Oak Ridge National Laboratory has opened a new battery manufacturing and research facility following a US$3m from the US Department of Energy (DOE).
The centre will allow for collaboration with industry and other national laboratories, while protecting the intellectual property of industrial partners. The laboratory says it will attract battery manufacturers, chemical and materials suppliers, system integrators and original equipment manufacturers.
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“We’re able to integrate advanced material components into a complete battery, analyse how it performs and better understand how to improve it,” said ORNL deputy director of sustainable transportation programmes, Claus Daniel.
“With this capability, we can isolate and evaluate a material or process and quantify any advantage that each would provide.”
Through the nation’s largest open access battery manufacturing R&D facility, American businesses could gain a competitive advantage in the global market, noted a statement from Oak Ridge.
“R&D facilities such as these are critical in the development of advanced battery technology that is more affordable and more durable than today’s batteries,” said DOE programme manager for the vehicle technologies programme, Patrick Davies.
The facility features two chambers totalling 1,400 square feet of space along with battery manufacturing equipment. One chamber allows researchers to maintain relative humidity levels of between 0.5% and 15%. This room houses equipment that allows for mixing of various slurries, stabilisation, coating and drying.
The second chamber provides a dew point of minus-40 degrees celsius, which translates to a relative humidity of 0.5%. This is necessary to prevent moisture from entering and degrading battery cells.
In this chamber, electrodes, cathodes and anodes are assembled automatically into pouches filled with a precise amount of electrolyte. The pouches are then trimmed and sealed through a heating and vacuum process.
Researchers can make batteries with up to 7 ampere-hours capacity, a size that provides good demonstration capability but requires less material, reducing the burden on smaller companies lacking large-scale production capacity.
“ORNL’s combination of equipment and expertise allows collaborators to develop and optimise processes, manufacturing schemes, perform diagnostics and maximise yield,” Daniel said.
“Working with industry, we’re advancing the field and moving closer to creating a battery that will allow automobiles to travel longer distances on a single charge.”
ORNL has a dozen contracts with eight battery-related companies in their bid to compete in a global marketplace.
Funding for the project was provided by DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.
