Electrovaya receives order from leading Chinese battery company for SEPARION separator
02 June 2015
Electrovaya Inc., which recently completed the acquisition of Evonik Litarion GmbH and the licensing of the ceramic composite separator SEPARION intellectual property from Evonik (earlier post), has received an order for SEPARION from a leading Chinese battery company. SEPARION, with its high temperature properties, imparts improved safety and cycle life to lithium-ion batteries.
In cells made with graphite anode and NMC cathode (Nickel Manganese Cobalt oxide), most manufacturers show cycle life in the region of 3000 to 5500 cycles with full 100% charge discharge at 1 C rate. Cells with SEPARION show ~9000 cycles using the same electrode chemistry and testing conditions.
Recent developments for SEPARION include:
The Chinese lithium ion battery company qualified SEPARION after intense testing for use in its electric vehicle program. This customer’s requirement is expected to be greater than $1 million in 2015 and growing to larger amounts in 2016.
SEPARION was exclusive to a leading German automotive company for its electric vehicle production. This auto company continues to be a major customer but no longer has exclusive rights.
Several major battery companies are expressing great interest and have begun qualification processes. Electrovaya estimates that China alone can absorb over $ 15 million of SEPARION in 2016.
Electrovaya has also qualified the material and has begun using it for all its own major Li-ion products.
Good news for longer lasting (9,000+ cycles) lithium batteries. Extended range (500 Km) BEVs could go up to 4,500,000 Km with the same battery pack?
Could be very interesting for city e-buses, delivery truks and taxis that have to be recharged many times a day?
Posted by: HarveyD | 02 June 2015 at 08:01 AM
Small company but they seem to have made an unbelievable deal with Litarion acquisition at no cost (1M euros cash but Evonik let around 7ME in bank to operate).
Posted by: bob | 02 June 2015 at 08:44 AM
What is the penalty?
Increased $/kWh?
Decreased power?
EV batteries don't need to last a million miles. 3000 miles x 100 miles is 300,000 miles. Thats plenty for one pack. By the time the pack is exhausted, there will be a much better pack to plug into your EV.
This makes great sense for grid storage though. Improving the cycle life of the batteries at 100% DoD will greatly reduce the cost per kWh of energy storage. If you can cycle a pack at 9,000 cycles to 80% instead of 4,500 cycles, you're cutting the per kWh cost from roughly 15c to 7.5c. 7.5c is close to the actual difference between on-peak and off-peak times.
Posted by: Anthony F | 02 June 2015 at 01:18 PM
AF.. many city buses travel up to 5,000,000 Km during their 12 to 15 year operation life (depending on lenght of route). Many taxis vehicles can put up to 500,000+ km in the first 2 or 3 years. The same can be said for pizza (and other) 24/7 delivery vehicles etc.
Short life expectancy (together with low energy density and high prie) has been the general weakness of most battery packs. This may solve one of the 3 major weaknesses?
Posted by: HarveyD | 04 June 2015 at 07:15 AM