Knowledge-based improvements of Li-ion battery cost, performance, recyclabiKnowledge-based improvements of Li-ion battery cost, performance, recyclability and safety are needed to enable electric vehicles to rapidly gain market share and reduce CO2 emissions. SPIDER’s advanced, low-cost (75 €/kWh by 2030) battery technology is predicted to bring energy density to ~ 450 Wh/kg by 2030 and power density to 800 W/kg. It operates at a lower, and thus safer, voltage, which enables the use of novel, highly conductive and intrinsically safe liquid electrolytes. Safety concerns will be further eliminated (or strongly reduced), as thermal energy dissipation will be reduced to 4 kW/kg, and thermal runaway temperature increased to over 200°C. Moreover, SPIDER overcomes one of the main Li-ion ageing mechanisms for silicon based anodes: notably, the loss of cyclable lithium, which should increase lifetime to 2000 cycles by 2022 for first life applications with further usefulness up to 5000 cycles in second life (stationary energy storage). In addition, SPIDER’s classic cell manufacturing process with liquid electrolyte will be readily transferable to industry, unlike solid electrolyte designs, which still require the development of complex manufacturing processes. Finally, SPIDER batteries will be designed to be 60% recyclable by weight, and a dedicated recycling process will be developed and evaluated during SPIDER. In addition, SPIDER materials significantly reduce the use of critical raw materials. Finally, four SPIDER partners are identified by the European Battery Alliance as central and strategic for the creation of the needed European battery value chain: SGL, NANO, VMI & SOLVAY. In conclusion, SPIDER proposes a real breakthrough in battery chemistry that can be readily adopted within a sustainable, circular economy by a competitive, European battery value chain to avoid foreign market dependence and to capture the emerging 250 billion € battery market in Europe.

Europe is facing a major challenge to develop and produce a competitive Li-battery product in order to avoid dependency on third countries in its energy transition models. The Li-ion cell innovations should meet specific technical and economical requirements to sustain the market growth. The all-solid Li-ion technology appears to be one of the relevant options but it still has to be brought to higher TRL to be economically and environmentally friendly for a mass production compatible process. The ASTRABAT project gathers 14 partners, leaders in the different fields of research, development and production, from 8 countries. It aims to find optimal solid-state cell materials, components and architecture that are well suited to the demands of the electric vehicle market and compatible with mass production. The project will comply with improved safety demands and industrial standards. Five ambitious objectives were defined: 1. Development of materials for a solid hybrid electrolyte and electrodes enabling high energy, high voltage and reliable all-solid-state Li-ion cells 2. Gen#2D cell design: processing techniques compatible with existing routes of large scale cell manufacturing (10Ah, Energy type) and validation of a pilot prototype in a relevant industrial environment 3. Development of a 2030s eco-designed generation for Power-type and Energy type all-solid-state cells in pre-prototype (Gen#3DS and #3DC) 4. Define an efficient cell architecture to comply with improved safety demands 5. Structuration of the whole value chain of the all-solid-state battery, including eco-design, end of life and recycling The project will reinforce the European battery value chain, strengthen collaborations between RTOs, SMEs and Industrial partners from material development to integration in vehicles. The implementation of related work packages, tasks, milestones and risk assessment is considered to achieve these objectives comprehensively.

The EU has established an ambitious industrial goal to make Europe a strategic global leader in the Li-ion battery value chain, deploying a sustainable and innovative industry. This urges the sector to make sure that the industrial production is inherently sustainable, safe, flexible and cost-effective while delivering cutting edge cells. The main objective of GIGAGREEN is to boost the next wave of electrode and cell component processing techniques, enabling breakthrough innovations to improve the environmental, economic and social performance of generation 3b Li-ion cells manufacturing industry, thus positioning Europe at the forefront of the global market. GIGAGREEN proposes a structured research plan to develop and scale up (TRL 3-4 to 5-6) novel electrode and cell component manufacturing processes that follow a Design to Manufacture (DtM) approach. This is, seeking for the minimum environmental impact and energy consumption, cell designs which facilitate the re-use and disassembly, increasement of the cost-efficiency and safety of processes and products, and high-throughput technologies able to be easily scaled up and automated in the context of industry 4.0/5.0 giga-factories. Supported by a vibrant and experienced consortium of academic and industrial partners, GIGAGREEN will follow two alternative R&I trajectories. The first one, based on N-Methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP)-free wet processing, is designed for a quick scale up and market uptake of optimised wet coating systems in current industrial setups (final TRL6, 30 cells of 10 Ah prototyped as demonstration). The second one, based on dry processing, will explore breakthrough technologies, achieving a smaller TRL by the end of the project (final TRL5, 30-40 mAh monolayer pouch cells prototypes as proof of concept), paving the path for upcoming R&I experiences to continue scaling up the most promising dry processing techniques.

The booming need for batteries and higher storage capacities are well identified challenges. Increase production capacities can meet the higher demand but improved storage capacities require innovation and new battery materials. The critical application for better capacities is the automotive electric vehicles market for which the vehicle range is a key drag on market growth. Nanomakers’ solution is to supply a new material for batteries anodes. This high-quality material is already available for niche market (portable electronics) and can be used to triple battery anodes capacities. To address automotive mass market, this product has also to be cheap and available at large scale, both of which are the main object of this project. This will be done by increasing nanomakers’ production capacity fourfold per reactor. Nanomakers is a french R&D company, spin-off from cea which is producing and selling at industrial scale Si and Sic nanoparticles made by laser pyrolysis, a patented technology developed at cea. In 2012, the company patented a new product: carbon coated silicon (SiwC) as anode active material for li-ion batteries. This material triples the anodes capacity and will partly replace natural graphite which a critical raw material currently used in batteries. With a compound annual growth rate of around 20%, li-ion battery market will be significant in the years to come. This growth will be first driven by portable electronics and then by automotive industry where battery price must be competitive. Nanomakers has a long experience and feed-back form customers that helped optimizing its product (size, coating, …). Since 2013, nanomakers has been providing most of the battery actors, especially in asia. So, nanomakers want to set up Debimax project to meet the large capacity demand and reduces the production costs for portable electronics and automotive industry.

The Li-ion battery (LIB) market is now entering a period where energy density improvements and cost reductions are levelling off for the current generation 3a. To continue with this trend while keeping pace with the increasing industry demands for cost reduction, user-friendliness of electric vehicles and safety, breakthrough innovations at material level and cell design are needed. Within this context, NEXTCELL overarching goal is to provide a new 3b LIB cell generation for both high capacity and high voltage applications developing and validating a ground-breaking gellified cell concept. The project workplan revolves around a three dimension-based methodology: (i) Prototyping the gellified cell concept up to TRL6 (20Ah), (ii) Modelling the gellified cell concept, and (iii) Evaluation of technical, safety, sustainability, and costs improvements. NEXTCELL’s approach will not only provide Europe with cutting edge 3b cells but will also tackle three key parameters hindering a greater market penetration of LIBs technology: (i) Costs: optimising its manufacturing processes, reducing capital and operating costs of future Giga-factories by avoiding evaporation of solvents and the electrolyte-filling step. (ii) Safety: Producing intrinsically safe cells, avoiding the presence of low boiling point components in cell components. (iii) Sustainability: Reducing energy consumption by 50% against SoA and avoiding the use of toxic organic solvents (NMP). The project is led by the electric vehicle industry, from the project coordination by FEV (leading vehicle and powertrain international service provider) to key industry manufacturers along the value chain, such as SOLVAY (polymer, binders, and separators), ABEE (cathode production), VARTA (LIB manufacturer) or CRF (research centre for the Fiat Chrysler Automobiles group). Thus, NEXTCELL has a solid determination towards fast and successful commercialisation of the novel cell design and its new components after the project.