AMY.v has stated that it is trying to partner with a research battery company that recognizes the importance of having pure manganese powder for the success of their battery prototype. I've found the perfect research company that fulfills exactly what he inferred. Please watch this Youtube video and I'm sure you'll agree with me...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-n8bSZ17-E&feature=youtu.be
https://www.forbes.com/sites/yonicohen/2012/03/21/envias-energy-dense-battery-could-cut-electric-vehicle-costs/2/
Envia's Energy-Dense Battery Could Cut Electric Vehicle Costs
Electric cars may be affordablesooner than you think.
To date, high battery costs have raised the price and limited the driving range of the Chevy Volt, Nissan Leaf, and Tesla Model S. The battery pack has been the most expensive component of these vehicles, costing as much as half of the cars themselves.
But Envia Systems recently announced a breakthrough that could significantly reduce the price of electric vehicles. The California-based startup revealed that it had developed a rechargeable lithium-ion battery with nearly twice the energy density of today’s batteries. If commercialized, Envia’s battery could cut the price of car batteries in half.
“We increased the energy density to 400 wh/kg [watt-hour per kilogram],” said Envia CEO Atul Kapadia. “Envia is enabling the [electric car] revolution. Not in the future. Not with some cute technology. But right now.”
Progress toward better batteries has been steady, but slow, in recent years. To accelerate advances, the Department of Energy created a program,Batteries for Electrical Energy Storage in Transportation (BEEST), to fund research into lower cost battery technologies. In 2009, Envia received a $4 million grant from BEEST, which is administered by the DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E).
“Battery progress has been about five percent [a year] in energy density. That is just not going to get us to electric vehicles anytime soon. They will [remain] too expensive,” said Dr. Dane Boysen, BEEST’s Program Director. “BEEST was set up to hit a really aggressive 400 wh/kg metric at the high discharge rate needed for electric vehicles… Envia hit the metric, at least for energy density, which is significant. It is double the current commercial battery. That is awesome.”
Battery Basics and Envia’s Innovations
A battery is made up of a series of cells that produce electricity. A cell’s three primary components are its anode, at one end, its cathode, at the other end, and its electrolyte, in the middle. In lithium ion batteries – which today power many popular smartphones and laptops – lithium ions travel between the anode and the cathode through the electrolyte, creating an electric current.
“The number one problem has been the cost. Seventy percent of lithium-ion cell [cost] comes from materials. Overall, 40 percent of the cost is the cathode alone,” said Envia co-founder and CTO Sujeet Kumar. “The cathode is the costliest component. If you want to reduce the cost of the lithium-ion battery, the first thing you want to reduce is the cost of the cathode.”
In 2007, Kumar began investigating new cathode technologies, hoping to identify a low-cost, energy-dense innovation. After reviewing the academic literature, he settled on a manganese-based chemistry created at Argonne National Laboratory. Envia licensed the technology, and then set to optimize cathode chemistry.
“The real reason we chose [a manganese chemistry] is because of [Sujeet’s] instinct. He went through hundreds of papers and he found the one [approach] that his gut [told him would work]. There were alternative candidates. [He] could have gone with 3M’s chemistry,” said Kapadia.
“We looked at [Argonne’s] technologies and started making new compositions,” said Kumar. “Between 2007 and 2009, we solved the majority of cathode problems. We worked with an OEM and quantified our cathode… We have more than 30 patents on our own technology.”
Envia’s cathode chemistry includes manganese, nickel, cobalt, and lithium-manganese-oxide. A layered composite structure increases cell stability. A nanocoating process boosts cell cycle life.
The next step was for Envia to marry an anode to its new cathode – no small feat. But with ARPA-E funding, Envia set out to develop a complementary silicon-carbon anode.
“The bottleneck [became] the anode. That is what ARPA-E funded. That was our proposal,” said Kumar. “We had a very good working cathode. If you [could] pair it up with an anode, you [would] end up with a 400 wh/kg battery.”
Cycle Life, Safety, and Qualification
The Electrochemical Power Systems Department at the Naval Surface Warfare Centertested and verified Envia’s energy density breakthrough.
But before Envia’s battery can be commercialized in electric vehicles, it must also meet cycle life requirements, satisfy safety standards, and undergo qualification.
For automotive applications, car companies desire batteries with a cycle life – the number of times a battery can fully charge and discharge – of at least 500. Envia hopes to develop a battery with a cycle life of 1,000, for longer driving range. To date, Envia has cycled its cathode more than 4,000 times. But the startup has cycled its first generation anode only 400 times.
“[Our] newer iterations… have cycled 50 times. I think they will go all the way to a 1,000 [cycles],” said Kumar. “It an iterative process [that] takes a long time. [Our work] really gives us a five-year advantage over anybody who wants to start [developing a similar battery] now, because even if you [have] thousands of engineers, you cannot get cycle life and calendar life data that fast.”
“Sujeet really likes, to say [that] ‘Below 100 cycles, it is all science [and] above 100 cycles, it is all engineering,’” said Kapadia. “We are now at 400-plus [cycles]. So we are right now [in]to engineering.”
On the safety front, Envia’s demonstration cell has passed the nail gun test. (Literally, its battery was shot with a nail gun and did not explode). But the company has other safety tests to meet.