The US Department of Energy has nailed its battery chemistry colours to the mast in the past month‑ and none of it is in support of lead-acid.
This week a joint partnership between the DOE and the United States Advanced Battery Consortium LLC (USABC) awarded Saft America US$6.13 million to develop lithium-ion stop-start 12V battery technology.
The 30-month contract includes a 50% cost share by Saft to focus on developing and delivering 12V modules based on the US firm’s lithium-ion battery technology and management electronics.
In late August the DOE gave out a total of $10million for eight incubator projects to develop ‘environmentally-friendly vehicle technologies’ to reduce petroleum use in the United States.
Those projects included research into lithium-sulfur, lithium-ion anodes and multilayed film capacitors. But nothing for good old lead-acid.
The DOE’s partner USABC’s goals for 12V start-stop includes a 15 year calendar life at 4˚C, operating temperature of -30˚C to 75˚C and a discharge pulse of 6Kw.
It is also looking at developing electrochemical energy storage technologies for hybrid, plug-in hybrid, electric and fuel cell vehicles.
