to last longer between recharges.

Kumar and his team said they have developed and tested a completely solid-state, rechargeable lithium-air battery, which they said is much more stable than conventional lithium-ion batteries that contains liquid and can rupture, catch fire or explode if exposed to short-circuit or excessive heat. UDRI holds patents on parts of the technology and will apply for additional patents, Kumar said.

Dan Rastler, manager of the energy storage program for Electric Power Research Institute, a nonprofit independent research group funded by the electric utility industry, said his organization is interested in knowing more about UDRI’s work. Scientists at IBM Corp.’s Almaden Research Center in California, and researchers in Japan, also are trying to develop improved lithium rechargeable batteries because of the growing demand and potential markets as power sources in cars; laptop computers, electric utility grids and as backups to solar or wind power generating systems.

The Air Force Research Laboratory provided the bulk of the funding for the UDRI team’s work.

New type of battery ?has advantages

Long-lived lithium rechargeable batteries could be ideal power sources for battlefield troops or aboard unmanned aircraft flown by the military, Kumar said.

By not having any liquid electrolyte – an ion-containing substance that is electrically conductive – in UDRI’s battery, it avoids the volatility of today’s liquid-containing lithium-ion batteries, Kumar said. UDRI’s test batteries have performed during tests at temperatures of up to 225 degrees Fahrenheit, he said.

How big the market for batteries for electric cars and the competition A123 Systems faces are key issues facing investors. On the end-user side, data show that the number of EV (electric vehicle), HEV (hybrid electric vehicle), PHEV (plug-in hybrid electric vehicle) models with an annual production run of at least 20,000 vehicles will grow from 19 models in 2009 to over 150 models in 2014 and over 200 models in 2019. In addition, estimates for the global lithium-ion battery market for automotive application in EVs, PHEVs, and HEVs are $31.9 million in 2009 growing to $21.8 billion by 2015 and $74.1 billion by 2020.

According to Dr. Robert Castellano, president of The Information Network, “Light-weight, high-energy-density lithium ion batteries, which can enable a car to go up to 300 miles on a charge, can cost as much as $35,000, which coincidentally is the replacement cost for the new Tesla Motors Roadster.”

Clearly the market potential for lithium-ion batteries for automobiles is huge. But cost is a critical factor, and as they are new, so is durability. In a report released in January 2009, the DOE pointed out that the current cost of Li-based batteries is approximately a factor of three-five too high on a kWh basis for HEVs, and two times too high for HEVs.. Also, the ability to attain a 15-year life, or 300,000 HEV cycles, or 5,000 EV cycles are unproven and are anticipated to be difficult.

A123 Systems competes in the Li-ion battery space with companies including Advanced Battery Technologies(ABAT),Altair Nanotechnologies (ALTI), China Sun Group (CSGH), Ener1 (HEV), Hong Kong Highpower Technology (HPJ), and Valence Technologies (VLNC).

A123 Systems with its Lithium-ion technology also competes with advanced lead-acid battery (lead carbon) producers like Axion Power International (AXPW.OB), C&D Technologies (CHP), Enersys (ENS), and Exide Technologies (XIDE).

Let’s not forget the NiMH battery. ECD Ovonics (ENER) has licensed its battery technology to every major manufacturer of NiMH batteries, all 35 of them. It’s a market prohected to be $1,230 million market for HEVs in 2011 compared to a $320 million market for automotive Li-ion batteries.

Author urges U.S. Government not to bend to political expediency.

Open Access Article Originally Published: July 31, 2009

Any day now, the U.S. Department of Energy will announce how it will allocate $2 billion to promote the manufacturing of advanced batteries in this country. The decision will profoundly affect how well the U.S. battery industry competes in the world market for lithium-ion battery cells.

Because of lithium-ion’s superior power and energy density compared with earlier battery chemistries, electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids will soon begin to compete with and replace motor vehicles powered by internal combustion engines.

Unfortunately, U.S. industry shows every sign of missing out on this paradigm-changing technology. While Detroit was building gas-guzzling SUVs and large pickup trucks, the Japanese, South Koreans and Chinese were perfecting the manufacturing of lithium-ion battery cells with heavy government support. Their governments understand that he who makes the batteries will one day make the cars. Today, U.S. companies produce less than 1 percent of all lithium-ion battery cells.

The $2 billion federal investment will give the U.S. battery industry a last chance. But with more than 160 applicants — each with its own political champions and technology advocates — there is a serious danger that this chance will fall victim to the political expedience of spreading the money around and trying to make everyone happy.

That must not happen. Getting it right will require an industrywide collaboration that ensures technological and industry flexibility, large-scale production and domestic ownership of cell technology.

Technological flexibility is critical because lithium-ion technology is changing rapidly. Betting on any company just because it claims current technology leadership could be a bad and stale bet. Likewise, betting on individual battery companies based on their relationships with existing automaker supply networks also might backfire as the use of electrified vehicles will significantly disrupt existing auto supply and distribution chains.

Another key is to ensure low costs by making lithium-ion battery cells in large quantities. Spreading the battery awards widely around the battery industry will doom the chances of any U.S. firm successfully competing in the world market. Success requires scale.

Finally, it is critical that U.S. companies maintain control of basic cell-manufacturing technology. Semiconductors are a parallel. In the late 1980s, the U.S. semiconductor industry organized SEMATECH, a public-private consortium of U.S. companies, which, with about $500 million in federal grants, reversed the loss of semiconductor manufacturing technology to Asia. SEMATECH is largely responsible for U.S. companies leading the world today in computer technology.

The most important lesson of SEMATECH is the need for U.S. companies to collaborate when struggling with heavily subsidized foreign rivals. It maximizes technological flexibility, permitting new batteries to get to market quickly. It permits the pooling of limited resources to produce low-cost lithium-ion cells. And it ensures domestic automakers will have priority access to a key component that may determine which companies make the cars of the future.

It is time for a new SEMATECH — this time for lithium-ion battery cells.

James J. Greenberger is the founder and secretary of the National Alliance for Advanced Transportation Batteries and a partner in the law firm of Reed Smith LLP in Chicago.

David Shepardson / Detroit News Washington Bureau

Washington — The White House plans to unveil the first group of grants from a $2 billion fund for battery research in the next few weeks with some of the funds directed to states like Michigan, a top economic adviser said tonight.

As part of the $787 billion stimulus package approved in February, Congress agreed to include $2 billion in battery research grants. Unlike the $25 billion advanced vehicle retooling program, the grants for battery research do not have to be repaid.

Ed DeSeve, the president’s special adviser on the stimulus program, said an announcement on the first round of battery grants would happen shortly. But he declined to say what automakers, suppliers or battery companies might be receiving the grants.

I think you’ll see over the next week or so … some industrialization focus for example on the battery grants that are coming,” DeSeve told regional reporters this evening during a roundtable meeting, noting that there are also Energy Department loan guarantees in the works. “It makes sense to put those in places where there is productive working capacity — people who can do the jobs — there are plants where the jobs can exist, and I think you are going to start to see more and more of that over time.”

General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler Group LLC have all applied for battery grant funding, as have some other battery companies and suppliers.

In March, President Barack Obama renewed his campaign pledge to push for 1 million plug-in electric hybrid vehicles on U.S. roads by 2015, promoting a $2 billion battery research program, saying it “will spark the manufacturing of the batteries and parts that run these cars, build or upgrade the factories that will produce them, and in the process, create thousands of jobs right here in America.”

Michigan lawmakers pushed hard for the research money during the debate over the stimulus package, saying it was crucial to helping the auto industry develop next-generation plug-in electric hybrid vehicles.

Obama’s call for 1 million plug-in hybrids by 2015 was first made in a Lansing campaign speech last year. Auto manufacturers have said they worry the plan is too ambitious.

GM plans to begin production of its extended range electric vehicle, the Chevrolet Volt, late next year; Ford said in January it will bring a fully electric vehicle to market by 2011 and a plug-in hybrid in 2012. Chrysler will have produced 100 all-electric vehicles by year’s end, and in January said it plans to have four electric models on the road in 2013. The company says it expects to have 500,000 electric vehicles on the road in four years; Toyota Motor Corp. will have a test fleet of 150 plug-ins on U.S. roads by the end of this year.

The White House said in March the Department of Energy will offer $1.5 million in competitive grants to U.S. developers of advanced batteries, and $500 million for development of other components needed for plug-in hybrids, such as electric motors.

Another $400 million will be used to demonstrate the infrastructure needed to make such vehicles practical, such as plug-in stations for owners to recharge their cars.

Essentially, the battery represents a unique extrapolation of conventional VRLA electrochemistry and design into a new, non-conventional configuration similar to a capacitor. One principal difference: long and very thin continuous sheets of flexible lead foil, which provide a very large surface area to deliver high power instantly.

The flexible nature of the current collector also allows different configurations of cells and batteries for different applications as well as easy scalability.

The technology will threaten foreign providers of traditional lead-acid, Lithium-ion, Nickel-Metal Hydride, Nickel-Cadmium, and Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries.

In the transportation markets, the company is developing systems to power the next generation of hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicles (HEVs, PHEVs). This technology is also being developed for other transportation markets including starter batteries for autos, motorcycles, ATVs, buses and trucks as well as alternative transportation vehicles, industrial equipment, and even military aircraft and tanks.

As such, the battery is a classic “disruptive” technology in that it improves a product in ways that the market does not expect by redefining a mature technology to provide more power at a lower price, in a smaller package, and for a broader range of applications than anything currently available, in the U.S. or globally.

www.next-alternative.com

Carbon Nano Tube (CNT) are tiny tubular structures composed of a single layer of carbon atoms. MBTI has developed a propriety method of coating the anode, cathodes and modifying the electrolyte with Carbon Nano Tubes. The diminutive tubes hold 8 times more energy as the lead in lead/acid batteries, and will hold twice as much energy as rechargeable lithium batteries. The CNT Battery exhibits capacitor characteristics.

The patented and trade secreted Nano Tube technology modifies existing battery design types (most kinds of commercially available batteries) to produce a battery at the very least which will recharge in less than 10 minutes, have an increased Reverse Capacity of at least 8 times the same unmodified battery. This will allow providing the hybrid and electric car markets with a battery that far exceeds anything currently available to them at this time. The Carbon Nano Tube Battery (CNT Battery) will be the technology we bring to market.

The weak link in any electric car is the batteries. They have a limited capacity (a typical lead-acid battery pack might hold 12 to 15 kilowatt-hours of electricity), giving a car a range of only 50 – 100 miles. The theoretical numbers based on the test results of our Carbon Nano Tube lead/acid battery pack will deliver a distance of 350-380 miles between charges and can be recharged in less than 10 minutes.

The charge rate (typical recharge times for a lead/acid pack range between four to 10 hours for full charge, depending on the battery technology and the charger) has finally been broken by this technology. The short life (three to four years, perhaps 200 full charge/discharge cycles) is extended by at minimum of 4 times with this technology.