Life cycle assessment, multi-scale materials modelling and system analytics…

Presenter: Yancho Todorov
Title: Life cycle assessment, multi-scale materials modelling and system analytics for batteries
Affiliation: VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland

Abstract

The talk is going to present the VTT activities and research in the battery field focusing on deliveing tools for life-cycle assesment, matetials modelling and system analytics. The life-cycle assessment covers various tools for evaluation of the carbon footprint and carbon handprint on the whole battery value chain, including the raw material, production, use, re-use and recycling. In additon, it will be presented an innovative platform for materials modeling that can can be applied for battery materials. Various analytics tools for battery state estimation, lifetime optimization and techno-economics, will be also presented.

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Towards Automatic Disassembly of EV-Batteries.

Presenter: Martin Choux
Title: Towards Automatic Disassembly of EV-Batteries
Affiliation: University of Agder

Abstract

Automatic disassembly of electric vehicle batteries is a necessary step for both the successful reuse and recycling processes when considering the big volumes of the upcoming battery wave. Battery pack must be dismantled into modules and possibly further into cells. In order to cope with the large variety of designs and conditions of end of life batteries, a flexible disassembling process based on cognitive robotics must be designed. Several key elements such as 3D vision systems, highly adaptive robotic tools and machine learning based algorithms must be integrated to ensure proper recognition of the constituting parts and joints, automatic decision making, path planning/correction, accurate joint disconnection operation and part removal. In this presentation, one example of such automatic disassembly operation will be demonstrated with the lid removal of a battery pack without a priori knowledge.

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Recycling of spent alkaline batteries and recovery of manganese

Presenter: Prof. Ulla Lassi
Title: Recycling of spent alkaline batteries and recovery of manganese
Affiliation: University of Oulu

Abstract

Process chemistry was developed to recycle spent alkaline batteries with high recovery rate, Alkaline black mass was dissolved in acidic solutions with high yield and selectivity to zinc and manganese recovery. A finnish spin-off company  commercialized this process, to use the obtained metal solution as trace elements in fertilizers.
Anode sludge, a by-product from zinc refining, was also used with the similar type of process. During the selective, reductive leaching, manganese is recovered as manganese sulphate solution with high manganese yield and purified by solvent-extraction. In both cases, the obtained metal solutions with high purity are possible to use as raw materials for battery precursors.

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Battery Recycling Research in Finland and Europe

Presenter: Dr. Pertti Kauranen
Co-authors: Mari Lundström, Pyry Hannula, Ilkka Kojo
Title: Battery Recycling Research in Finland and Europe
Affiliation: Aalto University

Abstract

Finland has launched a 22 M€ project titled Finland-based Circular Economy of Battery Metals (BATCircle). BATCircle is coordinated by Aalto University and includes 22 companies, 2 cities and 6 research organizations. The project scope ranges from geometallurgy and mining through metal refining and chemical production to recycling and business ecosystems. The recycling part comprises mechanical as well as pyro and hydro metallurgical unit processes, and flow sheet optimization of the total operations. A special focus is in the integration of the secondary materials with the primary metal processing and assessment of critical level of impurities at different stages.
Aalto University and Outotec have been invited to coordinate battery recycling research at European level within the SET Plan and recently launched European Technology and Innovation Platform (ETIP) which is foreseen to become the R&D arm of the European Battery Alliance.
The status of these collaborations will be presented.

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Battery State-of-Health Estimation in Electric Vehicles

Presenter: Ass. Prof. Dr. Erik Schaltz
Title: Battery State-of-Health Estimation in Electric Vehicles
Affiliation: Department of Energy Technology at Aalborg University

Abstract

The State-of-Health (SoH) of an electric vehicle (EV) battery is an important key performance indicator for the EV second-hand market as the battery is one of the most expensive components inside the EV. The Incremental Capacity Analysis (ICA) method is a promising tool to estimate the battery SoH. However, the method has mainly been demonstrated on a cell level in controlled laboratory environments. If the method should be practically feasible, should it also be applicable on pack or EV level. The main objective of this work is to demonstrate the feasibility of the ICA method on pack and EV level. A BMWi3 EV based on Nickel-Manganese-Cobalt (NMC) battery cells is used as a case. Results obtained both on cell and EV level indicates the feasibility of the ICA method to be applicable on EV level also.

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Next generation redox flow batteries based on solid boosters…

Presenter: Pekka Peljo
Title: Next generation redox flow batteries based on solid boosters for large-scale energy storage
Affiliation: Aalto University

Abstract

Large-scale energy storage systems are urgently needed to manage intermittent energy production and improve the flexibility and security of grid systems. Redox flow batteries (RFBs) are an already established technology ideal for large-scale energy storage due to their high safety, long lifetimes, low environmental impact and decoupled power/capacity. However, the low energy density and high raw material cost of the state-of-the-art all-vanadium technology has proven to limit commercialization. During this presentation, ways to realize next generation flow battery systems for large-scale energy storage based on solid boosters and inexpensive redox active materials (such as inorganic metal complexes and organic species) will be discussed. Especially the concept of solid boosters, where “molecular wiring” to charge and discharge the redox active solid materials present as beads in a packed bed reactor will be discussed, and recent results from our lab will be presented.

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Close-to-neutral operation enables high capacity retention: long-term testing of…

Presenter: Filippo Fenini
Title: Close-to-neutral operation enables high capacity retention: long-term testing of an aqueous organic-inorganic redox flow battery
Affiliation: Aarhus University

Abstract

Aqueous Organic redox flow batteries (AORFB) are emerging as large-scale storage technology, as organic redox species have the potential to be a low cost commodity with broad geographical availability. Capacity fade mechanisms in AORFB are attributable to decomposition pathways of the active molecules. Such reactions are often catalyzed by either basic or acidic environment, yet most of AORFB reported are operated in such conditions, to achieve the highest solubility (energy density). Here we report a close-to-neutral organic-inorganic battery with excellent cyclability and high durability. 2,7-AQDS is used as negative electrolyte and Fe(CN)64- as positive electrolyte. It will be shown how the energy density of the negative side can be increased by the addition of an inexpensive co-electrolyte. The tests indicate how time rather than number of cycles is responsible of the capacity fade. After 1000 h of cycling, the negative side of the AORFB still exhibit high capacity retent  ion.

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Redox mediators for high performance Li–S batteries

Presenter: Roza Bouchal
Co-authors: S. Sànchez, A. Boulaoued and P. Johansson
Title: Redox mediators for high performance Li–S batteries
Affiliation: Department of Physics, Chalmers University of Technology

Abstract

The lithium-sulfur battery is a promising next-generation battery (NGB) technology, but with a common major complication of irreversible loss of active material (AM). This is much due to the insulating nature of both sulfur (S8) and the precipitated short polysulfides (PSs, especially Li2S). Here we use redox mediators (RMs) as electrolyte additives to facilitate the electrochemical processes. Several RMs were studied, with a selection based first on the chemical stability vs. the electrolyte and the PSs created. Second, the Li-S battery cell performance including cycle-life was studied using different electrochemical analysis methods. Third, to further improve the RM selection, we studied the effect of RMs on various possible AMs; starting from S8 and all the way to Li2S including intermediate PSs. Overall, the RMs can indeed control the precipitation of S8/Li2S – resulting in improved capacity, and hence their use might be a path to achieve a more complete Li-S reaction scheme.

References:
(1) J. Scheers et al., J. Power Sources, 2014, 255, 204–218
(2) Z.-W. Zhang et al., Adv. Funct. Mater, 2018, 28, 1707536.

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Model and experimental studies: Understanding aging mechanisms under high-voltage…

Presenter: Jing Ying Ko
Title: Model and experimental studies: Understanding aging mechanisms under high-voltage operation
Affiliation: KTH Royal Institute of Technology

Abstract

To fulfill the demand of long driving range for electric vehicles without compromising the weight and cost of battery is to increase its energy density, i.e. by extending its voltage window. In this work, we intend to examine the aging phenomena under high-voltage operation of a NMC/graphite cell.

When cycled up to 4.5 V, a rapid performance degradation is observed. Aging stems from the NMC electrode rather than graphite. The severe NMC impedance rise causes an inaccessibility of utilizing its capacity, thus inducing cell failure. Therefore, an extended physics-based impedance model is developed to fit electrochemical impedance spectroscopy data from NMC symmetric cells.

The model indicates the particle surface layer, an electrode layer near separator and current collector resistance as the main causes of impedance rise. Higher temperature enhances the rate of degradation. Experimental evidences from scanning electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopy support these model findings.

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