USABC Awards $12.5 Million Battery Technology Development Contract to A123Systems
The US Advanced Battery Consortium (USABC), an organization whose members are Chrysler LLC, Ford Motor Company and General Motors Corp., has awarded a $12.5 million plug-in hybrid electric battery technology development contract to A123Systems, Inc.
USABC awarded the contract in collaboration with the US Department of Energy (DOE), which previously announced the award, pending agreement on all terms and conditions. The 36-month contract is for the development of battery cell technology for plug-in hybrid-electric vehicle (PHEV) applications.
USABC is a division of the US Council for Automotive Research LLC (USCAR). Enabled by a cooperative agreement with the DOE, USABC’s mission is to develop electrochemical energy storage technologies that support commercialization of fuel cell, hybrid and electric vehicles.
A123Systems’ key program objectives for its lithium-ion battery technology will be to improve cell energy density to meet charge depleting requirements; reduce cell cost; test abuse tolerance for automotive applications; and demonstrate performance, cycle and calendar life.
The new A123Systems contract follows research previously conducted with USABC to develop next-generation lithium-ion battery technology for hybrid-electric vehicle (HEV) applications. The goals for the new three-year program include significant increases in power, reduction in system cost, improvements in abuse-tolerance and extended battery life. Since its initiation in December 2006, the program has seen progress in all of these areas.
mPhase/AlwaysReady to Produce Lithium Pouch Batteries
mPhase/AlwaysReady has released plans to fabricate lithium pouch battery prototypes that provide Power on Command. mPhase/AlwaysReady is in the process of producing lithium-based batteries that can be manually activated as well as batteries that can be activated electronically that have an almost infinite shelf life.
AlwaysReady CEO Fred Allen, said, "The rapid progress the company is making on our lithium prototypes is of utmost importance for us strategically. I am pleased with our rapid progress to date and am confident that the prototypes in development will move us one step closer to commercialization."
Axion Power Reports First Quarter Results 2008
Axion Power International, Inc., a developer of advanced lead-carbon PbC batteries, reported that during the first quarter of 2008, its sales were $215,727, as compared to $164,513 during the first quarter of 2007. All first quarter revenues came from specialty lead-acid batteries that the company has been manufacturing in limited quantities at its modernized plant in New Castle, Penn. The company reported a net loss of $3.0 million, or $0.17 per share, for the first quarter of 2008, as compared to a net loss of $6.5 million, or $0.40 per share, for the first quarter of 2007.
Commenting on Axion's business development and strategy, CEO Thomas Granville said, "We have spent four and a half years developing our PbC technology and the results continue to be impressive. We believe that our PbC technology offers the lowest end-user cost in the industry and we are now manufacturing PbC batteries, in small batches, in a 30-year-old legacy plant. We are preparing to install a first-generation automated electrode fabrication line, which should be operational in July. In June, we will be delivering 800 PbC batteries for a utility grid contract with Gaia and the New York State Energy Development Agency. Our manufactured PbC prototypes offer faster charge rates and longer cycle lives than comparable advanced lead-acid batteries and we believe we will be able to sell PbC batteries for a fraction of the cost of other battery technologies. At this point, we believe our biggest challenges will be increasing production and proving our technology in various demonstration applications."
Germany Fertile Ground for Automotive Battery Manufacturers
Automotive batteries is one of the major topics in the global auto industry. This is because energy storage is crucial in developing low emission powertrains using hybrid or fully electric technologies. According to the consultancy Advanced Auto Batteries, global growth in automotive batteries has increased more than ten-fold over the last six years and the global market will likely approach $1.4 billion by 2010 and $2 billion by 2013. Growth in hybrids is especially strong in Germany, where registrations increased 44 percent in 2007.
Major German automakers are working to develop new battery-powered drivetrains for which a reliable and long-lasting means of storing energy is essential. German OEMs are scheduled to release nine initial hybrid model series by 2010. These manufacturers encompass major players such as Daimler, BMW, Porsche, Audi, Volkswagen and Opel.
Daimler holds 25 patents in lithium-ion battery technologies and is planning to integrate such batteries into its hybrid S-class Mercedes models by 2009. The supplier Continental is serving as Daimler's system integrator and battery supplier.
The German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA) has recently launched a joint initiative among all the participating branches of industry, research institutes and the BMBF to develop industry standards and a common base for future research in alternative storage systems. Opportunities exist for foreign investors to establish their own facilities in Germany, partner with German OEMs or suppliers, and apply for research funding.
EnerDel Receives Positive Results in Independent Tests on Company's Lithium-Ion Automotive Battery System
EnerDel, the automotive battery systems subsidiary of alternative energy company Ener1, Inc. has released confirmation by a US government laboratory of the energy, power and efficiency, as well as thermal performance, of the company's lithium-ion automotive battery system.
The tests were conducted by the Center for Transportation Research of Illinois-based Argonne National Laboratory. For the purposes of the tests, EnerDel integrated its battery system into a Toyota Prius hybrid electric vehicle (HEV), which comes factory fitted with a nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) battery system. It is important to note that, for purposes of the test, no material modifications were made to the Prius other than the integration of the battery system. Based on the testing with the lithium-titanate battery, in a Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV) configuration, EnerDel was able to achieve 77.41 MPG over a Federal urban drive cycle. Argonne ran a standard PHEV test on the Toyota Prius HEV to establish an approximation of future performance of the vehicle in a PHEV configuration. In the future, the size of the battery as well as an extension of the electric range could be increased to improve miles per gallon fuel economy.
The EnerDel battery pack, which is based on the company's lithium-titanate chemistry, avoided overheating during the test, which is a principal concern with lithium-ion batteries. The 1,000-watt-hour pack required no external cooling system when powering the test vehicle on the dynamometer, which could lead to a reduction of costs and an increase in the car's available space compared to its NiMH battery system.
Previously Idaho National Labs had confirmed, in cell testing, that an EnerDel system could produce approximately twice as much usable energy as the Prius' NiMH battery pack. As a result, the EnerDel battery can be reduced to about half the size and half the weight of a NiMH battery with the same power performance. Moreover, EnerDel expects its pack to cost significantly less than a NiMH battery with similar performance characteristics.
Internal testing conducted by EnerDel indicates that the EnerDel battery also produces approximately twice as much power (90 kW) as a NiMH system of equivalent size and weight, which allows for better acceleration and improved driving experience. Operating in the test Prius the test results showed that there was a 67 percent reduction in internal resistance which means that more charge is delivered to and from the battery, increasing range and reducing heat and wasted energy. |
