Green Car Congress: Chinas RD Efforts on Li-Ion Batteries for Transportation

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China’s R&D Efforts on Li-Ion Batteries for Transportation

18 September 2008

China, already a global center for lithium-ion battery component production and battery manufacturing, is ramping up its research and development efforts in the field, both within the private sector and with government support.

At the 1^st International Conference on Advanced Lithium Batteries for Automobile Applications, organized by Argonne National Laboratory, Dr. Jiqiang Wang of the Tianjin Institute of Power Sources (TIPS) provided an overview of the government-supported R&D projects for lithium-ion batteries for transportation, which are now focusing on two primary cathode materials: manganese spinel (LiMn₂O₄) and iron phosphate (LiFePO₄).

Dr. Wang began by observing that the Beijing Olympics had served as a large-scale field test for some of the domestically-developed lithium-ion technology: there were 55 electric passenger buses and 20 fuel cell hybrid vehicles equipped with lithium-ion batteries that accumulated about 200,000 km (124,000 miles) of service during the Games.

Fifty of the buses used lithium-ion systems with 137 kWh capacity, comprising 7 smaller packs of 10 kWh each and three larger packs with about 20 kWh each. These packs used 90 Ah prismatic cells from Beijing Citic Guoan Mengguli (MGL), with LiMn₂O₄ cathodes. The other five buses used 10 large packs with a total of 205 kWh capacity.

The fuel cell hybrid vehicles used 350V packs comprising 8Ah prismatic high-power cells from Suzhou Phylion Battery Co., Ltd., again with LiMn₂O₄ cathodes. The packs delivered maximum pulse power of 50 kW.

According to an overview of lithium-ion developments in China published by Argonne earlier this year^[1], MGL ranks as China’s largest manufacturer of LiCoO₂ cathode material, and is the first to market the new materials LiMn₂O₄ and LiCoO_0.2Ni_0.8O₂. Besides cathode materials, MGL also produces lithium-ion secondary batteries of high energy density and high capacity for power and energy storage.

Suzhou Phylion Battery Co., Ltd., is a battery technology corporation set up by Legend Capital Co., Ltd.; the Institute of Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences; and Chengdu Diao Group. The company specializes in manufacturing and selling lithium-ion cells with high capacity and current, and has been selling into the portable devices, battery-powered tools and e-bike markets.

The batteries deployed in the vehicles for the Olympics adhered to a new, more stringent national safety standard. The performance of cells and modules needed to be confirmed in one of two national testing centers, in Beijing and Tianjin.

Looking ahead for the next two or three years, said Dr. Wang, the government-supported 863 project will continue to support R&D on LiMn₂O₄, but will also start to support R&D on LiFePO₄.

R&D and even production of Li-ion batteries with LiFePO₄ as power batteries for vehicle applications are becoming hot and hot!
—Jiqiang Wang

The government has set development targets for iron phosphate and manganese spinel cathodes for HEV and EV applications:

Specifications for Li-ion batteries
Capacity (Ah)	8, 20	50	100
Specific power (W/kg)	≥1,800	≥700	≥500
Specific Energy (Wh/kg) LiFePO₄	≥65	≥110	≥110
Specific energy (Wh/kg) LiMn₂O₄	≥70	≥120	≥120
Max. discharge rate	30C (20s)	6C (30s)	5C (30s)
Max. charge rate	10C (10s)	4C (60s)	4C (60s)
Cell internal resistance (m&Ohm;)	≤2.0	≤3.0	≤2.5
Cell-to-cell voltage deviation (V)	≤0.02
Cell-to-cell capacity deviation (%)	≤2
Operating temp. range (°C)	-25 to +60
Storage temp. range (°C)	-40 to +80
Charge retention (28 days at ambient temp.) (%)	≥90
SOC estimation error (%)	≤5
Safety	Pass industry or specified standard.
Whole battery running life (10⁴km	15 (LiFePO₄); 10 (LiMn₂O₄)
Reliability	Operate normally under environment humidity of 100%; meet relative requirements during whole vehicle running mode test of 30,000 km
Cell-level cost at mass prod. (Yuan/Wh; US$/Wh)	≤3/ ≤0.44	≤2/ ≤0.29	≤2/ ≤0.29

Lishen and BAK are each leading an R&D group for lithium iron phosphate development for EV and HEV applications; MGL and Phylion are each leading an R&D group for manganese spinel development for EV and HEV applications.

Research is also looking into new anode materials, such as hard carbon.

Besides the government-sponsored research programs, Dr. Wang noted, there are several large lithium-ion battery manufacturers who are also doing R&D on lithium-ion batteries for EV and HEV applications, such as BYD.

^[1] Pandit G. Patil (2008) Developments in Lithium-Ion Battery Technology in The Peoples Republic of China (ANL/ESD/08-1)

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Comments

Hopefully, they succeed in mass producing electric cars as successfully as electric bikes. This could be their impetus to install 100 gigawatts of wind turbines by 2020
and with the help of other renewable and alternative energy, $150 per barrel of crude oil will never see the light of day again.

Posted by: thomas | Sep 18, 2008 6:31:28 AM

Good news. With this much concerted efforts, mass produced much lower cost batteries may be around sooner than expected.

It seems that they have already broken the $300/Kwh cost for larger units.

How long will it take to get to $200/KWh and below or about $4K for affordable PHEV 20KWh unit?

Interesting months/years ahead.

Posted by: HarveyD | Sep 18, 2008 7:15:13 AM

"Cell-level cost at mass prod. US$/Wh:
8Ah ≤0.44 50Ah ≤0.29 100Ah ≤0.29"

Wow, 0.44 US$/Wh is $440 per Kilowatt hour
and 0.29 US$/Wh is $290 per Kilowatt hour !

So cell cost for a large format 100 Amp hour battery of $290 per Kilowatt hour!
At those prices, a PHEV would be much more affordable.
For example, if China can achieve this target, the 16Kwh Volt battery which is estimated to cost about $16000 now might eventually cost about $5000 to replace!

"Specific power (W/kg) 100 Ah ≥500
Specific Energy (Wh/kg) LiFePO4 100 Ah ≥110"

At 500 W/kg, a 50kW motor would need at least 100kg of cells. 100kg of cells would store 11 kWh.
If these targets can be met, it might be possible to replace a 16kWh Volt battery with a 12kWh battery and still be able to feed the 50kW peak motor.
12kWh @ 290 US$/kWh would cost $3480 for the cells, so say less than $4000 for the replacement battery pack.

They do not mention a target for the usable percentage of capacity without seriously affecting cell life.
The Volt will initially use only 50% of the 16kWh capacity, so only 8kWh.
Perhaps by the time the targets for cell power and energy are met, they may be able to use at least 8kWh of a 12kWh battery.
If that turns out to be the case, a 12kWh replacement battery for the Volt might be able to deliver the same or better range for less than $4000.

I wonder how close they are to meeting their development targets.

Posted by: Polly | Sep 18, 2008 7:35:38 AM

Anyone who thinks lithium batteries are going to save us from dependance on oil should read: ^ "The Trouble With Lithium 2". Meridian International Research (May 28, 2008). Retrieved on 2008-07-07. Available online in the footnotes of the Wikipedia article on Lithium. There is a global shortage of lithium that is growing and clearly not enough of the metal available in the world to supply even 10% of the auto industry. There are real battery chemistries with unlimited supplies that can facilitate the auto industry's transformation to electric power such as NIMH, but the best NIMH battery is owned by Chevron. Good luck getting your hands on these.

Posted by: creativforce | Sep 18, 2008 7:54:41 AM

If this pans out, the question is will they sell the batteries to the west, or will they sell them packaged up in cars ?

If western car firms can get the batteries, they will do well, else we will have to buy Chinese cars.

Or they might just keep them for the home market to keep their fuel imports down.

Posted by: mahonj | Sep 18, 2008 7:57:07 AM

creativforce, if you don't know how to use wikipedia, you'd do good to just not use it at all.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Why_Wikipedia_is_not_so_great

"Anyone can add subtle nonsense or accidental misinformation to articles that can take weeks or even months to be detected and removed. Users who are not logged in can also do this."

In this case, you failed to check the _other_ sources in the same article on lithium. For example:

http://www.evworld.com/article.cfm?archive=1&storyid=1434&first=3358&end=3357

You can also try using google:

http://www.daughtersoftiresias.org/greenwiki/Peak_lithium

Basically, there is no issue with lithium, and never will be.

Posted by: | Sep 18, 2008 8:52:26 AM

The BEV will be marketed, by China, and soon.

The real question, is will the USA, Canada, and Europe be in a position to compete?

Posted by: John Taylor | Sep 18, 2008 9:43:15 AM

@John Taylor

I agree with you that China will mass produce PHEVs and BEVs in very large quantities very soon.

I can't see how USA/Canada auto industry can compete with China for electrified vehicles unless we import most components, specially the batteries, chargers, e-control systems, e-motors, gensets, cables, wheels, brakes, seats, carpets, lights, radio & comm equipment, hoods, trunk lids, bumpers etc.

In other words, our expensive workforce efforts would be limited to final assembly of prefinished imported parts and sub-assemblies and automated paint jobs.

Most sales should be done by WalMart, CostCo, Canadian Tire or on Internet to fruther reduce final price.

The car industry in overdue for a major change.

Posted by: HarveyD | Sep 18, 2008 10:25:52 AM

"the 16Kwh Volt battery which is estimated to cost about $16000 now might eventually cost about $5000 to replace!"

Actually the Volt 16kWh battery is estimated as an $8k component of the entire vehicle. It is slightly less for the Mitsubishi i MiEV battery.

Nice to see the low-cost suppliers cheering their team. From experience however, the electric bikes made overseas imported to North America have a terrible track record. People typically abandon them after 18 mos. to two years because of cost of replacing worn Pb batteries, materials breakdowns, component failures etc. Low cost materials and manufacturing does win market share - until the market wises up.

Posted by: NRG Nut | Sep 18, 2008 10:43:25 AM

If these targets can be met, it might be possible to replace a 16kWh Volt battery with a 12kWh battery and still be able to feed the 50kW peak motor.

Volt motor is 111 kW (used to be 120 but seems to have shrunk).

Posted by: doggydogworld | Sep 18, 2008 2:29:57 PM

Plug-In-Hybrid vehicles are the answer to high cost batteries. If all of the money spent on researching LiIon batteries had been spent on 20 year old proven Sodium-Nickel battery production automation, there might be a chance of vehicle battery cost reduction. The energy density of ZEBRA batteries is just slightly more than the proposed LiIon batteries and they are more environmentally robust.

Hydraulic hybrids seem to have a weight and cost advantage over electric hybrids. Hydraulics can handle the peak energies required with lower weights and cost.

A steam-diesel hybrid bus like the Kitson-Still locomotive may even be a cheap practical alternative. DLM makes small steam locomotives that are cheaper to run on diesel than ones with diesel engines. Titanium and other modern metal alloys can make a system with condenser that is light enough. Certainly lighter than batteries.

The INNAS NOAX hydraulic engine can easily be fitted with additional steam pistons; especially ones similar to the one in the German made LION home heat and power generator.

Coal to liquids is is cheap way of making fuel, and the fuel used should be clean burning methanol. Since engines in hybrid vehicles can be optimised for efficiency, it takes less fuel per mile than a coal fired power plant.

Eventually methanol will be made at nuclear power plants by recycling CO2. Electricity from nuclear power costs less than 3 cents per kilowatt hour to produce. There are about 35 kilowatt-hours of heat energy in a gallon of gasoline, and considering the inefficiency, 160 cents of electricity would be required to make a gallon of gasoline right now. There are known processes to make fuel from the direct heat of the reactor other than generating electricity. No commercial reactors operate at high enough temeratures for these proceses. But for a beginning the water can be heated to the reactor operating temperature for more efficient electrolysis.

The cost of the electricity can be much reduced by installing additional small turbines that produce the voltage required by the electrolysis units directly and are much smaller and less costly than the standard turbo generator units and operate on the excess heat that all reactors can produce at times. According to the CRC handbook a pound of uranium U235 can produce ten million kilowatt-hours of heat. It takes about 150 pounds of natural uranium to produce a pound of U235 and perhaps 300 pounds when enrichment losses are considered.(The remaining 300 pounds can be used in accelerator and breeder reactors for 300 times the energy. This is not done in the US.) Including many inefficiencies, at $100 a pound the raw uranium cost for a gallon of gasoline by electrolysis is less than five cents. The direct heat process can be more than five times less. At the non speculative price of $20 it is only one cent.(Uranium sold for less than $8 at one time. At more than $20 breeders, thorium and reprocessing are economical.) At $150 a pound for raw uranium the plutonium in spent rods is worth more than $45 000 a pound. And a reactor fuel load may contain 2000 pounds or ninety million dollars worth. About $30,000,000 of plutonium alone is sent to the waste pits every year for each reactor. Contrary to what most people believe, this plutonium has too low a concentration of Pu239 and far too much Pu240 to be used in fission bombs. The introduction of the gas-centrifuge has made Uranium bombs much cheaper and they were already easier to make than plutonium bombs. Proliferation is no longer a reason not to recycle plutonium. The used fuel also has a greater than equal amount of U235 in it as natural uranium and could be used directly in CANDU reactors or put back into a new fuel load. The fuel can be directly re-enriched to full strength by adding concentrated dismantled weapons uranium or plutonium.

At $100 a tonne there is 10 cents worth of coal in a kilogram. At a low fifty percent efficiency it takes three kilos of coal to make one kilo of gasoline. There are 2.7 kilos of gasoline in a gallon so it takes $0.80 of coal to make a gallon of gasoline. The cost of coal at large mines may be as low as five dollars a ton. A few years ago Peabody had a gross of $20 a tonne over the year. ..HG..

..HG..

Posted by: Henry Gibson | Sep 18, 2008 4:04:15 PM

What is it with the entrenched interests in US. We will not do any R&D on advance batteries. We will not proceed with hybrid technology. I remember reading about hybrid cars in popular mechanics when I was a child in the early 70s, now we are way behind conceding the initiative to Toyota and Honda. Why the hell did Chevron bought up the patent for nickle metal hydride batteries for BEVs effectively derailed BEV research and development. We use to make fun of the low quality Japanese cars and the low quality toys imported from Japan. Then we laughed at the low quality toys from Taiwan and now they are the leading manufacturers for electronics and cell phones. Then we made fun of the Korean crap that was imported to the US. Now we are snickering at the cheap stuffs from China but they are taking the initiative in all manner of technology from slippers to space ships. Do I detect a pattern here. We are a nation of naysayers and do nothings. We are so consumed with our self centered trivial matters and political correctness while the rest of the world advances and passes us by. Our government is so incompetent and self serving. They are bought off by entrenched interests and lobbyists so all good innovations are bottled up. America, we need to wake up before we become a third world backwater like Asia use to be.

Posted by: RPMC | Sep 18, 2008 5:56:54 PM

Thanks to the CCP Officer's interesting POV.

Posted by: | Sep 18, 2008 6:21:32 PM

Nonsense Polly. Peak Lithium has been debunked (check this blog) - Peak Lithium is being pushed by Tahill who also claims that the 9/11 towers were brought down by government installed mini-nuclear bombs.

Posted by: Mohsen | Sep 18, 2008 11:23:39 PM

RPMC:

You are saying what a lot of people think but do not dare to say.

With regards to product quality, a closer look at Honda, Toyota, Nissan etc product evolution over the last 20-30 years would prove you right. Korean cars are not far behind. Chinese and Indian cars will follow shortly.

We all know that up to 90% of all batteries are manufactured in Asia and more than half in China.

If nothing changes, a very high percentage of vehicles lithium batteries will come from Asia and the majority from China. Even Japanese advanced batteries manufacturers will move many of their factories to China and India to supply the very large local and export markets and reduce cost.

North America better wake up or it will miss the train.

Posted by: HarveyD | Sep 19, 2008 7:36:23 AM

I wouldn't exclude US and European companies from making low cost batteries. The real discussions are no longer around R&D. They are about commercialization of existing designs.

The raw materials or pre-cursors for LifePO compositions are not that expensive... from my uneducated research I calculated <$50 per Kg. It takes a fair bit of equipment and operator time to turn those raw materials into batteries. That's where the cost is. There is also a premium to pay for licencing certain high quality bought-in components (e.g. separators)

Most automotive Li-ion batteries today are made using low volume or prototype tooling. Chinese companies have a killer advantage when there is high labour content.

Once highly automated lines are developed (and the Japanese are already investing heavily in that). The Chinese advantage is reduced. Nothing to stop US and European companies developing automated plants.

Batteries are a heavy bulky item. In my business we make the high labour content lightweight components in China and ship WW. The heavier and more expensive to ship items we manufacture closer to the target market. It's possible the BMS will come from the far east with batteries made in the US.

Chinese companies can already sell decent LiFePo retail at <$450/KWh. In my industry we depreciate the capital equipment over 3-5 years. It wouldn't surprise me if the 5 year high volume manufacturing cost goal is around $150 per KWh.

Posted by: Andrew | Sep 19, 2008 8:26:27 PM

@ Harvey:

you should be running China!

Posted by: NRG Nut | Sep 20, 2008 10:36:14 AM

I think Andrew is correct. Automation is the key to low cost for the US. But will we do it. As others point out, certain big interests don't benefit from EVs. They also have the government ear

Posted by: | Sep 22, 2008 9:12:19 AM

Andrew:

I hope that your forecast is correct and that North America and Europe will mass produce $150/Kwh battery packs with automated plants within 5 years, at least for their own market. If they do, the sale of PHEV-60 to 100 Km and BEVs will take off.

However, this will not preclude China and India from producing even lower cost units for their huge future local and Asian markets. Over 2.5 B people represent a huge market for electrified vehicles.

@ NRG:

Neither you or I (or our countries) will rule China, but many of us may be driving Chinese built e-vehicles soon as we are already using many other Chinese made products today.

Posted by: HarveyD | Sep 22, 2008 10:28:48 AM

I also hope I'm close with that estimate. Bear in mind, I was just considering manufacturing costs. I don't think we will get retail aftermarket batteries much below $300.

Posted by: Andrew | Sep 22, 2008 4:18:37 PM

Shortage of Lithium?? Probably not in the near future.

To allay Polly & ? (Sep18th) fears you may find the following passage from (Prof.) David J.C. MacKay’s book “Sustainable Energy– without the hot air” of interest. (note this book is free to download from “http://www.withouthotair.com/” )

“ Is there enough lithium to make all the batteries for a huge fleet of electric cars?
World lithium reserves are estimated to be 9.5 million tons in ore deposits(p179). A lithium-ion battery is 3% lithium. If we assume each vehicle has a 200 kg battery, then we need 6 kg of lithium per vehicle. So the estimated reserves in ore deposits are enough to make the batteries for
1.6 billion vehicles. That’s more than the number of cars in the world today (roughly 1 billion) – but not much more, so the amount of lithium may be a concern, especially when we take into account the competing ambitions of the nuclear fusion posse (Chapter 24) to guzzle lithium in their reactors. There’s many thousands times more lithium in sea water, so perhaps the oceans will provide a useful backup. However, lithium specialist R. Keith Evans says “concerns regarding lithium availability for hybrid or electric vehicle batteries or other foreseeable applications are unfounded.” And anyway, other lithium-free battery technologies such as zinc-air rechargeables are being developed [www.revolttechnology.com]. I think the electric car is a goer!”

Posted by: Nick | Sep 26, 2008 3:19:51 AM

Please let me know the following:
1)The battery suited for the following parameter:-
- To run AUTO which is Scooter with capacity of carrying 6 passenger.
- To run Passenger bus in city with 50-60 KM speed and running 150 Km at one shift.
- To inform the costs of such batteries.
- To inform the longivity of a battery and whether ir is maintencefree?

Posted by: Ramendra Nath ghosh | Nov 10, 2008 7:07:42 AM