The BIC offers cutting-edge battery cell fabrication, testing, and evaluation at the cell and pack level. The facility is designed to be IP secure and flexible providing companies a rapid innovation path to commercialization. The BIC offers educational and training opportunities for all levels of energy storage students and workers. I will discuss the unique features and capabilities offered at the BIC and the need for these capabilities to the battery ecosystem for adoption of advanced energy storage technologies.

LVPF (LiVPO4F) and LNMO (Li1.0Ni0.5Mn1.5O4) are being explored for next-generation cells. Both have high operating voltage, high energy density, and LVPF is similar in safety to LFP. Prototype cells have been built utilizing Saft’s production equipment to evaluate power and cycling capabilities with an emphasis on high-power applications. In addition, other new cells developed for specialty markets with unique power, energy density, or high temperature stability requirements will be introduced.

A lower-cost, more sustainably manufactured EV is achievable in the near-term by employing a future-proofed dry cathode manufacturing process. The cathode is the battery’s most costly and carbon-intensive part. Thus, it creates a critical supply chain bottleneck in realizing the decarbonization impact industry targets. This presentation will show how we can create a sustainable battery value-chain, including tailwinds from the BIL/IRA, while highlighting an advanced manufacturing process.

This presentation will summarize surface-engineered aluminum current collectors that were developed through laser-based surface- modification methods. Their performances as current collectors in batteries and supercapacitors clearly outperformed state-of-the-art carbon-coated commercial foils, and were close to ideal gold foils, thanks to the enhanced interfaces provided by their engineered surfaces. Surface modifications included roughening by laser ablation in high vacuum and coating with a carbon-metal composite thin film deposited using pulsed laser deposition.

Realizing extreme fast-charging (XFC) in lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles is still challenging due to the insufficient lithium-ion transport kinetics. A novel high-performance electrolyte is  proposed and tested in pilot-scale, 2-Ah pouch cells. The high-performance electrolyte delivers improved capacity and long-term cyclability up to 1500 cycles under XFC conditions, which is superior to  the conventional state-of-the-art baseline electrolyte.

While supercapacitors exhibit extreme power density, lithium-ion batteries offer high energy density. Both technologies leave a gap for high-power pulse applications, with charge-discharge events lasting between 15 seconds and 15 minutes. In this presentation, Skeleton Technologies showcases how it addresses this gap using its high-power Superbattery technology. The newly developed energy storage technology charges in 60 seconds, while offering competitive energy density of over 130 Wh/L. The presentation will cover use cases for 60s-10 min high-power charging, as well as the impact of energy storage requirements for hard-to-abate industries.

In this presentation, we will review current state-of-the art lithium-ion fast charge performance as an expected baseline requirement for emerging lithium-metal batteries, and further connect that pack-level fast charge performance requirement to material-level characteristics that must be achieved in order to plate non-dendritic lithium on the anode.  Examples include diffusion coefficients, Sand's time, and transference numbers—as a function of temperature—needed to facilitate cell-level battery performance. In that context, we review Sepion’s innovation around separators and liquid electrolytes required for adoption of Li-metal anodes to unlock the trifecta of greater energy density, faster charging, and lower cost.

The lower energy density of LFP necessitates fast-charging for viability in many applications. Temperature plays a critical role in the threshold current density, dividing healthy and unhealthy fast charging. In this talk, the temperature dependence of fast-charging will be explored, followed by an introduction of EC Power’s “30x” technology. Finally, the ambient temperature immunity of 30x will be presented, evidenced by healthy ~10-minute fast charging at -50°C.

Solid-state lithium batteries (SSLBs) are considered to be one of the most promising next-generation Li batteries due to their high capacity and intrinsic safety. Their sustainable processing offers additional advantages over conventional batteries in terms of ecological and economic benefits. This talk focuses on the sustainable processing of solid electrolytes and composite cathodes for oxide-based SSLBs, aiming to reduce both manufacturing costs and environmental footprint.

In this talk, we will discuss how new computational approaches enabled by high-performance computing and machine learning algorithms are accelerating the traditional materials design and commercialization process for solid-state battery materials. We present advances in high-throughput computational screening of electrolyte materials, and discuss how battery and materials manufacturing is changing as the breadth of materials discovery efforts widens. As a case study, we present our recent positive results on a new, record-breaking, solid Li-ion conductor material Li8B10S19, which embodies the new data-driven R&D paradigm of machine learning-based discovery and human-based synthesis and scale-up.

Over recent years both cell manufacturers and EV manufactures have highlighted the development of all-solid-state battery (ASSB), a potentially superior alternative to the conventional lithium-ion battery technology of today, owing to its numerous merits. Though promising, ASSBs still face several barriers hindering their practical application into products. In this talk, Solid Energies, Inc. (SEI) will review the latest advances of ASSBs, along with related obstacles to overcome, evaluate potential commercially-viable paths enabling scaled-up production, and present technology progress in SEI, its distinguished competitiveness with peers, and its low-cost, scalable processing solution for commercialization of ASSB for EV industry.

This presentation offers a glimpse into the future of solid-state battery research, emphasizing our planning of an advanced laboratory dedicated to near serial production. I will shed light on the challenges we anticipate in this journey, from material adaptability in cell assembly to tackling the complexities of anode production. Additionally, I will explore automated multi-layered SSB pouch cell stacking and strategies to empower various material systems.