Battery Recycling at Northvolt - Prof. Emma Nehrenheim

How battery modeling saves unnecessary investments and time! Today, we are talking to Gavin White (CEO About:Energy), a #battery software company from London. About:Energy operates an interesting business model!

As electric vehicles are getting more popular, battery technology has become a focus of interest. EV owners regularly ask themselves how to treat a vehicle’s battery: How should an EV be charged, parked or driven if the inside batteries should be kept in best possible shape?

Battery manufacturers around the world have been announcing solid-state cells for its groundbreaking characteristics. Yes, we see multiple outstanding (almost-) solid-state lab cells (some of which are already on the market!) but the high expectations have never really met reality: Not a single car manufacturer is currently placing all-solid-state cells in their EVs. So, whats taking them so long?

This podcast episode deals with an energy storage technology that is still underestimated in materials science: Hybrid battery supercaps. Supercaps are installed, for example, for regenerative braking (recuperation) in vehicles such as buses, trains, cranes and trains. The powerful energy storage systems are also found in wind turbines. Now, the Estonian company Skeleton Technologies invented a new hybrid form of battery supercaps.

EV sales in India surpassed 150,000 units for the first time in May 2023. An outstanding annual growth of 64% compared to last year 2022. Market observers as well report a sharp rise in electric two-wheeler sales due to national subsidies and an expanding charging infrastructure.

Self-healing materials have the ability to automatically repair damages to themselves without any external diagnosis or intervention. Soon, they could be used in battery electrodes as well! This would impact the entire battery world - since everlasting cells definitely change the business for nearly every manufacturer.

Before purchasing an electric vehicle, all eyes are on the battery: Among first questions concerning range anxiety and charging speed, most people ask how much loss of capacity the battery will suffer over its average useful life. In this podcast, we talk about (the very normal) degradation of batteries, state of health (SOH) measurements and the research of predicting a battery's lifetime.

As supply chains of battery materials are fragile, raw materials are getting expensive. At the same time vast amounts of old done (cobalt-rich) batteries are now useless. That's why battery recycling is getting more and more attention!

Battery research is mainly about the chemistry, physics or mathematic modelling? Wrong! Today, it is often up to engineers whether an electric vehicle can go for more than 1.000 kilometers, charge in 15 minutes... or not! Modules and packs can be constructed in many different ways. Nowadays, automotive OEMs get to choose from hundreds of different parameters to reach a desired battery design.

Current battery cell chemistries mostly rely on lithium. They frequenty consist of nickel and/or cobalt as well. Eventhough these three materials are not considered rare-earth elements, the amount of accessible raw material deposits are limited. Plus, as production volumes of lithium-ion batteries increase (and prices are shocking producers!), battery researchers are seeking for alternative innovative materials.