PROBLEM
Approximately 25% of Europe's greenhouse gas emissions. Electric Vehicles (EVs) ofer the most likely solution to reducing the environmental impact of transport in the EU, however, their full potential has not been achieved mainly because the performance of current EV battery technologies is simply not comparable with that of petrol/diesel engines. This is largely due to long charging times, insufficient battery capacity for long distance travel, maximum travel distances highly afected by the environmental conditions, limited life span and high cost for customized battery manufacturing. A large amount of investment has been poured into the improvement of the chemistry of EV batteries to overcome these limitations, however, the major limitation can instead be found in the physical architecture of the battery. The 2D architecture of the lithium-ion battery (LiB) severely limits battery performance by restricting electron difusion and reducing the speed and magnitude of energy delivered by the battery. It also imposes a high internal resistance, resulting in major performance limitations and enhanced degradation pathways within the battery. 2D batteries cannot be built thicker to increase capacity, and 2D batteries with large loads suffer from issues with heat dissipation.
SOCIETY IMPACT
Addionics batteries strongly back up the EU’s ambitious transport decarbonisation targets by making mobile energy delivery easy and EV ownership more appealing. This acquires particular significance in urban areas, where air pollutant concentrations are still too high and generally above legal limits. In major European cities, low-emission zones are increasingly coming into force, making low-emission vehicles the only mode of access for personal and commercial transport. In the coming years, an increasing number of initiatives are likely to be introduced as the EU and national governments implement clean air policies. EVs using Addionics batteries will indeed reduce emission of greenhouse gases and air pollutants from road transport while providing for increasing mobility demands. In other fields, the improvements that 3D battery technologies provide will increase the viability of their use, creating new markets and accelerating the EU towards a sustainable, carbon-neutral future.
Furthermore, Addionics batteries will provide environmental benefits due to their longer life in comparison to existing technologies. The longer lifespan of the batteries translates to a reduction of in the materials required to be recycled or disposed of due to battery degradation and replacement over the lifecycle of an EV or other electronic product. The electrodeposition process used to produce the current collectors is also reversible, facilitating the recycling and recovery of materials used to produce the 3D current collectors.
- Manufacturing current collectors for full size pouch cells and manufacturing multilayer pouch cells (2.0 battery prototype). This includes the optimization of the smart current collector, to enable customizable high energy batteries that can be integrated within current EVs.
- Optimization of the manufacturing process for production of current collectors and identification of alternative implementations of the electroprinting technology. Development of a production-like machine for in-house manufacture of current collectors. Initiation of establishment of the international supply chain necessary to scale up production of 3D current collectors. Set up and test a small scale manufacturing line for producing pouch cells incorporating 3D current collectors supplied by Addionics using battery subcontractors.
- Plan and perform validation activities in laboratory conditions and using vehicle powertrain “test-bed” conditions. In-vehicle validation of batteries incorporating 3D current collectors produced with the Addionics process.
