lithium-ion batteries

US lithium technology firm BioSolar has set out the next steps towards incorporating its silicon additive technology into commercial-grade lithium-ion battery prototypes.

CEO Dr David Lee said: “We anticipate that the next generation lithium-ion batteries are going to require next generation silicon anode materials that provide higher energy and power density.”

Lee told BEST Battery Briefing larger quantities of silicon anode materials incorporating BioSolar's additives are being prepared by the company's partners in South Korea and the US— using BioSolar's proprietary additives and processes and raw silicon materials from Silicio Ferrosolar, a subsidiary of UK-based Ferroglobe.

Norwegian Electric Systems (NES) has selected Corvus Energy to supply lithium-ion energy storage systems (ESS) for five new all-electric ferries.

The ferries— being built in Leirvik, Sogn, by Havyard for Norwegian ferry operator Fjord1— will all be of Havyard 932 design, 67 metres in length, and will carry 50 cars.

Each ferry will be equipped with an “air-cooled Corvus Orca ESS that will supply electrical power to the ferry’s NES all-electric power and propulsion system”.

The US Department of Energy (DoE) has launched a Lithium-ion Battery Recycling Prize and an associated Battery Recycling R&D Centre, in a bid to reduce “America’s dependence on foreign sources of critical (battery) materials”.

The recycling prize will make awards totalling US$5.5 million to encourage innovation from American entrepreneurs in the fields of collecting, storing, and transporting discarded lithium-ion batteries for eventual recycling.

In addition, the US will invest $15m to establish the recycling centre “focused on cost-effective recycling processes to recover lithium battery materials”. The centre is to be led by Argonne National Laboratory, with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Volvo has inaugurated an energy storage project made up of connected lithium-ion batteries previously used in the Swedish automotive manufacturer’s electric buses. 

The “energy warehouse” consists of 14 lithium-ion e-bus batteries, which are installed in a battery chamber and connected to create a 200kWh storage pack, which has been fitted to a Riksbyggen apartment complex in Gothenburg that “aims to be Sweden’s most innovative and sustainable housing project”.

The storage pack will be implemented to cut the apartment complex’s power consumption peaks by storing energy bought from the grid at periods of low demand, and to store or sell surplus solar energy generated at the property.