meeting report
9th International Automotive Battery & EC Capacitor Conference
Long Beach, California
June 10-12, 2009
- and
- Center for Applied Energy Research
- University of Kentucky
The 9th International Advanced Automotive Battery & EC Capacitor Conference (AABC-09) and the 5th International Symposia on Large Lithium Ion Battery Technology and Application (LLIBTA-09) and Large EC Capacitor Technology and Application (ECCAP-09) organized by Dr. Menahem Anderman was held at the Long Beach Convention Center. The week-long event was attended by more than 830 delegates from 25 countries.
The AABC-09 conference included five sessions on a variety of topics: market development of HEVs and their batteries, NiMH status and Li-ion battery promise for mild, moderate, and strong hybrids, energy-storage solutions for micro-hybrids, plug-in hybrid vehicles and their prospective batteries, battery pack design and integration into light heavy duty hybrids, revival of electric vehicles and the batteries that will power them, and logistics of vehicle electrification: charging, grid, integration, and environmental impact. The conference also included 43 poster papers ranging from Li-ion cell design and manufacturing to Li-ion battery management and electrochemical capacitors.
Electric, Plug-in, and Hybrid Vehicles: Demonstration, Niche Markets, and Mass Markets
Menahem Anderman, president of Advanced Automotive Batteries gave a talk on electric, plug-in, and hybrid vehicles: demonstration, niche markets, and mass markets. He showed that since 2000 the hybrid-vehicle sales have increased tremendously in the U.S. compared to the rest of the world. The HEV market for strong hybrids has increased since 2000 compared to the total mild and moderate hybrids. The energy solutions for different kinds of hybrids were projected for 2010 and 2014, for example, micro hybrids 2 would have VRLA-UCAP and strong hybrids would have NiMH-Li-ion by 2014.
The history of Lithium-ion in automotive was discussed. Nissan used Li-ion batteries developed by Hitachi from 1999-2002 followed by Toyota's Vitz micro HEV in 2003 which used a 15Ah battery developed by Toyota. However, the vehicles manufactured were less than 600 per year.. Li-ion is coming to automotive programs through 2010.
Some of the Li-ion battery challenges were discussed, including technical choices such as cathode selection, packaging, battery management and cooling, manufacturing, life and reliability, safety, and cost. Manufacturing challenges include making long thin electrodes for power needs and conservative product engineering and manufacturing to ensure safety, yield and reliability. These translate to high manufacturing costs. The Li-ion battery end of life can be reached due to loss of negative charge reserve, impedance, soft shorts, capacity loss and swelling. Finally, although the power and energy densities of Li-ion batteries are higher than those of NiMH by 20% to 80%, the investment cost per kWh and per kW and the battery management cost per pack are much higher than for NiMH. Li-ion is a preferred battery for a problematic market.
The challenges of EVs for a mainstream vehicle were discussed: range, charging time, battery cost, battery life, battery reliability and safety, verification time, cost at low volume/transition, and charging infrastructure.
Hybrid Vehicle Forecast Based On User Preference — Nomura Research Institute
This talk was given by Yukio Shigeta of the Global Strategy Consulting 1, Nomura Research Institute, Ltd. It was projected that the HEV market will be 12 million in 2020 with mild hybrids showing good promise of growth because of good balance between cost and benefit. In emerging countries, light EVs were projected to dominate transportation.
U.S. Consumer Attitudes Toward Hybrids and Other Advanced Powertrain Technologies
Scott Miller, chief executive officer of Synovate Motoresearch spoke on consumer adoption of hybrids' progress in the near future, impact of cost/value proposition on adoption, risks and barriers to adoption, and the role of industry in controlling its own fate. Although the consumers want to purchase hybrids, they are unwilling to assume the degree of risk currently required. Modest volumes of hybrids are expected until industry and government are aligned to address those risks. The suppliers and manufacturers face significant risks due to these modest volumes and uncertainties which would prohibit industry from evolving further in this field.
Lithium, Lithium Everywhere, But Who Can Make it Economical?
Ted J. Miller of Ford spoke on Lithium meal supply and demand. Some of the key requirements of HEVs, PHEVs, and EVs were discussed. HEVs require high specific power of > 2000 W/kg, -30C cranking capability, extremely high shallow cycle life, high power energy ratio of 20:1 and cost of $20/kW. PHEVs (such as the Ford Escape plug-in hybrid) require a high energy power battery, full power over a wide range of temperature, both high, deep and shallow cycle life, abuse tolerance, a power/energy ratio of 5:1 and a cost of $1000/kWh. The EVs require high energy density, high deep discharge cycle life, power/energy ratios of 2:1 and cost of $600/kWh.
The Li-ion automotive cell, energy, and Lithium demands have been projected to increase in the next 5-10 years. South America supplies 73% of the world's Lithium, 57% from Chile and 16% from Argentina. There is an abundant reserve of Lithium for hybrid electric vehicles. Lithium for Li-ion batteries is produced as lithium carbonate.
Energy Storage for Hyundai's Hybrid Vehicles
Jinho Park of Hyundai Kia Motors R&D Center spoke on the development of Hyundai's hybrid vehicles, namely 09MY LPI Elantra HEV. A Li-ion polymer battery has been recommended for use in Hyundai's HEV due to high energy and power densities of Lithium, low polarization, no memory effect, low heat generation and low self-discharge. Some of the challenges of using a Li-ion polymer battery include safety, durability and reliability. The safety is monitored from cell to vehicle level.
Implementation of Lithium-Ion Battery System for FCX Clarity
Ryan Harty of Honda R&D Americas, Inc. elaborated on Li-ion battery system for FCX Clarity which features high power and energy in a small lightweight body, no rapid performance decline when temperature and SOC are set within an appropriate range, air cooling system to keep battery temperature stable, and good environmental resistance to enable installation outside the cabin.
Next Generation Automotive Class Prismatic Cells and Systems
Andy Chu of A123 systems spoke on nanophosphate Lithium-ion technology for automotive applications. Nanophosphate has attractive features, such as high energy (140Wh/kg) and power densities, good efficiency, excellent safety and durability, and low cost. Nanophosphate has other advantages such as lower impedance, widest range of SOC swing, minimal power fade over time and highest power at low SOC. Customer benefits include minimal over-sizing of packs, and fewer cells leading to lower cost, lighter weight, smaller size packs and stiff system voltage.
Micro-Hybrid Development for European Markets
This talk was given by Eckhard Karden, Serve Ploumen, and Engbert Spijker of Ford Research & Advanced Engineering Europe. Microhybrids would be a part of all European carmakers' CO2 road maps and will get high market share. As far as the energy storage system, battery monitoring would enable shallow cycling at partial SOC. Single improved flooded battery would minimize cost. Additional battery or supercapacitor may be chosen to ensure voltage quality and/or maximize regenerative braking benefit.
The European SLI Battery Market Past, Present and Future
Dr. G. Fraser-Bell of RSR Corporation spoke on the European SLI battery market. Micro 1 and 2 HEV conversions to AGM/VRLA started in 2007 driven by the European Union legislation and up to 70% of EU27 car OEM are expected to be converted by 2013. This conversion would have a far greater impact than mild/full HEV. The demand for AGM/VRLA SLI batteries are expected to grow from 1.8m in 2008 to ~ 5.3m in 2013. The European battery producers may need to have three lead acid SLI battery variants to stay viable from 2013.
Development of the Flooded-Type Ultrabattery and Battery Sensor for Micro-HEV Applications
J. Furukawa of The Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd., Japan, talked about the development of the flooded-type ultraBattery for micro-HEV applications. This type battery combines an asymmetric capacitor and a Pb-PbO2 battery. The positive electrode consists of PO2 , half of the negative electrode is Pb (for energy) and the other half a capacitor electrode (for pulse power). The ultraBattery has shown improvement in the cycle life compared to a conventional battery. The durability of the flooded-type ultraBattery under high temperature overcharged condition is comparable to the ISS battery. The development of the battery sensor for micro-HEV applications was also discussed.
Advanced Automotive Ultracapacitor Technology to Reduce CO2 Emissions
This talk was given by Frederic Tertrais of Batscap. Batscap has developed high performance and low-cost ultracapacitor technology with unique high power, cycle time and safety properties. Batscap has invested in a first industrial scale production facility in France, with an annual production capability of 1 million cells. Batscap has partnered with industry leaders in automotive, bus and tramway areas with large series production under way.
The impressive power performance of Saft's military Li-ion battery modules was presented by Bridget Deveney. Impressive discharge data was shown for Saft's VL34P module at -50C with 68% of the module energy retained compared to operation under ambient conditions. Pulse performance for a Saft VL5U Li-ion module was also demonstrated, achieving 30 kW/kg, 200 ms @ 4000A. Longer pulse cycle life was achieved for the VL5U resulting from the negative electrode designed for power.
Professor Naoi, Institute of Symbiotic Science and Technology, and Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology gave an interesting presentation on the limits to cell operating voltages for electrochemical capacitors. Professor Naoi discussed that one should take the residual or unremoved water in the activated carbon electrodes into consideration. In an experiment where the carbon electrodes were placed in separator vessels and float tested for 50 hours at an applied 4.0V, water released from the positive (300 ppm) and negative (2 ppm) electrode. Gas generated at the positive and negative electrodes as a function of applied voltages ranging from 2.5 to 4.0V was also conducted. Morphological changes at the surface of the positive and negative electrodes during the various applied voltages also showed the formation of resistive films of both electrodes.
Professor Frackowiak, Pozanan University of Technology presented recent results on the pseudocapacitive behavior of carbon in the presence of aqueous iodide electrolytes. Specific capacitance exceeding 1840 F/g was obtained for carbon electrodes containing KI and other iodide salts. The pseudo-capacitance was also confirmed to maintain its stability over 10,000 cycles.
2010 AABC and Symposia
The 10th International Advanced Automotive Battery and EC Capacitor Conference (AABC-10), the 6th International Symposia on Large Lithium-Ion Battery Technology and Application (LLIBTA-10) and Large EC Capacitor Technology and Application (ECCAP-10) will be held May 17-21, 2010 at the Omni Orlando Convention Resort at Champions Gate in Orlando, Florida.
