Spinoff from Argonne-led Innovation Hub Opens New Frontier for Batteries
December 23, 2022 | Business WireEstimated reading time: 1 minute
Research by the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research (JCESR) has enabled spinoff company Blue Current to develop a safe, solid-state battery that is ready for megawatt-scale manufacturing. JCESR is an Energy Innovation Hub led by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory. An arm of Koch Industries has invested $30 million in Blue Current to build its first pilot factory in Hayward, California. Blue Current’s target market is electric vehicles.
Solid-state batteries, which contain solid electrolytes, are much less flammable than liquid batteries, potentially making them safer. But solid electrolytes face technical challenges.
A crystalline class of solids known as glass ceramics have good conductivity. But they lack the ability to stick to the chemically active materials in battery electrodes that store lithium ions. Another class of materials known as polymers is effective at sticking to electrodes. But they have low conductivity.
In 2015, as part of JCESR-sponsored research, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory addressed the shortcomings of glass ceramics and polymers by bonding them together. The resulting composite solid electrolyte demonstrated good conductivity and good stickiness. Inspired by the composite’s potential, Blue Current developed it further.
Since then, the company has refined its components and addressed technical challenges common with solid-state batteries. For example, to help solid electrolytes stick to electrodes, some companies add heavy metal plates and bolts that put battery cells under high pressure. These fixtures increase manufacturing costs. Blue Current’s composite can maintain good contact with electrodes without the use of plates.
As part of rigorous safety testing, the company subjected its cells to harsh conditions that electric vehicles could encounter in the real world. Thermal runaway—an overheating event that can lead to fires—never occurred.
“JCESR creates and proves the ideas that eventually go commercial,” said George Crabtree, JCESR’s director and an Argonne senior scientist. “These are the riskier ideas that no investors would fund—and that companies are unlikely to pursue—because the outcome is so uncertain.”
“The idea of using composites in batteries was new and unproven prior to the JCESR program,” said Kevin Wujcik, Blue Current’s Chief Technology Officer. “JCESR put resources behind composites because the materials had potential to address a market need for safe, solid-state batteries while solving important technical challenges.”
Suggested Items
Altair Acquires Research in Flight, Forging a New Path for Aerodynamic Analysis
05/03/2024 | AltairAltair a global leader in computational intelligence, announced it has acquired Research in Flight, maker of FlightStream®, which provides computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software with a large footprint in the aerospace and defense sector and a growing presence in marine, energy, turbomachinery, and automotive applications.
Intel Takes Next Step Toward Building Scalable Silicon-Based Quantum Processors
05/02/2024 | BUSINESS WIRENature published an Intel research paper, “Probing single electrons across 300-mm spin qubit wafers,” demonstrating state-of-the-art uniformity, fidelity and measurement statistics of spin qubits.
Argonne, Toyota Collaborate on Cutting-Edge Battery Recycling Process
05/01/2024 | BUSINESS WIREThe U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory has recently launched a collaboration with Toyota Motor North America that could reduce the nation’s reliance on foreign sources of battery materials.
Chinese Smartphone Market Maintains its Recovery Momentum at 6.5% Growth in 1Q24,
04/26/2024 | IDCAccording to preliminary data from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, China smartphone shipments grew 6.5% year over year (YoY) to 69.3 million units in 1Q24.
Boeing Opens Research & Technology Center in Japan
04/23/2024 | BoeingBoeing today opened a Boeing Research & Technology (BR&T) Center in Japan that will focus on innovation to enable the commercial aviation industry meet its goal of net zero carbon emissions by 2050.