Eliminating VOC from Battery manufacturing through dry or wet processing

Project Information

NoVOC

Grant agreement ID: 101069612

DOI

10.3030/101069612

EC signature date 8 June 2022

Start date 1 September 2022

End date 28 February 2027

Funded under

• Climate, Energy and Mobility

Total cost

€ 5 415 727,00

EU contribution

€ 5 415 727,00

Coordinated by

RISE RESEARCH INSTITUTES OF SWEDEN AB
Sweden

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - NoVOC (Eliminating VOC from Battery manufacturing through dry or wet processing)

Reporting period: 2024-03-01 to 2025-08-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

There is increasing demand for batteries in Europe, driven by the EU's plan to prohibit combustion engine car sales by 2035, creating a significant need for locally produced batteries. However, most battery production currently occurs in Asia, and uncertainties in EU supply chains, emission standards, and upcoming recycling regulations complicate further investment in European battery manufacturing. Advances such as the factory-of-the-future, low VOC manufacturing, and digitalization could offer competitive advantages.
Current battery production involves slurry casting on current collectors, which requires handling toxic solvents and binders, and uses costly drying methods that result in high energy use and emissions. This calls for new electrode processing technologies with an integrated approach to sustainability, focusing on reduced carbon footprints and emissions, and improved circular economy practices.
NoVOC is developing aqueous and dry electrode processing technologies to lower costs and VOC emissions. These processes will be piloted using large format pouch and cylindrical cells, with all components sourced from Europe to reduce dependency on Asian supply chains. This approach responds to market demands and aims to produce sustainable, high-density, and safe Gen 3 cells, providing scientific, technological, economic, and environmental benefits.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

NOVOC project composed of 7 work packages and among them, WP1-WP5 are technical work packages and are designed to address various technical challenges in NoVOC project.
Within the WP1, cell specification , testing protocols and cell design are defined and details are reported in deliverable D1.1 and D1.2. Regarding to the modelling and digitalization, discussions with cell manufacturers has been initiated. Some tentative parameters for model development have been defined. The modelling and digitalization work is on-going.
Within the WP2 and WP3, A baseline formulation of aqueous processing of NOVOC electrodes (anode and cathode) has been developed. In case of aqueous anode formulation, 95% blend graphite (natural + synthetic), 1,0% carbon black (C45), 2% CMC and 2% SBR is selected for the scaling up. Moreover, Microsized silicon containing natural graphite (from TAL) with 5,0wt% silicon content has been selected for the scaling up in WP3. In case of aqueous cathode formulation, 95% active material (NMC811), 2% carbon black C65, 3% binder (CMC/SBR) has been selected. The discharge capacity of up to 183 mAh/g is measured at 1 C rate with SoH dropping to 159 mAh/g after 100 cycles. This is comparable with the PVDF-based electrodes. Full coin cells with wet-manufactured NMC cathodes (NMP reference or water-processed) and graphite anodes have been tested, as well as with selected Gr-Si anodes. In case of dry electrode processing, initial baseline formulations has been established for cathode and anode. NoVOC tested extrusion-based dry electrode manufacturing processes followed by hot calendaring to obtain free-standing anode and cathode films. For the anode composition, 97.5% active material (synthetic graphite), 1.5% carbon black C65, 1% PTFE is selected. For cathode, 95% active material (NMC811), 3% carbon black C65, 2% binder. is chosen. The dry coated anode electrodes were tested in coin full cells with a wet reference cathode. The cells showed good specific capacity of 160 mAh/g at 0.1 C rate. Full coin cells with dry-manufactured NMC811 cathodes and graphite anodes have been tested. The cells showed specific capacity of 60 mAh/g at 0.1 C rate.
In case of surface modification, two different processes for coating NMC particles have been developed. Graphmatech developed graphene-coated NMC 811, while FePO4-coated NMC811 has been developed by RISE. Details are reported in deliverable D2.1.
The pilot scale demonstration (WP3) of the technologies is currently on-going. Within the WP4, A good communication with WP2 and WP3 has been initiated and the development work within WP4 will start M24. Within WP5, An extensive literature study carried out on the current state of the art recycling technologies. A literature review of existing LCAs on the topic was done, including raw material, component, cell and battery level data. The details of this study was summarised in the delivery D5.1. Within WP7, the NoVOC project the coordination team has had continuous follow-up sessions with the WP-leaders (SC meetings) to monitor the progress of the project as well as to identify any issues or concerns within the WPs. Preparation and reviewing and submission of deliverable, technical and financial reports has been performed based on grant agreement and consortium agreement.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

New anode and cathode formulations for aqueous processed electrodes have been identified and optimized lab scale (WP2) and recommended for the scale up (WP3 . The full cell test results indicated that the performance of aqueous formulated electrodes are comparable to the PVDF/NMP slurry-based ones and indicating commercial viability of NOVOC aqueous processed electrodes. This is beyond the current state of art. If these positive results are confirmed at pilot scale cells, it will be a breakthrough and pays way to removal of PVDF and NMP from current battery production. This will leads to technical, economic, environmental and societal benefit.
Furthermore, NoVOC partners, such as TALGA and NANOPOW, developed and optimized their unique anode materials that can be used in NOVOC formulations, and these materials showed a reasonably good performance with newly developed aqueous formulation. This new anode composition developed by TALGA has potential to be scaled up and used in future scale up manufacturing of batteries using NoVOC process by ABEE and many others.

An extrusion-based novel dry electrode processing technology has been applied for the lab scale fabrication of dry processed anode and cathode. Although the performance of these electrodes is rather poor at this stage, it is expected that the performance of the electrodes can be improved by optimizing various parameters, such as binder, active materials, calendaring etc. NOVOC dry processing technology exceeds the current state of art. Extrusion-based dry electrode processing technology is rather new and still a lot of challenges in NoVOC to overcome. if technology is further optimized in coming period within WP2 and WP3, there is chance for obtaining a better performance. If the technology is validated at pilotscale later, it will give a technical advantage to European battery cell manufacturers (ABEE and VMB) over the Asian and American cell manufacturers.

Image describing the NoVOC concept