International project to improve the lifetime of batteries
∙ The work, which employs neutron techniques, will allow advanced lead-acid batteries to continue to innovate to meet the future technical requirements of these systems.
∙ Research like this reinforces Aragon’s role in this field related to energy storage.
∙ The study involves, in addition to the Instituto de Nanociencia y Materiales de Aragón (CSIC- University of Zaragoza), the multinational battery company Exide Technologies and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST, USA) and is funded by the Consortium for Battery Innovation (CBI), an international business group.
Zaragoza, 18 March 2021 – The Instituto de Nanociencia y Materiales de Aragón (INMA) is leading a research project that seeks to improve the useful life of energy storage batteries using neutron scattering techniques. Thanks to these techniques, it is possible to visualise the crystalline structure of the battery during its operation, which is a major breakthrough as it allows the study and control of the processes that affect the life and performance of the battery. The project aims to ensure that advanced lead-acid batteries continue to innovate to meet future technical requirements for these systems.
The initiative comes from the Consortium for Battery Innovation (CBI), in a context in which the demand for clean energy storage continues to increase worldwide and the European Union aims to become the world leader in the development of new technologies and the manufacture of sustainable batteries. Thus, the CBI provides funding for a project that is being carried out thanks to a collaboration between INMA – a joint research institute between the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), the largest public research organisation in Spain and the third largest in Europe, and the University of Zaragoza – with the R&D centres of the battery multinational Exide Technologies in Azuqueca de Henares (Guadalajara) and Büdingen (Germany) and with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), one of the most prestigious large laboratories in the United States.
Battery energy storage is one of the key technologies to reduce carbon emissions in the battle to stop climate change. In fact, demand for this technology is expected to grow to 20,000 MWh by 2025. Today’s advanced lead-acid batteries are a key part of this problem, for which Europe has leading manufacturing, recycling and research capacity.
During the course of the research, the fundamental processes governing recharge efficiency and battery failure will be studied using a set of neutron beam experiments. Neutron tomography will be used to study batteries in operation at different duty cycles through a specific focus on the battery electrodes, which transfer energy to and from the electrolyte to power the polarised device to which they are connected.
CBI director Alistair Davidson says the ability to probe the battery electrodes in real time, under typical energy storage duty cycles, “will provide vital information on how to improve overall battery performance and life”. Ángel Larrea, a CSIC researcher on the INMA project, points out that neutron tomography will allow activity to be mapped at a microscopic level across the entire volume of the battery. “This will provide a complete picture of how the battery electrodes evolve, something that has never been done before in lead-acid battery research,” he adds.
The results of the project are expected to clarify the phenomena occurring at the electrodes, key elements in battery life, thereby generating new information on how to control the active material and maximise the lifetime of advanced lead-acid batteries in all applications, a key objective in the Consortium for Battery Innovation’s technical roadmap.
1. Noticia del CBI y vídeo producido el año pasado:
https://batteryinnovation.org/pioneering-techniques-deliver-new-insights-into-advanced-lead-batteries/
2.- Noticia del CBI y vídeo producido este mes:
https://batteryinnovation.org/scientists-collaborate-to-study-advanced-batteries-using-neutron-diffraction/
3.- Enlace reciente a otra fuente internacional que se hizo eco de la noticia del CBI:
https://batteryindustry.tech/beamline-meets-battery-scientists-collaborate-to-study-advanced-batteries-using neutron-diffraction/
About INMA
The Instituto de Nanociencia y Materiales de Aragón (INMA) is a research institute created in 2020 by an agreement between the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) and the University of Zaragoza (UNIZAR) as a Joint Institute dependent on both institutions, as a result of the merger of the Institute of Materials Science of Aragon, ICMA (founded in 1985, the first research institute of the University of Zaragoza (UNIZAR) and the first Materials Science Institute of the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)) and the Instituto de Nanociencia y Materiales de Aragón, INA, (founded in 2003 by UNIZAR, which houses a unique set of instruments for the characterisation and fabrication of materials at the molecular scale). With around 300 members, INMA is organised into 6 research areas: materials for energy and the environment, materials for biomedicine, materials for information technologies, new phenomena at the nanoscale, synthesis, processing and scaling of functional materials and unique experimental technologies. INMA has extensive experience in the participation and management of national and international research projects (more than 30 ongoing EU projects) and works in close collaboration with industry through private contracts. In fact, INMA and Exide researchers have been working together since 2015 to improve the efficiency of the charge-discharge cycles of batteries in order to extend their lifetime.
Photo: NG6 instrument for cold neutron imaging of the project to improve the quality of life of batteries developed by the INMA.
19/03/2021
