Re: Battery Plant included in the Draft EIS for Thacker Pass
in response to
by
posted on
Aug 05, 2020 07:05PM
Pavel: "My point is, that the "new generation" of batteries does not exist. Appart of some laboratory prototypes, solid state battery is a "holy grail" not yet discovered."
Pavel, on the "does not exist" conclusion... well, maybe. That "holy grail" may turn out to be a contribution by many different holy grails, all adding their individual piece to the puzzle.
Much work is being done in the SSLB, Solid State Lithium Battery, field. Even if we just look at the limited area presented potentially by "Thinfilm" for wearable electronics then we still have to acknowledge that real progress is being made:
"Thinfilm is now actively developing customer-ready samples to enable validation of key performance characteristics of the Company's SSLB technology in diverse applications, including wearable devices and connected sensors. These samples will also allow the Company and its ecosystem partners to evaluate Thinfilm SSLB performance together with partner technologies to jointly enable innovative rechargeable systems."
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/thinfilm-updates-solid-state-battery-060000265.html
Again in a niche market and on a small scale, but SolidEnergy Systems in Massachusetts supposedly started marketing SSLBs for drones backin 2018:
A year ago there was this headline regarding semi solid LIBs:
Apparently Kyocera and 24M went from Lab to Fab early this year, 2020 and on into production of a SemiSolid Lithium Ion Battery.
"Kyocera and 24M Develop World’s First SemiSolid Lithium-ion Battery System with Improved Safety, Longer Life, and Lower Cost "
https://lithium-news.com/2020/01/08/kyocera-to-launch-world-first-semisolid-lithium-ion-battery/
As for other advances in lithium batteries, Cal Tech's Julia Greer had this quote: "Every power-requiring application would benefit from batteries with lithium instead of graphite anodes because they can power so much more," she says. "Lithium is lightweight, it doesn't occupy much space, and it's tremendously energy dense."
So, Cal Tech is working on achieving Lithiium Anodes to improve LIB performance:
https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/lithium-metal-batteries-julia-greer
Solid Power had a production line of Solid State LIB back in September, 2019. Although it was a "Piolot Program" at that point, it was still fully functional and in production for that program.
https://insideevs.com/news/370240/solid-power-producing-solid-state-batteries/
Ampcera in Arizona is focused on producing Li-S batteries with Solid State Electrolytes:
Another recent advancement in Lithium Ion Battery Technology involves puting a coating on the Lithium Cathode of the LIB. This new coating is meant to increase their life and safety.
This PEDOT Coating is the key to increasing both the life and safety of LIBs:
"This would increase the driving range of electric cars and boost the battery life of cell phones and laptops, ultimately changing the way we live," Amine said.