Companies Lining Up to Join Electric Car Battery Revolution
By | July 27, 2009
Source: News Tribune
Class: SYNDICATED NEWS
SYNOPSIS: The companies range from small niche firms to giants such as Dow Chemical and Johnson Controls.
WASHINGTON – The Energy Department is getting ready to hand out about $2 billion in grants to create a domestic industry for electric-car batteries, and 122 companies are scrambling to get pieces.
The companies range from small niche firms to giants such as Dow Chemical and Johnson Controls. All are promising a combination of innovation and ability to deliver new products on a commercial scale to prevent the United States from trading dependence on foreign oil or reliance on foreign-made batteries.
“We’ve had 20 years of bad behavior in the United States in terms of developing ideas into products,” said Mary Ann Wright, chief executive of Johnson Controls’s joint venture developing hybrid battery systems.
Now policy-makers hope that helping domestic battery manufacturers will produce economic savings that often come with large-scale production and which are needed to make electric cars affordable. With funds provided by the stimulus bill in February, the Energy Department can cover up to half the cost of a battery-related project.
“This investment will not only reduce our dependence on foreign oil, it will put Americans back to work,” President Obama said in March. “It positions American manufacturers on the cutting edge of innovation and solving our energy challenges.”
The federally funded battery effort has its skeptics. Grants are expected to focus on lightweight lithium-ion batteries similar to those found in laptops. They are the newest thing in a business that had not changed much since lead-acid batteries were invented a century and a half ago.
But U.S. hopefuls face stiff competition from foreign firms such as Japan’s Panasonic and Sony, and South Korea’s LG Chem, which already dominate the lithium-ion battery market in power tools, laptops and cellphones. Some domestic firms have recruited foreign companies as partners in new U.S.-based manufacturing facilities.
Moreover, some economists warn of the perils of government subsidies. “To the extent that this is part of a broader industrial policy scheme, I’m against it for all the reasons I’ve always been against it,” said Charles Schultze, a Brookings Institution senior fellow and former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. “If you’re not heavy-handed about screening (applications), you’re going to get a lot of the equivalent of political pork.”
Some industry experts also note that lithium-ion batteries may not be ready for tough road conditions, that they generate a lot of heat and that there is no infrastructure for recycling them. For the moment, it is easier to recycle lead-acid batteries, like those in regular cars, or nickel-metal hydride batteries, like those in hybrid vehicles.
Nonetheless, Obama has set a goal of having 1 million electric cars on the road by 2015 and the Energy Department is trying to make sure a large share of them are powered by U.S.-made batteries. In addition to the $2 billion in grants it is expected to announce soon, the Energy Department can also lend from a separate $25 billion program. It has already announced a $1.6 billion loan to help Nissan develop an electric car, including the construction of a new battery plant, and a $465 million loan for Tesla Motors.
Johnson Controls, the world’s largest maker of lead-acid batteries, is applying with Ford Motor to make lithium-ion batteries at a Michigan plant that once made automobile interiors. The Wisconsin-based company says the project would be up and running within 15 months, creating 4,700 jobs for Michigan.
“Some people won’t lose their jobs and some people who’ve lost theirs will get new ones,” said Alex Molinaroli, president of power solutions at Johnson Controls.
The company touts its experience. “It’s a natural extension of what we do,” Molinaroli said of the battery business. Last year, Johnson Controls made 112 million conventional car
Topics: electric car battery | 1 Comment »
Lotus Engineering’s View of Next Generation Electric City Car
By | July 22, 2009
Source: EV Worldwire
Class: EVWORLDWIRE
SYNOPSIS: Automotive Engineer commissions Lotus to design electric city car.
Better known for their high performance racing machines — and the starting point for the Tesla Roadster and Dodge EV — Lotus Engineering took a crack of designing the next generation urban/city electric commuter for Automotive Engineer.
Since the car is intended simply to operate on city streets shuttling the driver and his passengers from home to work, school or out to eat, the design exercise gave it a 37 kW (50 hp) electric motor and a smallish lithium battery pack that gives the car a range between recharges of 30 miles, which suggests the pack has a capacity of around 10kWh. This could translate into a reasonably priced car once lithium hits the $250/kwh cost target — it’s now estimated around $750-$1000.
Like the Reva or G-Wiz as its called in Britain, the car can handle two adults, with two children in the back seats, which can be folded down to accommodate groceries or packages.
According to UK’s Car Magazine, it took just two weeks to develop the design, one-tenth the usual amount time it takes to work up a concept. Unfortunately, it is likely remain just that, a concept, since Lotus was simply commissioned to do the study, not engineer an actual car.
Topics: electric based vehicles | No Comments »
White House To Unveil Battery Grants
By | July 22, 2009
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
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.
Topics: green battery technology | No Comments »
Hybrid-Electric Corsa LeMans P1 Prototype
By | July 20, 2009
SYNOPSIS: Utah-based hybrid-electric LeMans racecar exhibited in Washington, D.C.
It was an electric day for the Corsa Motorsports team when it accepted an invitation from the U.S. Department of Energy to display the team’s No. 48 GZ09-SH electric/hybrid Le Mans P1 Prototype racecar on the L’Enfant Quad at the U.S. Department of Energy’s headquarters building in Washington DC.
The Corsa hybrid is the first such car to feature an advanced vehicle technology alternative-fueled hybrid propulsion system which received its final homologation from the FIA in Paris last week. The car has the ability to run on one of three propulsion systems – an alternative-fueled normally aspirated V8 engine, a 35kw electric motor powered by an advanced lithium-ion battery recharged using a kinetic energy recovery system or as an ultra-hybrid employing both systems in a parallel hybrid configuration. The Corsa exhibit featured a video presentation explaining the system technology and was particularly insightful for high school students who attended the exhibit from the Baltimore/DC area Engineering Academies of the National Academy Foundation. In addition to the students, management and staff from the Department of Energy as well as the EPA had the opportunity to closely inspect what is one of if not the most sophisticated cars on the planet.
The highlight of the exhibit was the attendance of Daniel Poneman, the U.S. Deputy Secretary of Energy who was able to get into the car’s cockpit and receive a complete debrief on the car’s systems and technology from the driver’s perspective. Said Secretary Poneman “I only wish my 15 year old son could have been here to see this”. Also in attendance were representatives from most of Utah’s congressional delegation including Sen. Orrin Hatch’s office who has been a strong proponent of advanced viehcle technologies.
“The opportunity to exhibit what we are doing at the very center of government policy and to provide awareness and education to the administration based on what we perceive as a part of the solution to domesticating the components and technology necessary to make these technologies not only sustainable but evoke a consumer response was exceptionally rewarding” said Corsa Team Principal Steve Pruitt. “I believe what we had a positive impact on the Department’s personnel and the role that we can play in helping the administration see the electrification of transportation through our vision.” Deputy.
With the car now homologated, it will have its inaugural competition with fully functional hybrid power this weekend at the fifth round of the American Le Mans Series at the Northeast Grand Prix at Lime Rock Park in Lakeville, Connecticut where Johnny Mowlem and Stefan Johansson will become the first drivers to pilot an LMP1 car with the revolutionary propulsion system.
About Corsa Motorsports: Corsa Motorsports is a Salt Lake City, Utah based race team that competes in the highest class of sports car racing series in the world’s premier racing series – the American Le Mans Series – with the world’s first alternative-fueled electric/hybrid/energy recovery propulsion system using advanced lithium-ion battery and power control systems.
For more information on Corsa, please visit www.corsamotorsports.com or call Tere at 801.231-6976.
Source: Corsa Motor Sports
Class: PRESS RELEASE
Topics: electric based vehicles | No Comments »
Functional Battery Made With Virus/Nanotube Electrodes
By | July 18, 2009
By John Trimmer
In the latest bit of battery tech to come out of MIT, researchers have modified a virus so that it connects charges stored in standard lithium battery materials with a carbon nanotube electrode.
Researchers have developed a specific formulation of lithium-iron phosphate that allows lithium charges to rapidly move in and out of the storage medium, which allows for extremely fast charge/discharge cycles. Charges in this material move so quickly, in fact, that the primary limit to these batteries becomes the amount of electrode material needed to keep them fed. A potential way forward was released in Thursday’s edition of Science Express: building highly structured electrodes using an engineered virus.
The fast-charge batteries were developed at MIT, and there is another group on campus that has been experimenting with using viruses to structure battery components. The two teams have apparently been talking-one of the authors of last month’s paper appears on the current one-and the new report involves using viruses to structure an electrode material that incorporates iron phosphate.
The basic concept that drives the work is the recognition that biological systems can self-assemble into ordered structures and, with the appropriate modifications, can be used to order additional materials. In this case, the biological material involved is the M13 phage, which assembles into long, filamentous structures using many copies of a few simple proteins. By altering the sequence of the proteins, it’s possible to create viruses that have an affinity for a variety of materials.
In this case, the authors started with a modified virus, where a protein that forms the sides of the filament has an affinity for iron phosphate. By combining the virus/iron phosphate mix with a coating of conductive silver, the authors were able to use it as an anode in a standard lithium battery. This combination performed reasonably well, but not as well as existing commercial solutions, so the authors went back to the drawing board.
They concluded that, although the virus created useful structures on the fine scale, the resulting material lacked a larger-scale organization that would help increase the electric contacts in the battery. To provide this, the authors turned to another material that’s been making waves in the world of nanotechnology: carbon nanotubes.
To build a higher order structure with carbon nanotubes, they had to link the virus up to them. So they selected a protein that resides at one end of the viral filament, randomly mutated it, and then screened for versions that stuck to nanotubes. They got several, and focused on two that had different affinities for the nanotubes; these differences allowed them to determine how important the virus-nanotube interactions were for battery performance.
Using a mixture in which the carbon nanotubes contributed only five percent of the mass increased the performance of the batteries by about 20 percent, and provided even larger improvements at higher discharge rates. The new electrode also tripled the energy density compared to one made with a normal virus. A form of the virus with lower affinity for the nanotubes produced an intermediate value, showing that the interactions were essential for this improved performance. In all cases, the material showed very little change in capacity after multiple recharge cycles.
The authors were able to demonstrate a functional 3V battery that is able to power a small LED, as shown above.
As far as I can tell, this new development is complementary with the fast-charge technology described last month; that paper focused on the charge storage material, while this involved a new electrode structure. So, it should be possible to combine the two approaches. Given that the labs involved appear to be collaborating, I’d be surprised if work in that area isn’t already underway.
Topics: carbon nano tube battery | No Comments »
BMW Develops Electric Scooter
By | July 18, 2009
Leccy Tech BMW has cracked the electric scooter nut and will start to sell what appears to be a genuinely usable electric bike in 2011.
That’s assuming a report in overseas magazine Solo Scooter is correct, of course.
The putative BMW machine will apparently have a top speed of 120kph (75mph) and a range on a full charge of its lithium-ion battery pack of around 250km (155 miles).
This wouldn’t be BMW’s first flirtation with urban-specific two-wheel transport. Back in 2001, it launched its C1 scooter, a semi enclosed feet forward twist-and-go machine that sadly only found 13,000 buyers in its two years of production, leading to the premature cancellation of the entire project.
Though BMW designed the C1, it was built by Italian engineering and design concern Bertone. But with global car sales in the toilet at the moment, it’s likely BMW has some excess production capacity it could put to use.
A new niche product like a leccy C1 could be just the ticket to help take up the production slack and give BMW engineers some more real world EV experience. ®
Topics: electric based vehicles | No Comments »
Thin-metal lead acid battery/capacitor
By | July 1, 2009
Next Alternative, Inc. Over the past five years the company has developed a breakthrough “hybrid” battery/capacitor that produces capacitor-like power while maintaining the energy storage ability of a conventional lead-acid battery. Based on advanced thin-metal lead-acid battery technology, this new-generation hybrid battery is four to five times more powerful than conventional lead-acid batteries and is ideal for applications that demand high-power and high reliability. End markets include transportation and military applications. Based on advanced thin-metal lead-acid battery technology, this new-generation hybrid battery is four to five times more powerful than conventional lead-acid batteries and is ideal for applications that demand high-power and high reliability. End markets include transportation and military applications.
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.
Topics: green battery technology | No Comments »
Nanotube Technology Improves Rechargeable Lithium Batteries
By | June 27, 2009
Researchers at the Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Science, in China, have shown that nanotechnology can boost the life of rechargeable lithium battieries, by finding that a carbon nanotube anode coating can prevent such batteries from losing their charge capacity over time.
The research team has been examining how to improve the kind of rechargeable batteries that are almost omnipresent in today’s portable devices.
These lithium-ion batteries give portability to mobile phones, mp3 players, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and laptop computers. However, Li-ion batteries suffer from degradation particularly when they get too hot or too cold and ultimately lose the capacity to be fully recharged.
The problem of the slow degradation of Li-ion batteries is generally due to the formation of a solid electrolyte interphase film that increases the batteries internal resistance and prevents a full recharge. Researchers have suggested using silicon in the composition of the negative electrode material in Li-ion batteries to improve charge capacity.
However, this material leads to even faster capacity loss as it repeatedly alloys and then de-alloys during charge-discharge cycles.
Shengyang’s Hui-Ming Cheng and colleagues have turned to carbon nanotubes (CNTs) to help them use silicon (Si) as the battery anode but avoid the problem of large volume change during alloying and de-alloying.
Carbon nanotubes resemble rolled-up sheets of hexagonal chicken wire with a carbon atom at the crossover points of the wires and the wires themselves being the bonds between carbon atoms, and they can be up to a millimeter long but mere nanometers in diameter.
Hui-Ming Chengs team grew carbon nanotubes on the surface of tiny particles of silicon using a technique described as chemical vapour deposition, in which a carbon-containing vapour decomposes and then condenses on the surface of the silicon particles forming nanoscopic tubes.
The group then coated these particles with carbon released from sugar at a high temperature in a vacuum. A separate batch of silicon particles produced using sugar but without the CNTs was also prepared.
In a 20-cycle test-run, the researchers found that the sugar-coated silicon-carbon-nanotube material achieve a discharge capacity of 727 milliamp hours per gram. Without carbon nanotubes, the charge capacity had dropped to 363 mAh per gram.
The study will be published in the Inderscience publication – International Journal of Nanomanufacturing. (ANI)
Topics: carbon nano tube battery | 2 Comments »
AABC: Batteries, Capacitors and Electric Cars
By | June 16, 2009
By Sam Smith
Report from the Ninth International Advanced Automotive Battery and EC Capacitor Conference
Premium Feature Article Originally Published: June 16, 2009
The 9th International Advanced Automotive Battery and EC Capacitor Conference was held in Long Beach, California, June 8-12, in the Long Beach Convention Center. For those seeking the latest information on energy storage for hybrids and electric vehicles, this was the conference of the year. The content of the conference was comprehensive, in depth and somewhat daunting. The presentations started at 08:00 AM and went to 5:00 PM everyday with several days devoted to a dual track of batteries and capacitors. Attendance was close to 900 and all the sessions I attended were packed.
This is a very critical time in the future of Electric Vehicles. There appears to be widespread support for a transition from the traditional internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles to hybrids and pure electric vehicles. We thought this was going to happen twenty years ago when California passed a mandate requiring electric vehicles be developed and sold. This mandate was rescinded and the California electric vehicle market collapsed. The Big Seven (then) automakers said the market should drive the demand for alternative transportation, not mandates. Today it appears the market conditions can support a significant launch of hybrids and electrics.
Engineers and scientists around the world have invested their time and talent in developing the components and systems for hybrids and electric vehicles. Progress has been dynamic in terms of design of lightweight chassis, powerful and efficient drive trains, aerodynamic shapes, and sophisticated computer controllers. However, the same statement can not be made for battery technology. We have progressed from the era of Lead Acid into a dominant Nickel-Metal-Hydride chemistry into the promise of Lithium based batteries. This conference focused on the status of developments in lithium based batteries and capacitors for automotive use.
Trying to condense more than 50 hours of presentations into a single article is difficult; however, there were three main themes I came away with:
- There is enough lithium in the world to support a major launch of lithium battery hybrids and electric vehicles.
- There is no single lithium based battery chemistry.
- Timing of the electric vehicle launch with lithium batteries is problematic.
In the recent past there have been questions raised about the availability of lithium to support a significant market for electric batteries. Several past surveys claimed that the quantity of lithium required would outstrip the supply and the commodity price would rise to a point beyond affordability. Recent analysis presented at the conference gave a different picture. With the world known reserves quantified, lithium reserves appear to be in sufficient quantity to support a modestly aggressive hybrid and electric vehicle launch. A key to large scale use of hybrids and electric vehicles is the development of a robust recycling industry for lithium on the order of the current lead acid recycling industry.
One of the major OEM’s at the conference shared their experience in selecting a lithium based battery for use in a hybrid due out in 2010. They reported they had identified 160 different lithium based battery chemistries offered by 130 different companies. Using a comprehensive selection process they reduced the number down to a manageable test size and conducted demanding in house testing to settle on a single formulation. It is the right one? That was part of the debate at the conference. It is clear that the demands of a hybrid are significantly different enough from a pure electric vehicle (e.g. power vs. depth of discharge) that it likely will result in different formulations. Coming from the lead acid days of the early 1990’s, I was very impressed with the projected performance of lithium in the future.
As with any conference of this type some of the most valuable information comes from the informal meetings away from the presentations. Over the five days I was able to meet a significant number of people from various elements of the industry. These included material suppliers through battery system engineers. One common concern dealt with the issue of market timing. This is an issue that affects most new technology launches. The question is: Do I believe the hybrid and electric vehicle market will develop fast enough to justify the capital investment required to build the factories required to produce the batteries? If I build a plant and the market is slow to develop, then I have to amortize the cost over a smaller production run causing the unit price to be high. On the other hand if I don’t have the capacity to meet a higher than planned demand, the market could be seriously damaged by the lack of product. What is the right answer? The investment community would certainly like to know.
This conference went a long way to address these issues. The consensus appears to be that now is the time to pick a battery chemistry and launch the vehicles. The history of technology development has shown us that “Better is the enemy of good enough”, now is the time to recognize we can phase in the improvements in later models. We can field a large number of hybrids and electric vehicles that will meet the majority of customer demands now.
Finally a word for the sponsor: This conference was run by Advanced Automotive Batteries, Inc. The organization and execution they provided was superb. The venue was outstanding with all the amenities expected for a major conference. When I viewed the original agenda I doubted their ability to get that much content out in the time allotted. The management and staff that ran the conference accomplished it in a very professional manner. If you want to stay up to date on what is happening in the automotive energy storage world – this is the conference for you!
Sam Smith is the managing partner for EV World & Associates, LLC, a professional consulting group dedicated to paving the way to the ‘Future in Motion.’
Topics: electric car battery | No Comments »
CNT Battery Technology
By | June 10, 2009
Carbon Nano Tube Battery the breakthrough technology is holding forth the promise of charging electronic gadgets in minutes, never having to replace a battery again, and dropping the cost of hybrid cars. Indeed, the technology has the potential to provide an energy storage device ten times more powerful than even the latest batteries in hybrid cars — while outliving the vehicle itself.
This new technology carbon nanotube, will greatly increasing the surface area of electrodes and the ability to store energy.
Now the new CNT battery will allowing the devices to retain the power and longevity advantages, while storing about as much energy as the batteries used in hybrids.
The amount of energy CNT battery can hold is related to the surface area and conductivity of their electrodes. Using carbon nanotubes increased the surface area by about 50,000 square centimeters, compared with 2,000 square centimeters using the carbon in a commercial ultracapacitor today. The highly pure carbon nanotubes are also extremely conductive, which will increase power output over existing ultracapacitors, the researchers say.
The CNT technology will find applications beyond hybrids, too. CNT batteries will allow laptops and cell phones to be charged in a minute. And unlike laptop batteries, which start losing their ability to hold a charge after a year or two, they could still be going strong long after the device is obsolete. “Theoretically, there’s no process that would cause the CNT battery to need to be replaced.
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