44 M BY MARK KANE
The potential is for 400 Wh/kg
24M, the battery start-up headquartered in Cambridge, Mass., announced first delivery of a commercially viable, high energy density lithium-ion cells – the SemiSolid lithium-ion battery design – to an undisclosed industrial partner.
The energy density of the cells produced at the pilot facility exceed 280 Wh/kg, which – as 24M points out – is over 10% more than the current state-of-the-art industry benchmark for EV applications – 250 Wh/kg.
“These deliveries represent a significant milestone in the 24M mission to scale its unique, capital-efficient, low-cost approach to advanced lithium-ion battery manufacturing.”
The 12% increase is welcome, although 24M’s goal is much higher – 350 Wh/kg or even over 400 Wh/kg. We guess that those goals are not yet available and development needs to be continued.
“The development of the high energy density nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) cells is part of a $7M three-year contract awarded to 24M in 2016 by the United States Advanced Battery Consortium LLC in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Energy. The program is chartered with developing electrochemical energy storage technologies that support the commercialization of hybrid, plug-in hybrid, electric and fuel cell vehicles. To achieve the final USABC 2020 density target of 350 Wh/kg by the end of 2019, 24M has developed a multi-faceted, lab-proven approach that includes a novel use of silicon for high energy density anodes.24M also delivered similar NMC cells with energy densities above 280 Wh/kg to an industrial partner. With these cells, the higher energy densities were achieved by optimizing 24M’s SemiSolid electrode technology, which eliminates the use of a pore-clogging binder, enabling higher active material densities than can be achieved with conventional electrodes. The demonstration of this technology is a major milestone on the 24M roadmap to achieving even higher energy densities (>400 Wh/kg) using its capital-efficient manufacturing process.”
Naoki Ota, CTO of 24M said:
“It’s very gratifying to see science translated from the lab into innovative new products as 24M has done by developing and delivering these high energy density cells. Moreover, we were able to leverage our novel electrode, cell and manufacturing approach to exceed 280 Wh/kg, a significant step towards delivering low-cost lithium-ion cells with industry-leading performance to the EV market.”
Categories: Battery Tech