Cheaper, better batteries from common, safe and available raw materials

Project Information

SodiScale

Grant agreement ID: 190129559

DOI

10.3030/190129559

Project closed

EC signature date 11 July 2022

Start date 1 June 2022

End date 31 May 2025

Funded under

• The European Innovation Council (EIC)

Total cost

€ 3 633 125,00

EU contribution

€ 2 500 000,00

Coordinated by

BROADBIT BATTERIES OY
Finland

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - SodiScale (Cheaper, better batteries from common, safe and available raw materials)

Reporting period: 2023-06-01 to 2025-05-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Electrification of transport and transition to renewable energy generation are essential to reach CO2 neutrality by 2050. To stay on track, electrification of the grid, via the use of renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar, requires massive investments in energy storage to balance the intermittent generation of energy from these sources. Batteries are at the core of sustainable electrification. However, battery technology is also becoming an increasingly serious bottleneck. The high cost of batteries is prohibitively expensive for large scale grid storage needs and there is still no solution to economically recycle Li-ion batteries. While performance problems could be solved with evolutionary development, the scalability of battery production has natural limitations that are not in line with our vision for the future. Modern batteries rely on raw materials like lithium, cobalt and nickel, all of which are already in short supply when the green boom is just beginning.
BroadBit has developed a fundamentally new battery technology for cheaper and safer batteries to fuel our future. Our platform technology is customisable for standard battery cell formats, and our batteries are a “plug-and-replace” alternative for today’s Li-ion technology in EVs, electronics and grid storage applications.
Compared to state-of-the-art Li-ion batteries, we enable superior performance – for the same cost, grid storage capacity could be increased by the same factor at the same price. BroadBit’s battery technology further allows for scaling to any production volume as we use low cost, safe and widely available raw materials and improved environmental friendliness including a 80% reduction in emissions in production. Moreover, our batteries are non-flammable, non-toxic, easily recyclable.
This is achieved with sodium-based chemistry and simplified production processes. Today, a decade after the original invention, the technology is validated with pilot customers, heavily patented, and awarded.

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

During the project, we identified unique aspects of our technology ideal for long-term energy storage, an underserved yet critical application for the energy transition. Our primary effort focused on optimizing cell structures for long-duration, low-cycle batteries suited for home and grid-scale seasonal energy storage. We refined cathode, anode, electrolyte, and spacer material compositions, processes, and cell structures to enhance cell capacity, power, cycle life, and safety. Leveraging our cell chemistry, we further developed multiple “thick-cathode” cell structures to simplify assembly and boost performance, eliminating the need for complex traditional Li-ion cell assembly equipment. A low-vapor-pressure electrolyte compatible with pouch and lead-acid-type cells was developed and tested in prototypes. BroadBit produced test pouch cells, “bucket” cells, and lead-acid-type prismatic cells in-house. The electrolyte synthesis was modified for industrial scaling. Thick-cathode cell parameters (thickness, density, composition) were optimized for target applications (50, 100, and 200 hr batteries, and hybrid daily/seasonal batteries). Cell morphology and packaging were analyzed, yielding an industrially producible cell design. Tests for customer-specified use cases (100 hr batteries, hybrid daily/seasonal cells, house batteries) were initiated. A new electrolyte formulation and anode coating were developed, improving cycle life. Over 60 patents have been granted covering our battery technologies.

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)

The combination of BroadBit’s low-cost, environmentally friendly, scalable and sustainable raw materials and BroadBit’s newly discovered thick-cathode cell structure is an important development in the state-of-the-art. As shown in Figure 5, a traditional Li-ion cell requires the use of extremely thin electrodes, which must be carefully aligned to achieve the performance and safety requirements (e.g. eliminating the possibility of internal short circuits due to misalignment or dendrite formation). The associated electrode coating and cell assembly processes make up approximately 90% of the process and capital expenses for Li-ion cell manufacturing. BroadBit’s newly discovered cell cathode properties eliminate the need for these complex coating and assembly processes and so also eliminate 90% of the process and capital costs for cell production. Figure 6 shows the reduction in process steps and equipment with the new cell design. The combination of BroadBit’s exceptionally low process and material costs, exceptionally high sustainability and scalability combined with BroadBit’s exceptionally high round trip efficiency and exceptionally low self discharge rate result in a unique long term energy storage battery uniquely suited to address the energy storage needs for renewable energy grids.

Various cell types tested for seasonal storage applications

"Bucket" type cell with 2 cm cathode