3 Battery Technologies That Could Power The Future
The world needs more clean and renewable power. Currently, there are energy storage options that are made up of lithium-ion batteries that offer cutting-edge technology. However, there are better things in the horizon and newer and better options too, just start by looking at UPS Battery Shop.
New Generation Lithium-Ion
What Is It?
With Lithium-ion batteries, the release and storage of energy depend on the movement of lithium ions that move to the negative electrodes from the positive ones and back through the electrolyte. With this technology, the positive electrode is the initial source of lithium while the negative electrode is the host for lithium. Actually, several chemistries are gathered under Li-ion batteries as the result of years of selection and optimization to come close to the perfection of both negative and positive active materials.
The lithiated metal oxides as well phosphates are commonly used as the positive materials in the battery. Graphite and silicon as well as lithiated titanium oxides are also used as negative materials. Li-ion technology has actual materials and outstanding cell designs so it’s expected to reach an acceptable energy limit in the next few years. However, there are recent discoveries of disruptive active materials that should unlock newer limits.
These innovative compounds should be able to store more lithium in positive and negative electrodes. As such, they will allow combining energy and power for the first time. With these new compounds, criticality and scarcity of raw materials have also been considered.
What Are The Advantages?
Among the various state-of-the-art storage technologies available today, Li-ion battery provides the highest level of energy density. Performances such as fast charge or the temperature operating window of -50 to 125 degrees Celsius can be transformed by the numerous choices of cell design and chemistries. Li-ion batteries also display other advantages such as low self-discharge and long lifetime or cycling performances. As such, it has a lot of charging and discharging cycles.
Lithium-Sulfur
With Li-ion batteries, the lithium ions are usually stored in active materials where they act as stable host structures during the charge or discharge cycle. With lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries, there are no host structures present. When discharging the lithium anode is usually consumed and the sulfur is instantly transformed into various chemical compounds during charging then the reverse process takes place.
What Are The Advantages?
A Li-S battery uses very light active materials with metallic lithium found in the negative electrode while the positive electrode contains sulfur. As such, the theoretical energy density is very high, actually 4 times greater than that of Li-ion batteries. Therefore, it’s a great fit for the aviation and space industries.
Solid-state
Solid-state batteries are offering a paradigm shift in technology. With modern Li-ion batteries, the ions move from one electrode to the other across the liquid electrolyte. It is also referred to as iconic conductivity. In all the solid-state batteries, the liquid electrolyte will be replaced by a solid compound that allows lithium ions to migrate within it. It’s not an entirely new concept.
However, for the last 10 years, thanks to intensive global research, new families of solid electrolytes have been identified that offer high iconic conductivity. The process is similar to liquid electrolyte so the technological barrier has been overcome effortlessly. Currently, Saft R&D efforts are focusing on the 2 main types of material which are inorganic compounds and polymers. Therefore, they focus on the synergy of the physicochemical properties such as conductivity, stability and processability.
What Are The Advantages?
One of the unique advantages is the improvement in safety at battery and cell levels. The Solid electrolytes don’t ignite when heated, unlike the liquid options. Secondly, it uses innovative and high-voltage as well as high-capacity materials. Therefore, it allows denser and lighter batteries with better shelf-life as a result of the reduced self-discharge. Note that, at the system level, it brings about additional advantages such as simplified mechanics, thermal and safety management.