Advancements in Dry Process Electrodes
LICAP reveals anode and cathode progress.
The battery industry seeks to reduce the use of hazardous solvents in the electrode production process. Earlier this year I wrote a deep dive article on dry process electrodes and their benefits in future electrode manufacturing.
Maxwell/Tesla could be considered one of the leaders as they shared a brief video on the process during Battery Day 2020. The calendering process is effectively mixing, softening, and pressing the materials and components all into one desired uniform film.
Recently, a representative from LICAP Technologies shared a nice update on the progress developing a dry process electrode.
The accomplishments on both the anode and cathode film production are promising and a great accomplishment.
The obvious question is.. how do these electrodes perform in a wet cell? How are the conductive networks compared to conventional wet slurry prepared electrodes? I would speculate that 2022 could be a reasonable timeline to expect some data related to comparative performance.
LICAP is one of many companies and institutions that are working on dry process electrodes. For example, AM Batteries and Fraunhofer are a couple of others that have had recent announcements.
AM Batteries
This Boston, MA based seed stage additive manufacturing company received a recent investment from TDK ventures. Their core technology applies various levels of expertise and applies it to enable mass manufacturable dry-electrode technology. The Co-founder and CEO, Yan Wang, states “Our technology is extremely innovative and outside the box.”
TDK Ventures President, Nicolas Sauvage, states that their three-step electro-spraying system can be used in the existing process flow of Li-ion manufacturing and puts them at the forefront of the industry.
AM Batteries also accepted investments from companies such as SAIC (Tier I manufacturer), VinFast (Vietnamese EV OEM), and others.
LICAP Technologies
LICAP, led by the Co-Founder, Linda Zhong has 20+ years of industry experience and is credited with scaling the solvent-free manufacturing process for ultracapacitor electrodes.
The company does not disclose much detail pertaining to their process on their website, but a patent search does tie her to various filings with Maxwell Technologies. Most recently there are patents granted to LICAP in 2020 and 2021, so there is clearly some differentiation from her earliest work.
Fraunhofer
Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft is a German research institution that focuses on various fields in applied science and engineering. Their DRYtraec® system was developed as part of a “DryProTex” funding project that appears to have started around 2018.
A report from electrive shares some interesting details on the dry electrode process.
The process uses a “special binder”. This would likely be different from the popular PVDF, which is typically used in the cathode production process.
Materials are placed into a calendering machine where one roller rotates faster than the others. A shear force is generated so that the binder forms fibrils that can enable a “spider web” or bound network. A film is then deposited on the faster rotating roller.
The process can be applied to traditional Li-ion as well as Li-S and Na-ion. The Institute also shared that talks are underway with several car and cell manufacturers to plan for pilot scale-up.
The Road to More Sustainable Production
The removal of solvent from the production process results in less material use and consolidates manufacturing space. There would be no need for solvent holding tanks and/or a solvent recycling process. These efficiencies would contribute to safer and lower cost production, which is something everyone would support.
At the moment, the industry faces challenges around the dry coating process, because it has not been approved for mass production. The wet slurry production process is well-known and will most likely be replicated at plants in developmental plants throughout the world. The supply demand crunch is pressuring companies to scale as quickly as possible, so will executives be willing to take the risk on a new production process?
Time will tell.
Further Reading
Suggested on AM Batteries Technology Page