CIC energiGUNE, the Basque research center of reference in battery storage, thermal energy solutions, and hydrogen, and member of the Basque Research & Technology Alliance-BRTA, has presented this morning the last advances reached in the project SAFELiMOVE on lithium-metal batteries on the occasion of the Innovation Workshop “Common challenges of the lithium batteries”, promoted by the LEITAT center –coordinator of the European project LISA- in order to find synergies among the different technologies that allow to advance towards a safe electromobility.
The presentation has allowed making public the work developed until now within the framework of the European project SAFELiMOVE, coordinated by CIC energiGUNE, and which has the objective of developing a lithium-metal battery with a solid electrolyte. “We aspire to facilitate the manufacturing of batteries of a higher density energy with a faster charge and a longer lifecycle”, has expressed Fred Aguesse, scientist at CIC energiGUNE responsible for SAFELiMOVE. It should be pointed out that the Basque center participates in the project LISA as one of the greatest European experts on solid-state batteries.
Aguesse brought to light before the participants of the seminar the importance of the project SAFELiMOVE in order to strengthen the R&D in the energy and automotive sectors, “and especially, the European industry of this field”. The central idea of CIC energiGUNE is to support a technological disruptive change driven by the market towards batteries with a high-density energy with a very high standard of security and are, still, profitable.
In this sense, at the Innovation Workshop of LISA it has been reminded that SAFELiMOVE offers innovations in five main technological areas: development of cathodic materials of layered nickel oxide; anode materials of an specific high-capacity lithium-metal; hybrid ceramic electrolyte with an improved ionic conductivity at room temperature; improvement of effective lithium transport by the study and modification of its surface, and the creation of knowledge to allow for a big-scale production of solid-state batteries.
Consequently, this research will open the door to the development of a wider range of electric vehicles, and electromobility and decarbonization will be promoted even more with a direct positive impact on the stages of climate change. It should be pointed out that, additionally, the line of research of the solid-state battery at CIC energiGUNE is led by Michel Armand, renowned researcher pioneer on the subject.
Apart from the project SAFELiMOVE, the participants of the virtual workshop have had the chance of getting to know the last advances of the project LISA itself and SUBLIME. Both proposals, linked to the solid-state battery technology, also count with the participation of CIC energiGUNE as a partner, an expert on this type of technology.
The Workshop on innovation has tried to bear in mind the possibilities of meeting the expectations of the market with regards to the obtaining of new safe batteries that are smaller and lighter, within the current framework in innovation that is replacing graphite batteries (Gen2 and 3) with lithium (Gen4b and 5). On this matter, for the manufacturers, the main challenges are security, capacity of manufacturing, reliability and recycling, that is why it is necessary to keep advancing on the consecution of solutions that allow for meeting said challenges and have possibilities of reaching the market. On this line, from the perspective of the companies, the works developed by Daikin, Pulsedeon and SVOLT have been presented.
