For fourth-year student Jonathan Smith, coming to Penn State was a no-brainer. His parents attended Penn State Harrisburg, and he lived in the Berks County area, so he knew early on where he wanted to continue his education.As for his major, though, the path he followed took him by surprise, he said. In his first year at Penn State Berks, he took an engineering class that would shift his priorities — and launch a startup that has given him clear goals for a future in architectural engineering.&nbsp;“At the end of the semester, there was a competition for sustainable energy charging. So my team pitched an idea to put solar panels on the side of a building, and it powered an electric-vehicle charging station,” Smith said. “We didn’t win that competition, but the four of us continued working on the idea as an independent study.”&nbsp;The team went back to the drawing board and focused on research. They started talking to electric vehicle customers through a program focused on customer discovery, Smith said, and the input they collected helped them to rework their ideas for charging ports.&nbsp;“We did a satisfaction survey, and everyone who could charge at home was extremely satisfied,” Smith said. “But in apartment buildings, 60% of people were satisfied, because they're always butting heads with their neighbor for charging stations or they had to charge on their way to work. It’s just a complete headache.”&nbsp;<aside data-testid="quote-inline"><blockquote>“We hope we give people, the business owners and the apartment complex owners, something that’s feasible to install. They see the financial payback, and people can charge the car quickly at home.”- Jonathan Smith,&nbsp;Penn State student, Streamline Charging CEO</blockquote></aside>Current charging stations can cost as much as $8,000 to install, according to Smith, but they have a limited reach. Codes and regulations restrict their charging cables to 25 feet in length, which means they can only service one or two parking spaces each. In buildings like apartment complexes, that limits the number of people and spaces that can use the stations.&nbsp;Smith and his team used their research to create a possible solution: smaller, mounted charging stations, which can slide on a mount to cover as many as five parking spaces. The installation process could be cheaper, he said, and less disruptive for the property.&nbsp;“We hope we give people, the business owners and the apartment complex owners, something that’s feasible to install,” Smith said. “They see the financial payback, and people can charge the car quickly at home. I think would be really cool.”&nbsp;<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1729896046692-24-10-3-originlab-jon-portrait.jpg" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Jonathan Smith and his team at Streamline Charging LLC are working to create an electric vehicle charger that provides more flexibility on a smaller budget with support from Penn State. Credit: Patrick Mansell / Penn State.As they’ve reworked the proposal, Smith and his team have found significantly more success. During the spring 2024 semester, they won $5,000 from a competition that will go toward building the first prototype model. The team has grown from the original four-person crew to anywhere from 10-15 people depending on the semester and what they need to accomplish.&nbsp;Their startup, Streamline Charging, also has won about $45,000 in funding from national grants, Smith said. The LLC was <a href="https://www.psu.edu/news/invent-penn-state/story/six-student-startups-compete-30000-incu-competition/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">a finalist in the 2024 Inc.U Competition</a> from Invent Penn State, <a href="https://www.psu.edu/news/berks/story/student-team-developing-ev-charging-stations-receives-awards-and-recognition/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">winning $10,000</a>. It also <a href="https://www.psu.edu/news/berks/story/penn-state-berks-students-receive-student-enterprise-award-funding/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">received additional financial support</a> from the Flemming Creativity, Entrepreneurship, and Economic Development (CEED) Center earlier this year through the Student Enterprise Awards, and were part of the <a href="https://www.psu.edu/news/berks/story/penn-state-berks-student-startup-received-venturewell-e-team-program-grant/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">2023 summer cohort of VentureWell Accelerator E-Team program</a>.&nbsp;Smith serves as CEO for the company, and the experience has opened up options for his future as he starts looking beyond graduation. The financial opportunities through Invent Penn State, alongside <a href="https://www.psu.edu/news/berks/story/berks-student-team-developing-ev-charging-stations-receives-national-recognition/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Happy Valley LaunchBox programs like the Fast Track Accelerator</a>, have been instrumental in the company’s success, he said.&nbsp;“We’ve had so many professors and people to help us and coach us along the way,” Smith said. “I knew we wanted to make this a business, but we had no idea how to do that. Without LaunchBox, without support from Penn State Berks, we never would have been able to get as far as we have. It’s really exciting that Penn State was able to foster that.”&nbsp;Smith said a prototype is set up at Penn State Berks, and the company is working to install the first fully market-ready version in State College to show appreciation for the support they’ve gotten at the University.&nbsp;That support also includes guidance from Berks professor Kathy Hauser, who ran the first engineering course where Smith first started to develop this idea. Hauser has continued to mentor the team through independent study courses, helping them to implement their ideas.&nbsp;The project was a learning experience for the students, Hauser said, showing them how to navigate real-world business needs and hurdles. But it’s also been a chance for her to learn and try new strategies for her classes.&nbsp;“This project started out almost as an experiment,” Hauser said. “It was this weird kind of thing because it wasn't undergraduate research. It was a chance to expand upon a project with first-year students who really don't have engineering backgrounds.”&nbsp;Typically, Hauser works with third- and fourth-year students to form teams for competitions and business concepts. Because these students are in the midst of wrapping up their academic degrees, they don’t have as many opportunities to hone their idea and pitch.&nbsp;“So we wondered if it was possible to put a team of freshman together and let them explore their own projects, then enter competitions as juniors with a developed idea,” Hauser said.&nbsp;Hauser used her entry-level engineering course, EDSGN 100, as a chance to find teams of first-year students and figure out those ideas. During Smith’s time in the class, there was a specific task to address. A sponsor wanted teams to develop a charging station specifically for Penn State Berks.&nbsp;<aside data-testid="quote-inline"><blockquote>“The reality of it is, if you come up with something, Penn State will help you do it right. Penn State can be very supportive.”- Kathy Hauser,&nbsp;professor, Penn State Berks</blockquote></aside>But Hauser said Smith and his team ended up pursuing their own ideas outside those parameters. They looked at the automotive industry and data connected to the rollout of electric vehicles to determine what was working and what wasn’t, with a broader focus than just designing something that would work at their campus. Hauser gave them the space to pursue that, instead.&nbsp;“That was what we then shifted to, very early in the semester,” Hauser said. “I said, ‘The reality of it is, if you come up with something, Penn State will help you do it right. Penn State can be very supportive.’”&nbsp;Hauser has continued to guide Smith and his team through five semesters of developing and refining an idea that excites them — the movable charging station they’re now working to assemble. The team has changed over time as students dropped out or joined up with the project, Hauser said, but the project hasn’t lost steam.&nbsp;“I teach freshmen, predominantly, and I generally only see them that first year. The only ones I really get to know are my advisees,” Hauser said. “It's been entirely different to continue with these students over three years and really get to know them on a much more personal basis. That's been really fun.”&nbsp;The goal, she said, has always been to give Smith and his team the kind of valuable experience that would serve them well in the future. But the success of the Streamline Charging project has been incredible, she said.&nbsp;“If you want to get an internship by your second year, this was a good class to take. That's all I wanted. Anything else that comes out of it is just kind of the icing on the cake,” Hauser said. “But this team has had a lot of icing on their cake.”&nbsp;Hauser has had other cohorts and teams that came together after Smith’s group, but they haven’t been able to propel a project to the same heights — whether because it didn’t align with their majors or because they didn’t have enough time to commit to it. A new group now has potential, and she’s hoping that Smith’s team has created a path that other teams can start to follow to success.&nbsp;“When you see them latch onto what you taught them or get excited about what you're passionate about, you're really proud of those moments,” Hauser said. “This is why I like teaching. It's knowing that you can make a difference and that those things will have a lasting impact.”&nbsp;<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1729896089008-24-10-3-originlab_jon-0001.jpg" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Lead Product Engineer Marcelo DeLeon, left, in OriginLabs with Jonathan Smith. The two are working together as Smith's company, Streamline Charging, prepares to install its first electric vehicle charger in State College.&nbsp;Credit: Patrick Mansell / Penn State.Through Hauser’s guidance, Smith said, he’s been able to build his idea into something that might become a long-term plan for himself. He’s also had the chance to connect with other Penn Staters willing to help him along the way.&nbsp;“In architectural engineering, we have a huge alumni network. That's where I met a lot of the people who have talked with us about growing this into something more,” Smith said. “We have so many people that really want to see us succeed.”&nbsp;Penn State also has assisted with patents and licensing, Smith said, offering students a chance for real benefit from the work they do.&nbsp;“Right now, I'm trying to talk to manufacturers to build the final station. We can look to raise more money soon and, when I graduate, I might be able to work on this full time,” Smith said. “Honestly, it's so much fun. I have an opportunity to decide for myself what to do with my career and my ideas.”&nbsp;

Streamline Charging is preparing to install its charging station in State College. CEO and Penn State student Jonathan Smith works on the parts for the chargers in OriginLabs on Burrowes Street, where he can benefit from support from Penn State. Credit: Patrick Mansell / Penn State.

Penn State student Jonathan Smith works with team to create potential solutions for accessible EV charging

Building a flexible and affordable electric-vehicle charging station

In this episode, we explore a groundbreaking smart charger that could significantly boost the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) by revolutionizing charging infrastructure, making EVs more accessible and sustainable for the future of transportation.

Podcast: This Smart Charger, More EVs

This article was discussed in our <a href="https://www.wevolver.com/profile/the.next.byte" rel="noopener noreferrer">Next Byte podcast</a>.&nbsp;<iframe height="200px" width="100%" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" seamless="" src="https://player.simplecast.com/0c6e89ec-2577-48b1-81ca-2b54787cba8e?dark=false" class="fr-draggable" data-lf-form-tracking-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-yt-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-vimeo-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true"></iframe> The full article will continue below.<hr>In 2024, more than one in five cars sold is an electric vehicle (EV). Intergovernmental agencies estimate that by 2035, <a href="https://www.iea.org/reports/global-ev-outlook-2024/outlook-for-electric-mobility" target="_blank" data-entity-type="node" data-entity-uuid="df17f5fe-cbc3-4e3c-86ce-928e3a540089" data-entity-substitution="canonical">half of all new cars sold globally will be EVs</a>.&nbsp;While more EVs on the road sounds like great news for the environment, it could lead to complications. The electric grid is not yet ready to support the EV influx, and unaddressed capacity limitations could threaten the future of the EV industry.&nbsp;<img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNzI5MDM4NTYxNjgxLWV2LWZlYXR1cmUtMS5qcGciLCJlZGl0cyI6eyJyZXNpemUiOnsid2lkdGgiOjk1MCwiZml0IjoiY292ZXIifX19" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">David Taylor, professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE); Kartik Sastry, a recent ECE Ph.D. graduate; and Michael Leamy, Woodruff Professor and director of Graduate Studies in the School of Mechanical Engineering.Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a device to help avoid grid overload: a revolutionary EV smart-charging system.&nbsp;Their optimization-based approach would not only help reduce grid stress but also enable users to customize the charging process and minimize cost, prioritize the use of carbon-free energy, or adjust the charging speed. The technology might even help promote the EV industry.&nbsp;“The EV revolution is happening so quickly that electrical utilities will find it difficult and costly to update the grid fast enough to accommodate these vehicles,” said <a href="https://research.gatech.edu/node/36005" data-entity-type="node" data-entity-uuid="df17f5fe-cbc3-4e3c-86ce-928e3a540089" data-entity-substitution="canonical">Michael J. Leamy</a>, Woodruff Professor and director of Graduate Studies in the <a href="https://www.me.gatech.edu/">George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering</a>. “We wanted to investigate a way of smart charging that considers EVs as they converge on the electric grid, which we already know is near its maximum capacity. We need to buy time for the grid operators so they aren’t overwhelmed when more EVs enter the market.”<h2 id="isPasted">Taking a Load Off (the Grid)</h2>In the southeastern U.S., during the summertime, power use peaks from late afternoon to early evening. By then, the heat of the sun has warmed up homes and buildings, and people have cranked up their air conditioners. This is also when most people come home from work and plug in their EVs, which immediately start charging. When plugged in, an EV can easily be the most significant consumer of power in a home.<img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNzI5MDM4NTk2OTQ5LWV2LWZlYXR1cmUtMy5qcGciLCJlZGl0cyI6eyJyZXNpemUiOnsid2lkdGgiOjk1MCwiZml0IjoiY292ZXIifX19" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">The smart charger minimizes stress on the electric grid by using algorithms to distribute charging over time.“A bunch of EVs charging during the peak power load can be problematic for utilities, exacerbating electricity demand and overloading the grid,” said <a href="https://kartik.ece.gatech.edu/">Kartik Sastry</a>, a recent Ph.D. graduate in the <a href="https://ece.gatech.edu/">School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE)</a> and co-inventor of the technology. “But you don’t need to start charging as soon as you come home. In most cases, there’s ample time overnight to fully charge electric vehicles.”&nbsp;The team set out to address the issue of grid overload by taking advantage of overnight surplus charging time. They developed cutting-edge optimization algorithms to distribute charging over time, thereby minimizing grid stresses while offering benefits to consumers.&nbsp;Rather than charging at full speed as soon as an EV is plugged in, the team’s smart-charging algorithms allow for gradual charging, or charging at several intervals over time rather than all at once. The algorithms also decrease the maximum power draw of a home during charging, achieving what the researchers call “peak shaving.”&nbsp;The algorithm itself plans the charging and when it will occur, based on the state of the grid and consumer preferences. The system also makes these decisions without the need for any centralized control, and without communicating with other vehicles in the neighborhood or city.&nbsp;“By using random timing and predictions of household power usage, our algorithm can effectively distribute the load,” said <a href="https://research.gatech.edu/node/36240" data-entity-type="node" data-entity-uuid="8797f559-5d41-4aea-afa6-46ef49f0b6e2" data-entity-substitution="canonical">David G. Taylor</a>, ECE professor and co-inventor of the charging system. “This means that the number of EVs in a community can increase without the local utility incurring huge expenses for infrastructure upgrades, provided these EVs use the smart charging algorithm we've developed.”<img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNzI5MDM4NjUzNzM1LWltYWdlcyAoMSkuanBlZyIsImVkaXRzIjp7InJlc2l6ZSI6eyJ3aWR0aCI6OTUwLCJmaXQiOiJjb3ZlciJ9fX0=" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib"><h2 id="isPasted">Customizable Charging</h2>The system allows consumers to customize their charging. Using an app the team designed, a consumer can control four different facets of charging: cost, carbon-free energy, speed, and battery health. The app’s slider widgets allow a user to weigh their preferences for each; based on the user’s selections, the algorithm determines how best to charge the vehicle while minimizing grid impact.&nbsp;For example, to charge their vehicle quickly, a user would move the charging-speed slider all the way to the right. Prioritizing carbon-free charging, on the other hand, programs the charger to only charge the car when renewable resources such as wind or solar are available on the grid. Choosing to charge at the lowest cost would prompt the system to charge at low-demand times based on a utility’s price schedule, allowing the user to avoid any demand charges.<h2 id="isPasted">Driving Forward</h2><img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNzI5MDM4NjgwOTY5LWV2LWZlYXR1cmUtMi5qcGciLCJlZGl0cyI6eyJyZXNpemUiOnsid2lkdGgiOjk1MCwiZml0IjoiY292ZXIifX19" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">The team plans to demonstrate how their smart-charging algorithms can reduce costs for entire fleets of electric vehicles.The team has published several research articles about the project in major journals. They have also built prototype hardware, completed charging case studies with individual EVs, and submitted a patent for the technology.&nbsp;Expanding beyond the system’s applications for individual consumers, the team has also developed this technology to function in commercial settings. They hope to collaborate with an EV charging station company and a public school system that uses EV buses to demonstrate how their algorithms automatically reduce fleet charging costs.&nbsp;The goal, Leamy says, is for companies to license their smart-charging algorithm technology.The researchers are also reaching out to auto companies to have their technology incorporated into EVs themselves, which would allow users to set their charging preferences right from their dashboard.&nbsp;“We hope to demonstrate that smart charging is feasible on a large scale — and also measure the benefits of doing so,” Leamy said. “We plan to show how much money consumers, companies, and school systems can save with smart charging rather than simply charging in an ad hoc fashion.”“We anticipate a significant uptick in EV adoption, which will lead to higher demand on the grid,” Sastry said. “To protect the grid and help the EV industry thrive, we must accommodate these EVs in a smart way, and that’s what we hope to achieve.”

The EV smart charger allows users to customize their charging, with the ability to weight preferences for carbon-free energy, cost, charge speed, and battery health. Credit: Allison Carter

The revolutionary system allows for cheaper, carbon-free charging and aims to reduce the burden on the electric grid as more EVs enter the roadway.

New Smart Charger May Pave the Way for More EVs

A multi-institutional research team led by Georgia Tech’s <a href="https://www.mse.gatech.edu/people/hailong-chen" target="_blank">Hailong Chen</a> has developed a new, low-cost cathode that could radically improve lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) — potentially transforming the electric vehicle (EV) market and large-scale energy storage systems.&nbsp;“For a long time, people have been looking for a lower-cost, more sustainable alternative to existing cathode materials. I think we’ve got one,” said Chen, an associate professor with appointments in the George W. <a href="https://www.me.gatech.edu/" target="_blank">Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering</a> and the <a href="https://www.mse.gatech.edu/" target="_blank">School of Materials Science and Engineering</a>.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1728519667694-Zhantao+sly+smile+device.jpg" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Zhantao Liu with the new low-cost cathode that could revolutionize lithium-ion batteries and the EV industry. Photo by Jerry GrilloThe revolutionary material, iron chloride (FeCl3), costs a mere 1-2% of typical cathode materials and canstore the same amount of electricity. Cathode materials affect capacity,&nbsp;energy, and efficiency, playing a major role in a battery’s performance, lifespan, and affordability.“Our cathode can be a game-changer,” said Chen, whose team <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-024-01431-6" target="_blank">describes its work in Nature Sustainability</a>. “It would greatly improve the EV market — and the whole lithium-ion battery market.”First commercialized by Sony in the early 1990s, LIBs sparked an explosion in personal electronics, like smartphones and tablets. The technology eventually advanced to fuel electric vehicles, providing a reliable, rechargeable, high-density energy source. But unlike personal electronics, large-scale energy users like EVs are especially sensitive to the cost of LIBs.&nbsp;Batteries are currently responsible for about 50% of an EV’s total cost, which makes these clean-energy cars more expensive than their internal combustion, greenhouse-gas-spewing cousins. The Chen team’s invention could change that.<h2>Building a Better Battery</h2>Compared to old-fashioned alkaline and lead-acid batteries, LIBs store more energy in a smaller package and power a device longer between charges. But LIBs contain expensive metals, including semiprecious elements like cobalt and nickel, and they have a high manufacturing cost.&nbsp;So far, only four types of cathodes have been successfully commercialized for LIBs. Chen’s would be the fifth, and it would represent a big step forward in battery technology: the development of an all-solid-state LIB.Conventional LIBs use liquid electrolytes to transport lithium ions for storing and releasing energy. They have hard limits on how much energy can be stored, and they can leak and catch fire. But all-solid-state LIBs use solid electrolytes, dramatically boosting a battery’s efficiency and reliability and making it safer and capable of holding more energy. These batteries, still in the development and testing phase, would be a considerable improvement.&nbsp;As researchers and manufacturers across the planet race to make all-solid-state technology practical, Chen and his collaborators have developed an affordable and sustainable solution. With the FeCl3 cathode, a solid electrolyte, and a lithium metal anode, the cost of their whole battery system is 30-40% of current LIBs.&nbsp;“This could not only make EVs much cheaper than internal combustion cars, but it provides a new and promising form of large-scale energy storage, enhancing the resilience of the electrical grid,” Chen said. “In addition, our cathode would greatly improve the sustainability and supply chain stability of the EV market.”<h2>Solid Start to New Discovery</h2>Chen’s interest in FeCl3 as a cathode material originated with his lab’s research into solid electrolyte materials. Starting in 2019, his lab tried to make solid-state batteries using chloride-based solid electrolyteswith traditional commercial oxide-based cathodes. It didn’t go well — the cathode and electrolyte materials didn’t get along.&nbsp;The researchers thought&nbsp;a chloride-based cathode could provide a better pairing with the chloride electrolyte to offer better battery performance.“We found a candidate&nbsp;(FeCl3)&nbsp;worth trying, as its crystal structure is potentially suitable for storing and transporting Li ions, and fortunately, it functioned as we expected,” said Chen.Currently, the most popularly used cathodes in EVs&nbsp;are oxides and&nbsp;require a gigantic amount of costly nickel and cobalt, heavy elements that can be toxic and pose an environmental challenge. In contrast, the Chen team’s cathode contains&nbsp;only&nbsp;iron (Fe) and chlorine (Cl)—abundant, affordable, widely used elements found in steel and table salt.In their initial tests, FeCl3 was found to perform as well as or better than the other, much more expensive cathodes. For example, it has a higher operational voltage than the popularly used cathode LiFePO4 (lithium iron phosphate, or LFP), which is the electrical force a battery provides when connected to a device, similar to water pressure from a garden hose.&nbsp;This technology may be less than five years from commercial viability in EVs. For now, the team will continue investigating FeCl3 and related materials, according to Chen. The work was led by Chen and postdoc Zhantao Liu (the lead author of the study). Collaborators included researchers from Georgia Tech’s Woodruff School (Ting Zhu) and the <a href="https://eas.gatech.edu/home" target="_blank">School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences</a> (Yuanzhi Tang), as well as the <a href="https://www.ornl.gov/" target="_blank">Oak Ridge National Laboratory</a> (Jue Liu) and the <a href="https://uh.edu/" target="_blank">University of Houston</a> (Shuo Chen).“We want to make the materials as perfect as possible in the lab and understand the underlying functioning mechanisms,” Chen said. “But we are open to opportunities to scale up the technology and push it toward commercial applications.”CITATION: Zhantao Liu, Jue Liu, Simin Zhao, Sangni Xun, Paul Byaruhanga, Shuo Chen, Yuanzhi Tang, Ting Zhu, Hailong Chen. <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-024-01431-6" target="_blank">“Low-cost iron trichloride cathode for all-solid-state lithium-ion batteries.” Nature Sustainability</a>.

Hailong Chen and Zhantao Liu present a new, low-cost cathode for all-solid-state lithium-ion batteries. Photo by Jerry Grillo

A research team led by Georgia Tech’s Hailong Chen has developed a low-cost iron chloride cathode for lithium-ion batteries, which could significantly reduce costs and improve performance for electric vehicles and large-scale energy storage systems.

New Battery Cathode Material Could Revolutionize EV Market and Energy Storage

Batteries have become so integral to everyday life – powering everything from mobile devices to electric vehicles and renewable energy storage systems – that people often don’t even think about them. But our increasing reliance on batteries has made considerations like their sustainability and ability to hold charge in a range of environments and the ability to reliably source materials needed to produce them urgent considerations.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1728432344954-ezgif-4-fd42337716.jpg" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Peng Bai’s research group combines stable sodium metal plated in liquid electrolyte (left) with precisely engineered particles of sodium vanadium phosphate (right) to create safe and efficient sodium batteries. (Image credit: Peng Bai, Rajeev Gopal and Ethan Boutelle / WashU)<a href="https://engineering.washu.edu/faculty/Peng-Bai.html" target="_blank">Peng Bai</a>, associate professor of energy, environmental &amp; chemical engineering in the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, received a two-year, $550,000 Partnerships for Innovation – Technology Translation award from the National Science Foundation to support his work on sodium-based batteries. The award will allow Bai to expand his prior NSF-funded research to scale up and commercialize his sodium battery technology.&nbsp;Bai’s sodium-based batteries deliberately move away from lithium and other rare elements used in traditional batteries. Sodium, a more abundant and easier to process material, promises lower production costs and alleviated supply chain vulnerabilities, fostering a more sustainable and economically efficient energy landscape. Sodium-based batteries may also offer enhanced fast-charging capabilities and improved operation in cold environments, expanding their potential application in large-scale energy storage and portable electronics, including electric vehicles.The project, “<a href="https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2431923" target="_blank">Development of high-performance long-life electrodes for sustainable sodium-based batteries</a>,” has three main goals: ensuring consistency in larger production batches, developing greener manufacturing processes using water instead of toxic solvents, and optimizing production processes at a commercial scale. These advancements would pave the way for sodium-based batteries to make their way into everyday technologies within five years, Bai says.

Peng Bai will work toward sustainable and efficient energy storage technology

Beyond lithium: Sodium-based batteries may power the future

The evolution of electrical grids into "smart grids" represents a transformative leap in how electricity is distributed and managed, paving the way for a more efficient, resilient, and sustainable energy future. At its core, a smart grid integrates advanced digital technologies, such as power and current sensors, smart meters, and automated controls, to facilitate two-way communication between utility providers and customers. This allows for real-time monitoring and management of energy flows, enhancing the efficiency and reliability of electricity distribution.1,2Smart grids are not just about adding Internet of Things (IoT) technologies to old infrastructure but about reimagining how energy is delivered in the 21st century. They embody a modernized grid system that enables bidirectional energy flows and employs two-way communication and control capabilities, ushering in many new functionalities and applications.3 Moreover, smart grids are instrumental in modernizing energy systems to accommodate the growing electricity demand, integrate renewable energy sources seamlessly, and provide enhanced control over energy consumption.4This article will explore the intricate relationship between smart grids and the latest technological advancements (such as AI and 5G), their role in bolstering renewable energy and storage solutions, and how they revolutionise electric vehicle (EV) charging capabilities. We aim to comprehensively cover smart grids' pivotal role in contemporary and future energy systems.<h2 dir="ltr">The Evolution of Electricity Grids</h2><h3 dir="ltr">From Traditional to Smart Grids</h3>The journey from traditional to today's smart grids represents a remarkable evolution in electricity distribution and management. The first "grid" was introduced in 1882 with the Pearl Street Station in New York City. This coal-powered plant marked the beginning of centralised electricity generation, serving a modest 85 customers. The early power systems were characterized by fierce competition between direct current (DC) and alternating current (AC). AC eventually prevailed due to its efficiency in transmitting electricity over long distances. 5, 6The electricity grid transformed from a competitive and unregulated landscape into a regulated environment with monopolized zones established by the US Public Utility Holding Company Act (PUHCA) in 1935. This act responded to the chaotic competition and the impacts of the Great Depression, establishing regulated monopolies to ensure a stable and reliable electricity supply.5Modernization efforts have significantly enhanced the grids' capabilities, integrating renewable energy sources such as wind and solar to maintain energy security and reliability. This shift towards renewable energy and the decentralization of energy sources marks a significant departure from the past's large-scale, fossil fuel-based systems. Decentralization allows for a more resilient grid system by incorporating smaller, localized energy sources, including homes with solar panels that return electricity to the grid.5, 7<h3 dir="ltr">The Role of Policy and Innovation</h3>Government policies and technological innovations have driven the smart grid revolution. The recent focus on decarbonization and renewable energy integration is a response to the finite supply of fossil fuels and the growing concerns about climate change. Legislation such as the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infrastructure_Investment_and_Jobs_Act" target="_blank">US Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act</a> and the<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/cleanenergy/inflation-reduction-act-guidebook/" target="_blank">&nbsp;Inflation Reduction Act of 2022</a> have provided significant funding and incentives for grid modernization, renewable energy expansion, and the development of cleaner energy technologies.7Technological innovations, especially in digital and communication technologies, have paved the way for the smart grid. These advancements allow for more efficient management and distribution of electricity, accommodating the variable nature of renewable energy sources. High-voltage, direct current (HVDC) transmission lines and energy storage technologies like utility-scale batteries play a vital role in overcoming the challenges of integrating renewable energy into the grid, ensuring a stable and reliable energy supply.6, 7<h2 dir="ltr">Core Technologies Behind Smart Grids</h2><img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNzI1NjE1ODAwMTk5LWpwZWcgZW4uanBnIiwiZWRpdHMiOnsicmVzaXplIjp7IndpZHRoIjo5NTAsImZpdCI6ImNvdmVyIn19fQ==" width="602" height="328" class="fr-fic fr-dii">&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;<h3 dir="ltr">The Backbone: AI and Machine Learning</h3>AI and machine learning (ML) are revolutionizing smart grid operations by optimizing energy usage, forecasting demand, and enhancing energy efficiency.&nbsp;AI models like <a href="https://www.lunarenergy.com/gridshare" target="_blank">Gridshare</a> from Lunar Energy collect data from thousands of homes, enabling personalized energy need predictions. This improves grid responsiveness and planning for utility companies. AI's application extends to integrating EVs with the grid, identifying optimal charging times to avoid overwhelming the local grid. Moreover, AI assists in disaster prevention by monitoring the physical infrastructure and predicting potential failures due to extreme weather conditions.8<h3 dir="ltr">The Role of 5G in Smart Grids</h3>5G technology is crucial in smart grids by ensuring real-time data transmission and grid management. Its high-speed connectivity and low latency are pivotal for the seamless operation of smart grids, enabling faster communication between grid components. This is essential for integrating renewable energy sources, managing distributed energy resources (DERs), and supporting dynamic load balancing.9<h3 dir="ltr">Integrating Renewable Energy and Storage Systems</h3>Integrating renewable energy and storage systems into the smart grid is facilitated by AI, which addresses the intermittent nature of renewable sources. AI and ML contribute to rebalancing production and consumption loads, optimizing power yield from renewables like solar energy, and ensuring grid stability. Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs) and Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) technologies also support this integration by monitoring electrical waves for system state analysis and leveraging electric vehicle batteries as efficient energy storage to balance the grid. 9,10<h3 dir="ltr">EV Charging Infrastructure</h3>Smart grid capabilities are crucial for supporting the widespread adoption of electric vehicles. Smart grids can recommend optimal charging times to consumers by analysing EV charging patterns and utilising AI, enhancing grid efficiency. This approach not only facilitates the integration of EVs into the grid but also turns them into a valuable energy storage source, helping to balance electricity consumption and reduce grid overload during peak hours.8<h2 dir="ltr">Challenges in Smart Grid Implementation</h2><h3 dir="ltr">Technical Hurdles</h3>Implementing smart grids introduces a complex challenge: integrating diverse energy resources into a unified system. This includes automating substations and switchgear, utilizing weather prediction systems, and adopting advanced sensing and measurement technologies. Such technologies encompass wide-area monitoring systems and fibre-optic temperature monitoring, all aimed at enhancing grid reliability and efficiency.&nbsp;Moreover, decision support technologies and advanced components like microgrid technologies and energy storage solutions (e.g., lithium-ion batteries) are integral to smart grid operations, further complicating the integration process.13 However, reliance on these technologies complicates the integration process due to their diverse operational requirements and compatibility issues. For instance, integrating microgrid technologies requires careful synchronization with the main grid, and energy storage solutions often demand sophisticated control algorithms to optimize their performance within the grid infrastructure. These complexities necessitate meticulous planning and execution to ensure seamless integration of these components into the smart grid system.<h3 dir="ltr">Security and Privacy Concerns</h3>Security and privacy are paramount concerns in the smart grid landscape, exacerbated by the system's interconnectivity and reliance on communication technologies. Smart grids are susceptible to many cyber and cyber-physical threats, including hacking and unauthorized data access.&nbsp;This necessitates robust cybersecurity measures to protect against these threats while ensuring the integrity and confidentiality of user data. Smart grid cybersecurity to mitigate novel security challenges and manage the integration and interoperability issues that come with a more connected and intelligent energy system.11<h3 dir="ltr">Regulatory and Ethical Considerations</h3>Regulatory and ethical considerations also play a critical role in smart grid implementation. Navigating the regulatory landscape involves compliance with existing standards and policies, which may vary significantly across jurisdictions. Furthermore, ethical concerns in data handling require a careful approach to ensure the protection of consumer privacy and the equitable treatment of all grid users.&nbsp;The regulatory framework must address these concerns while supporting the adoption new technologies and practices that facilitate smart grid development. The transformation to a modern power sector necessitates a comprehensive analysis and planning at every level to ensure that integration, data security, reliable communication protocols, and uninterrupted power supply are properly addressed.11<h2 dir="ltr">Future Outlook and Innovations in Smart Grids</h2><h3 dir="ltr">Emerging Technologies and Their Impact</h3><img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNzI1NjE1ODE2MTg0LWltYWdlIDIgZW5nLmpwZyIsImVkaXRzIjp7InJlc2l6ZSI6eyJ3aWR0aCI6OTUwLCJmaXQiOiJjb3ZlciJ9fX0=" width="602" height="335" class="fr-fic fr-dii" style="width: 822px;">Figure: Smart Grid technologies for the future (derived from&nbsp;<a href="https://www.valuer.ai/blog/innovative-smart-grid-technologies-for-the-future" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Source</a>)The smart grid sector is evolving rapidly, buoyed by technological advancements that promise to redefine energy generation, distribution, and consumption. Key among these are:<ul><li dir="ltr">AI and ML: These technologies are instrumental in optimizing grid operations, enhancing load forecasting, and enabling predictive maintenance. AI's ability to analyze vast amounts of data in real time is pivotal for dynamic energy flow management within the grid.13,14</li><li dir="ltr">Blockchain: The blockchain offers a secure and decentralized framework for energy transactions, promoting transparency and trust in energy exchanges. It can facilitate peer-to-peer energy trading, allowing consumers to buy and sell energy directly, significantly impacting grid management and energy distribution.14</li><li dir="ltr">IoT: IoT devices provide real-time monitoring and control over distributed energy resources, enhancing grid efficiency and reliability. Through sensors and smart meters, IoT enables better asset management, including predictive maintenance, and supports the integration of renewable energy sources.14</li></ul><h3 dir="ltr">Predicted Advancements in Smart Grids</h3><ul><li dir="ltr">Autonomous Grid Management: Future smart grids are expected to leverage AI and IoT for fully autonomous operations, enabling them to self-heal, self-optimize, and self-balance without human intervention. This level of automation will ensure a more resilient and efficient grid capable of managing the complexities of modern energy demands.13,15</li><li dir="ltr">Predictive Maintenance: With the integration of advanced sensors and analytics, smart grids will increasingly adopt predictive maintenance strategies. These strategies will allow for detecting potential failures and scheduling maintenance activities, significantly reducing downtime and improving grid reliability.13,14</li><li dir="ltr">Integration of Renewable Energy and Storage: As smart grids evolve, integrating renewable energy sources like wind and solar will become more streamlined and supported by advanced energy storage solutions. This integration will enhance grid stability and reliability and promote a more sustainable and carbon-neutral energy landscape.16</li></ul><h2 dir="ltr">Key Takeaways</h2>Smart grids represent a significant shift from traditional energy systems towards more efficient, sustainable, and resilient electricity distribution and management frameworks. Integrating AI, IoT, and blockchain technologies has set the stage for advanced grid operations, enabling real-time energy management, predictive maintenance, and secure, decentralized energy transactions.The future outlook for smart grids is highly promising, with continued advancements expected to automate grid management further, integrate renewable energy sources seamlessly, and enhance grid reliability through predictive maintenance strategies. These innovations are crucial for meeting the growing global energy demand sustainably and efficiently.Continuous exploration and development in this field will ensure that smart grids evolve to address the complexities of modern energy systems, offering solutions that are not only technologically advanced but also environmentally responsible and economically viable.&nbsp;In conclusion, the trajectory of smart grids is set towards revolutionizing how energy is produced, distributed, and consumed. With the backdrop of climate change and the global push for sustainability, the advancements in smart grid technologies emerge as both a necessity and an opportunity. As we continue to innovate and refine these technologies, the potential to transform our energy systems into models of efficiency and sustainability becomes more tangible.<h2 dir="ltr">References</h2><ol><li dir="ltr"><a href="https://electricalacademia.com/electric-power/smart-grid-components/" target="_blank">https://electricalacademia.com/electric-power/smart-grid-components/</a></li><li dir="ltr"><a href="https://www.nist.gov/el/smart-grid-menu/about-smart-grid/smart-grid-beginners-guide" target="_blank">https://www.nist.gov/el/smart-grid-menu/about-smart-grid/smart-grid-beginners-guide</a></li><li dir="ltr"><a href="https://www.energy.gov/oe/grid-modernization-and-smart-grid" target="_blank">https://www.energy.gov/oe/grid-modernization-and-smart-grid</a></li><li dir="ltr"><a href="https://www.energysage.com/electricity/how-has-electric-grid-changed/" target="_blank">https://www.energysage.com/electricity/how-has-electric-grid-changed/</a></li><li dir="ltr"><a href="https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/how-electricity-grid-works" target="_blank">https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/how-electricity-grid-works</a></li><li dir="ltr"><a href="https://solartechnologies.com/the-history-and-evolution-of-our-electric-grid/" target="_blank">https://solartechnologies.com/the-history-and-evolution-of-our-electric-grid/</a></li><li dir="ltr"><a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/11/22/1083792/ai-power-grid-improvement/" target="_blank">https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/11/22/1083792/ai-power-grid-improvement/</a></li><li dir="ltr"><a href="https://www.sap.com/insights/smart-grid-ai-in-energy-technologies.html" target="_blank">https://www.sap.com/insights/smart-grid-ai-in-energy-technologies.html</a></li><li dir="ltr"><a href="https://www.ibm.com/blog/optimizing-energy-production-with-the-latest-smart-grid-technologies/" target="_blank">https://www.ibm.com/blog/optimizing-energy-production-with-the-latest-smart-grid-technologies/</a></li><li dir="ltr"><a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/11/22/1083792/ai-power-grid-improvement/" target="_blank">https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/11/22/1083792/ai-power-grid-improvement/</a></li><li dir="ltr"><a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/21/14226" target="_blank">https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/21/14226</a></li><li dir="ltr"><a href="https://electricalacademia.com/electric-power/challenges-smart-grid-implementation/" target="_blank">https://electricalacademia.com/electric-power/challenges-smart-grid-implementation/</a></li><li dir="ltr"><a href="https://www.valuer.ai/blog/innovative-smart-grid-technologies-for-the-future" target="_blank">https://www.valuer.ai/blog/innovative-smart-grid-technologies-for-the-future</a></li><li dir="ltr"><a href="https://www.startus-insights.com/innovators-guide/smart-grid-trends/" target="_blank">https://www.startus-insights.com/innovators-guide/smart-grid-trends/</a></li><li dir="ltr"><a href="https://engineeringonline.ucr.edu/blog/the-future-of-smart-grid-technologies/" target="_blank">https://engineeringonline.ucr.edu/blog/the-future-of-smart-grid-technologies/</a></li><li dir="ltr"><a href="https://vortexofadigitalkind.com/smart-grids-green-energy-future/" target="_blank">https://vortexofadigitalkind.com/smart-grids-green-energy-future/</a></li></ol>

Explore the transformative leap from traditional to smart grids, their integration with AI, IoT, and renewable energy, and their future in energy efficiency.

Smart Grid: Navigating the Future of Energy

For the past decade, disordered rock salt has been studied as a potential breakthrough cathode material for use in lithium-ion batteries and a key to creating low-cost, high-energy storage for everything from cell phones to electric vehicles to renewable energy storage.A new MIT study is making sure the material fulfills that promise.Led by Ju Li, the Tokyo Electric Power Company Professor in Nuclear Engineering and professor of materials science and engineering, a team of researchers describe a new class of partially disordered rock salt cathode, integrated with polyanions — dubbed disordered rock salt-polyanionic spinel, or DRXPS — that delivers high energy density at high voltages with significantly improved cycling stability.“There is typically a trade-off in cathode materials between energy density and cycling stability … and with this work we aim to push the envelope by designing new cathode chemistries,” says Yimeng Huang, a postdoc in the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering and first author of a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41560-024-01615-6" target="_blank">paper describing the work published today in&nbsp;Nature Energy</a>. “(This) material family has high energy density and good cycling stability because it integrates two major types of cathode materials, rock salt and polyanionic olivine, so it has the benefits of both.”Importantly, Li adds, the new material family is primarily composed of manganese, an earth-abundant element that is significantly less expensive than elements like nickel and cobalt, which are typically used in cathodes today.“Manganese is at least five times less expensive than nickel, and about 30 times less expensive than cobalt,” Li says. “Manganese is also the one of the keys to achieving higher energy densities, so having that material be much more earth-abundant is a tremendous advantage.”<h2>A possible path to renewable energy infrastructure</h2>That advantage will be particularly critical, Li and his co-authors wrote, as the world looks to build the renewable energy infrastructure needed for a low- or no-carbon future.Batteries are a particularly important part of that picture, not only for their potential to decarbonize transportation with electric cars, buses, and trucks, but also because they will be essential to addressing the intermittency issues of wind and solar power by storing excess energy, then feeding it back into the grid at night or on calm days, when renewable generation drops.Given the high cost and relative rarity of materials like cobalt and nickel, they wrote, efforts to rapidly scale up electric storage capacity would likely lead to extreme cost spikes and potentially significant materials shortages.“If we want to have true electrification of energy generation, transportation, and more, we need earth-abundant batteries to store intermittent photovoltaic and wind power,” Li says. “I think this is one of the steps toward that dream.”That sentiment was shared by Gerbrand Ceder, the&nbsp;Samsung&nbsp;Distinguished&nbsp;Chair&nbsp;in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Research and a professor of materials science and engineering at the University of California at Berkeley.“Lithium-ion batteries are a critical part of the clean energy transition,” Ceder says. “Their continued growth and price decrease depends on the development of inexpensive, high-performance cathode materials made from earth-abundant materials, as presented in this work.”<h2>Overcoming obstacles in existing materials</h2>The new study addresses one of the major challenges facing disordered rock salt cathodes — oxygen mobility.While the materials have long been recognized for offering very high capacity — as much as 350 milliampere-hour per gram — as compared to traditional cathode materials, which typically have capacities of between 190 and 200 milliampere-hour per gram, it is not very stable.The high capacity is contributed partially by oxygen redox, which is activated when the cathode is charged to high voltages. But when that happens, oxygen becomes mobile, leading to reactions with the electrolyte and degradation of the material, eventually leaving it effectively useless after prolonged cycling.To overcome those challenges, Huang added another element — phosphorus — that essentially acts like a glue, holding the oxygen in place to mitigate degradation.“The main innovation here, and the theory behind the design, is that Yimeng added just the right amount of phosphorus, formed so-called polyanions with its neighboring oxygen atoms, into a cation-deficient rock salt structure that can pin them down,” Li explains. “That allows us to basically stop the percolating oxygen transport due to strong covalent bonding between phosphorus and oxygen … meaning we can both utilize the oxygen-contributed capacity, but also have good stability as well.”That ability to charge batteries to higher voltages, Li says, is crucial because it allows for simpler systems to manage the energy they store.“You can say the quality of the energy is higher,” he says. “The higher the voltage per cell, then the less you need to connect them in series in the battery pack, and the simpler the battery management system.”<h2>Pointing the way to future studies</h2>While the cathode material described in the study could have a transformative impact on lithium-ion battery technology, there are still several avenues for study going forward.Among the areas for future study, Huang says, are efforts to explore new ways to fabricate the material, particularly for morphology and scalability considerations.“Right now, we are using high-energy ball milling for mechanochemical synthesis, and … the resulting morphology is non-uniform and has small average particle size (about 150 nanometers). This method is also not quite scalable,” he says. “We are trying to achieve a more uniform morphology with larger particle sizes using some alternate synthesis methods, which would allow us to increase the volumetric energy density of the material and may allow us to explore some coating methods … which could further improve the battery performance. The future methods, of course, should be industrially scalable.”In addition, he says, the disordered rock salt material by itself is not a particularly good conductor, so significant amounts of carbon — as much as 20 weight percent of the cathode paste — were added to boost its conductivity. If the team can reduce the carbon content in the electrode without sacrificing performance, there will be higher active material content in a battery, leading to an increased practical energy density.“In this paper, we just used Super P, a typical conductive carbon consisting of nanospheres, but they’re not very efficient,” Huang says. “We are now exploring using carbon nanotubes, which could reduce the carbon content to just 1 or 2 weight percent, which could allow us to dramatically increase the amount of the active cathode material.”Aside from decreasing carbon content, making thick electrodes, he adds, is yet another way to increase the practical energy density of the battery. This is another area of research that the team is working on.“This is only the beginning of DRXPS research, since we only explored a few chemistries within its vast compositional space,” he continues. “We can play around with different ratios of lithium, manganese, phosphorus, and oxygen, and with various combinations of other polyanion-forming elements such as boron, silicon, and sulfur.”With optimized compositions, more scalable synthesis methods, better morphology that allows for uniform coatings, lower carbon content, and thicker electrodes, he says, the DRXPS cathode family is very promising in applications of electric vehicles and grid storage, and possibly even in consumer electronics, where the volumetric energy density is very important.<hr>This work was supported with funding from the Honda Research Institute USA Inc. and the Molecular Foundry at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and used resources of the National Synchrotron Light Source II at Brookhaven National Laboratory and the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory. The work was carried out, in part, using MIT.nano’s facilities.&nbsp;

An artistic illustration of the integration between two distinct battery cathode structures, rock salt (blue polyhedra) and polyanion olivine (red/yellow polyhedra). A novel hybrid structure is obtained by integrating polyanions (yellow polyhedra) into a rock salt (blue polyhedra) structure. Photo: Yimeng Huang/Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering

A new family of integrated rock salt-polyanion cathodes opens door to low-cost, high-energy storage.

Study of disordered rock salts leads to battery breakthrough

Photovoltaics are set to meet over 40 percent of Switzerland’s electricity needs by 2050. But solar power isn’t always available when it’s needed: there’s too much of it in summer and too little in winter, when the sun shines less often and heat pumps are running at full tilt. According to the Swiss federal government’s Energy Strategy, Switzerland wants to close the winter electricity gap with a combination of imports, wind and hydropower as well as alpine solar plants and gas-fired power plants.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1725320869826-image.imageformat.carousel.940179852.jpg" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">ETH researchers Samuel Heiniger (left, with a jar of iron ore) and Professor Wendelin Stark in front of the three iron reactors on ETH Zurich’s Hönggerberg campus. (Image: ETH Zurich)One way to minimise the need for imports and gas-fired power plants in winter is to produce hydrogen from cheap solar power in summer, which could then be converted into electricity in winter. However, hydrogen is highly flammable, extremely volatile and makes many materials brittle. Storing the gas from summer until winter calls for special pressurised containers and cooling technology. These require a lot of energy, while the many safety precautions that must be followed make building such storage facilities very expensive. What’s more, hydrogen tanks are never completely leak-proof, which harms the environment and adds to the costs.Now researchers at ETH Zurich led by Wendelin Stark, Professor of Functional Materials at the Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences, have developed a new technology for the seasonal storage of hydrogen that is much safer and cheaper than existing solutions. The researchers are using a well-known technology and the fourth most abundant element on Earth: iron.<h2>Chemical storage</h2>To store hydrogen better, Stark and his team are relying on the steam-iron process, which has been understood since the 19th century. If there is a surplus of solar power available in the summer months, it can be used to split water to produce hydrogen. This hydrogen is then fed into a stainless steel reactor filled with natural iron ore at 400 degrees Celsius. There, the hydrogen extracts the oxygen from the iron ore – which in chemical terms is simply iron oxide – resulting in elemental iron and water.“This chemical process is similar to charging a battery. &nbsp;It means that the energy in the hydrogen can be stored as iron and water for long periods with almost no losses,” Stark says. When the energy is needed again in winter, the researchers reverse the process: they feed hot steam into the reactor to turn the iron and water back into iron oxide and hydrogen. The hydrogen can then be converted into electricity or heat in a gas turbine or fuel cell. To keep the energy required for the discharging process to a minimum, the steam is generated using waste heat from the discharging reaction.<a target="_blank"></a><img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1725320890968-image.imageformat.1286.408338324.png" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">The charging and discharging process for the storage technology. (Visualisations: ETH Zurich)<h2 id="isPasted">Cheap iron ore meets expensive hydrogen</h2>“The big advantage of this technology is that the raw material, iron ore, is easy to procure in large quantities. Plus it doesn’t even need processing before we put it in the reactor,” Stark says. Moreover, the researchers assume that large iron ore storage facilities could be built worldwide without substantially influencing the global market price of iron.The reactor in which the reaction takes place doesn’t have to fulfil any special safety requirements either. It consists of stainless steel walls just 6 millimetres thick. The reaction takes place at normal pressure and the storage capacity increases with each cycle. Once filled with iron oxide, the reactor can be reused for any number of storage cycles without having to replace its contents. Another advantage of the technology is that the researchers can easily expand the storage capacity. It’s simply a case of building bigger reactors and filling them with more iron ore. All these advantages make this storage technology an estimated ten times cheaper than existing methods.However, there’s also a downside to using hydrogen: its production and conversion are inefficient compared to other sources of energy, as up to 60 percent of its energy is lost in the process. This means that as a storage medium, hydrogen is most attractive when sufficient wind or solar power is available and other options are off the table. That is especially the case with industrial processes that can’t be electrified.<h2>Pilot plant on the Hönggerberg campus</h2>The researchers have demonstrated the technical feasibility of their storage technology using a pilot plant on the Hönggerberg campus. This consists of three stainless steel reactors with a capacity of 1.4 cubic metres, each of which the researchers have filled with 2–3 tonnes of untreated iron ore available on the market.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1725320913294-image.imageformat.1286.858633795.jpg" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">This 1.4-cubic-metre stainless steel reactor at the Hönggerberg campus holds 2–3 tonnes of untreated iron ore. (Image: ETH Zurich)“The pilot plant can store around 10 megawatt hours of hydrogen over long periods. Depending on how you convert the hydrogen into electricity, that’ll give you somewhere between 4 and 6 megawatt hours of power,” explains Samuel Heiniger, a doctoral student in Stark’s research group. This corresponds to the electricity demand from three to five Swiss single-family homes in the winter months. At present, the system is still running on electricity from the grid and not on the solar power generated on the Hönggerberg campus.This is soon set to change: the researchers want to expand the system such that by 2026, the ETH Hönggerberg campus can meet one-fifth of its winter electricity requirements using its own solar power from the summer. This would require reactors with a volume of 2,000 cubic metres, which could store around 4 gigawatt hours (GWh) of green hydrogen. Once converted into electricity, the stored hydrogen would supply around 2 GWh of power. “This plant could replace a small reservoir in the Alps as a seasonal energy storage facility. To put that in perspective, it equates to around one-tenth of the capacity of the Nant de Drance pumped storage power plant,” Stark says. In addition, the discharging process would generate 2 GWh of heat, which the researchers want to integrate into the campus’s heating system.<h2 id="isPasted">Good scalability</h2>But could this technology be harnessed to provide seasonal energy storage for Switzerland as a whole? The researchers have made some initial calculations: providing Switzerland with around 10 terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity from seasonal hydrogen storage systems every year in the future – which would admittedly be a lot – would require some 15–20 TWh of green hydrogen and roughly 10,000,000 cubic metres of iron ore. “That’s about 2 percent of what Australia, the largest producer of iron ore, mines every year,” Stark says. By way of comparison, in its <a target="_blank">Energy Perspectives 2050+</a>, the Swiss Federal Office of Energy anticipates total electricity consumption of around 84 TWh in 2050.If reactors were built that could store around 1 GWh of electricity each, they would have a volume of roughly 1,000 cubic metres. This calls for around 100 square metres of building land. Switzerland would have to build some 10,000 of these storage systems to obtain 10 TWh of electricity in winter, which corresponds to an area of around 1 square metre per inhabitant.<hr><h2 id="isPasted">Coalition for Green Energy and Storage (CGES)</h2>This project is part of the <a href="https://ethz.ch/en/news-and-events/eth-news/news/2023/06/eth-zurich-and-epfl-launch-a-green-energy-coalition.html" target="_blank">Coalition for Green Energy and Storage</a>, which ETH Zurich launched in 2023 together with EPFL, PSI and Empa and is driving forward together with industrial partners - including major Swiss energy suppliers and authorities. The coalition has set itself the goal of rapidly bringing innovative technologies for the production and storage of carbon-neutral gases and fuels and for CO2 capture to market maturity. As part of CGES, larger pilot plants (‘catapults’) are to be built to test these technologies and make important contributions to the climate-neutral transformation of the energy system and security of supply. The next step will be to establish an association that will network interested stakeholders, provide them with scientific support and guidance and facilitate the implementation of projects.<h2 id="isPasted">Reference</h2>Literature: Heiniger, SP; Fan Z; Lustenberger UB, Stark WJ: Safe seasonal energy and hydrogen storage in a 1 : 10 single-household-sized pilot reactor based on the steam-iron process. Sustainable Energy &amp; Fuels 2024, 8 (1), 125-132. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1039/D3SE01228J" target="_blank">https://doi.org/10.1039/D3SE01228J</a>

Researchers at ETH Zurich are using iron to store hydrogen safely and for long periods. In the future, this technology could be used for seasonal energy storage.

Iron as an inexpensive storage medium for hydrogen

To transition away from fossil fuels and towards renewables – which are intermittent by nature – we’ll need to rework our entire system of power storage, transmission and distribution. Yet experts haven’t yet found the right energy mix or power storage system, or how to balance supply and demand effectively.Decarbonizing our society will mean replacing much of the oil and gas we currently use with electricity. And demand for electricity will only grow as consumers trade out their heating oil for heat pumps and their combustion engine vehicles for electric ones. Wind and solar power will meet a growing share of this demand, while nuclear power is set to be phased out, at least in Switzerland. But there’s one big drawback to electricity: it’s best used right when it’s generated, because storing it for more than short periods is difficult and comes with a relatively high economic, environmental and energy costs. Given the intermittent, variable and decentralized nature of renewable energy, it’s clear why we’ll need to rethink our existing approach to power grids – or the way in which we generate, carry, distribute and manage electrical power.<h2>A matter of timing</h2>“The more we rely on renewables with unpredictable power generation, the more we’ll also need to rely on reserves,” says Mario Paolone, the head of EPFL’s Distributed Electrical Systems Laboratory (DESL). Especially since today, it’s demand that sets the pace. Demand is seen as immutable, and so it’s the supply part of the equation that must be adjusted accordingly. People want to be able to switch on a light, heat up the oven and charge their vehicles at any time of day or night, in the summer or in the winter. As a result, grid operators keep reserves of electricity on hand that can be tapped into at different time intervals. These include a primary reserve deployable in a few minutes, a secondary reserve deployable within 15 minutes and one hour, and a supplemental reserve for periods beyond that. Each type of reserve comes with the appropriate power storage system.Fortunately, Switzerland isn’t alone. Our power grid is connected to the rest of Europe, allowing us to pool resources, storage systems and costs with other countries. “The dream of becoming self-sufficient in terms of our power supply is neither technically nor financially optimal if we limit our view to Switzerland,” says Paolone. “It’s Europe as a whole that needs to become energy independent.”Electrifying our processes and transitioning to renewables will impact power grids in two ways. First, it will change how operators balance the load on their grids and store reserves. “For now, synthesis gas made from renewable energy is the most promising method for storing power and responding to seasonal fluctuations,” says Paolone. Gas-fired power plants can step in to meet excess demand. Operators can also set up power-to-gas systems, which use surplus power to produce clean hydrogen, which in turn is processed to make synthesis gas. “Natural gas companies are really interested in power-to-gas technology because it will let them keep using their existing transmission and distribution infrastructure,” says Mario Paolone. “But for that, engineers will need to develop efficient, large-scale carbon capture systems.”He also points out that “as we decarbonize Switzerland, hydropower will play an important role in providing this kind of flexibility to power grids. It’s the only completely renewable energy source that we can control. That’ll be a crucial advantage going forward.”Hydropower plants provide the flexibility to cover load variations throughout the day or across seasons. Their flexibility depends in part on the type of plant – for instance, whether it’s an impoundment plant (i.e., one that collects precipitation and glacier runoff) or a pumped-storage plant. EPFL recently coordinated the EU’s biggest R&amp;D program on hydropower facilities, called XFLEX Hydro. The program studied small-scale modifications that can be made to hydropower plants to increase their capacity, so as to improve the overall reliability of Europe’s power grids. The technology developed under the program can enhance the ancillary services provided by grid operators – the services that continually match supply with demand – which will help keep local and regional grids reliable and make them resilient to fluctuations in the energy supply, both now and in the future.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1721953932379-e9632e06.jpg" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Illustration © Eric Buche<h2 id="isPasted">Batteries to the rescue</h2>When it comes to intraday load balancing, batteries can be a powerful ally. Paolone believes that lithium batteries will be a key feature in tomorrow’s decarbonized power grids. “They deliver very high yields and can quickly switch between absorbing and injecting electricity,” he says. “These capabilities will be essential for managing primary reserves. In addition, lithium batteries will soon be able to complete tens of thousands of cycles. That’s a huge benefit for grid operators. The power stations they build are intended to last 10 or 20 years, and the technology is starting to be compatible with that time frame.”What’s more, the potential is already out there. “The world’s power grids will need a total battery capacity of around 180 GWh/year by 2035,” says Paolone. “And at roughly the same time, some 100 GWh to 200 GWh of capacity will become available as electric vehicle (EV) batteries reach end-of-life. It’s a perfect match.” There are still some technological hurdles to overcome, however. Engineers at DESL are developing methods for measuring car batteries’ residual capacity in order to give them a second life. “We can now determine how many and which cycles second-life batteries can run through within a power grid cycle,” says Paolone. “Given that a grid’s cycles are much less intense than those in cars, these batteries could be useful for several more years.”<h2>Building a stronger grid</h2>The second way that the transition to renewables will impact power grids relates to the grid infrastructure itself. Paolone explains: “We need more power transmission lines. Today, transmission lines at all levels – from very high voltage to distribution – are currently operating at full capacity during certain periods, and this issue will continue to worsen over time.” In Switzerland, assuming nuclear power is phased out and all personal vehicles and residential heating units are electric, we’ll need around 40 GWp of photovoltaic power. But the DESL model shows that medium-voltage power lines start getting congested at 13 GWp. So the country will need to make hefty investments to upgrade its power infrastructure.Local, decentralized power storage systems – or in other words, batteries – would help reduce the need for new power lines. DESL engineers have designed optimization algorithms that, based on the solar power generated within a community and the load on the local grid, can precisely identify where storage systems should be installed and where grid capacity needs to be expanded to minimize the community’s electricity costs.Yet there’s another problem standing in the way of finding the optimal energy mix, power storage system and load balancing strategy. “Today, our grids remain stable and reliable due to effective control over power generation, as well as robust grid planning and operational processes,” says Paolone. “That’s possible because we have relatively few power stations to manage. But what will happen when we have millions of decentralized power generators that are outside the control of grid operators? When 1 GW of today’s nuclear power is replaced by 5 GWp of distributed solar panels, how will that be managed? There’ll be an explosion in the number of variables that grid operators will have to juggle. Technically, we could supply all our power needs with photovoltaics, but that would require making major changes to our grid control systems, transmission and distribution systems, and electricity market.”Of course, there’s still the demand part of the equation. Another way to reduce our need for power storage is to gain better control over variations in demand. “If we’re able to effectively modulate the load on the grid, then we can do just about anything,” says Paolone. Technology being developed in this direction includes control systems for EV charging stations, bidirectional EV charging and real-time variable electricity pricing.

To transition away from fossil fuels and towards renewables – which are intermittent by nature – we’ll need to rework our entire system of power storage, transmission and distribution.

Renewable energy puts power grids to the test

Lithium metal batteries are among the most promising candidates of the next generation of high-energy batteries. They can store at least twice as much energy per unit of volume as the lithium-ion batteries that are in widespread use today. This will mean, for example, that an electric car can travel twice as far on a single charge, or that a smartphone will not have to be recharged so often.At present, there is still one crucial drawback with lithium metal batteries: the liquid electrolyte requires the addition of significant amounts of fluorinated solvents and fluorinated salts, which increases its environmental footprint. Without the addition of fluorine, however, lithium metal batteries would be unstable, they would stop working after very few charging cycles and be prone to short circuits as well as overheating and igniting. A research group led by Maria Lukatskaya, Professor of Electrochemical Energy Systems at ETH Zurich, has now developed a new method that dramatically reduces the amount of fluorine required in lithium metal batteries, thereby rendering them more environmentally friendly and more stable as well as cost-effective.<h2 id="isPasted">A stable protective layer increases battery safety and efficiency</h2>The fluorinated compounds from electrolyte help the formation of a protective layer around the metallic lithium at the negative electrode of the battery. “This protective layer can be compared to the enamel of a tooth,” Lukatskaya explains. “It protects the metallic lithium from continuous reaction with electrolyte components.” Without it, the electrolyte would quickly get depleted during cycling, the cell would fail, and the lack of a stable layer would result in the formation of lithium metal whiskers – ‘dendrites’ – during the recharging process instead of a conformal flat layer.Should these dendrites touch the positive electrode, this would cause a short circuit with the risk that the battery heats up so much that it ignites. The ability to control the properties of this protective layer is therefore crucial for battery performance. A stable protective layer increases battery efficiency, safety and service life.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1721001380090-image.imageformat.1286.1270176615.png" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">If the electrolyte in a lithium metal battery is not properly tuned, this leads to the formation of dendrites (“whiskers”). (Graphic: Nobelprize.org)<h2 id="isPasted">Minimising fluorine content</h2>“The question was how to reduce the amount of added fluorine without compromising the protective layer’s stability,” says doctoral student Nathan Hong. The group’s new method uses electrostatic attraction to achieve the desired reaction. Here, electrically charged fluorinated molecules serve as a vehicle to transport the fluorine to the protective layer. This means that only 0.1 percent by weight of fluorine is required in the liquid electrolyte, which is at least 20 times lower than in prior studies.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1721001399324-image.imageformat.1286.1956524728.png" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">The newly developed method uses fluorinated cations as a vehicle to transport fluorine to the protective layer. As a result, the protective layer remains stable, fluorine use is minimised, production costs are reduced, and the battery is rendered more sustainable. (Graphic: ETH Zurich / Chulgi Nathan Hong)<h2 id="isPasted">Optimised method makes batteries greener</h2>The ETH Zurich research group describes the new method and its underlying principles in a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1039/d4ee00296b" target="_blank">paper</a> recently published in the journal Energy &amp; Environmental Science. An application for a patent has been made. Lukatskaya carried out this research with the help of an SNSF Starting Grant.One of the biggest challenges was to find the right molecule to which fluorine could be attached and that would also decompose again under the right conditions once it had reached the lithium metal. As the group explains, a key advantage of this method is that it can be seamlessly integrated into the existing battery production process without generating additional costs to change the production setup. The batteries used in the lab were the size of a coin. In a next step, the researchers plan to test the method’s scalability and apply it to pouch cells as used in smartphones.<hr><h2 id="isPasted">Reference</h2>Hong CN, Yan M, Borodin O, Pollard TP, Wu L, Reiter M, Gomez Vazquez D, Trapp K, Yoo JM, Shpigel N, Feldblyum JI, Lukatskaya MR: Robust battery interphases from dilute fluorinated cations. Energy &amp; Environmental Science, 2. May 2024, doi:&nbsp;<a href="https://doi.org/10.1039/d4ee00296b" target="_blank">external page10.1039/d4ee00296b</a>

(Photograph: ETH Zurich / Maria Lukatskaya; AI-generated)

A new electrolyte design for lithium metal batteries could significantly boost the range of electric vehicles. Researchers at ETH Zurich have radically reduced the amount of environmentally harmful fluorine required to stabilise these batteries.

Innovative battery design: more energy and less environmental impact

Rechargeable solid-state lithium batteries are an emerging technology that could someday power cell phones and laptops for days with a single charge. Offering significantly enhanced energy density, they are a safer alternative to the flammable lithium-ion batteries currently used in consumer electronics — but they are not environmentally friendly. Current recycling methods focus on the limited recovery of metals contained within the cathodes, while everything else goes to waste. &nbsp;A team of Penn State researchers may have solved this issue. Led by <a href="https://www.che.psu.edu/department/directory-detail-g.aspx?q=edg12" target="_blank">Enrique Gomez</a>, interim associate dean for equity and inclusion and professor of chemical engineering in the Penn State College of Engineering, the team reconfigured the design of these solid-state lithium batteries so that all their components can be easily recycled. They published their findings in <a href="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsenergylett.4c01153" target="_blank">ACS Energy Letters</a>. &nbsp;“As the need for rechargeable batteries grows, we need to think about the end-of-life of this technology,” Gomez said. “We hope our work highlights the possibilities in recycling of solid-state batteries, with the help of some key design elements.”&nbsp;Traditionally, most of the core battery components have gone to waste because they mix during the recycling process, forming a “black mass,” according to the researchers. This black mass is rich in materials needed for batteries but separating them out remains a challenge. In solid-state batteries, the use of solid electrolytes compounds this problem, as they become intermixed with the black mass. &nbsp;To more easily separate these components from the other metal components in a coin cell battery, researchers inserted two polymer layers at the interfaces between the electrode and the electrolyte prior to the start of the recycling process. &nbsp;“We proposed that by dissolving the polymer layer during the recycling process, you can easily separate the electrode from the electrolyte,” said Yi-Chen Lan, doctoral student in chemical engineering and first author on the paper. “Without the polymer layer separating them, you would have the electrode and electrolyte mixed together, which makes them hard to recycle.”&nbsp;<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1720743945019-240279-psn-gomez.jpg" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Researchers&nbsp;reconfigured the design of solid-state lithium batteries so that of all their components can be easily recycled.&nbsp;They tested their innovation using coin cell batteries, pictured here.&nbsp;Credit: Poornima Tomy/Penn State . All Rights Reserved.Once the researchers successfully separated out the components, they made a composite with the recovered metals and electrodes using cold sintering — the process of combining powder-based materials into dense forms at low temperatures through applied pressure using solvents. Cold sintering <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/adfm.201602489" target="_blank">was developed in 2016</a> by a team of researchers led by <a href="https://www.mri.psu.edu/mri/personnel-directory/car4" target="_blank">Clive Randall</a>, director of Penn State’s <a href="https://www.mri.psu.edu/" target="_blank">Materials Research Institute</a> and distinguished professor of materials science and engineering. Gomez and his team&nbsp;<a href="https://news.engr.psu.edu/2024/cold-sintering-landfill-recycling.aspx" target="_blank">recently demonstrated the recycling of solid-state electrolytes using cold sintering.</a> &nbsp;“We used cold sintering to combine the recovered electrodes with recovered composite solid electrolyte powders, then reconstructed the battery with the polymer layers added,” said Po-Hao Lai, a doctoral student in chemical engineering and co-author on the paper. “This enables us to recycle the whole battery, which we are then able to recycle again after its use.” &nbsp;After testing its performance, they found that the reconstructed battery achieved between 92.5% and 93.8% of its original discharge capacity. &nbsp;“While the commercialization of all-solid-state lithium batteries is still in its early stages, our work provides important insights and ideas for designing recyclable versions of these batteries,” Lan said. “While we're not quite there yet, the long-term goal is to apply this innovation to larger batteries that could be used in devices like cell phones and laptops, once all-solid-state technology becomes more prevalent.”&nbsp;In addition to Gomez, Lan and Lai,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.che.psu.edu/department/directory-detail-g.aspx?q=bdv5051&_gl=1*a2fq89*_gcl_au*MTQ4NzQyODg2Ni4xNzEzODE4NjEz*_ga*MTEwMzAxNjc5Ni4xNzA2MDM3NTk3*_ga_P4WQEC6B2H*MTcxOTMzOTgyMS4yNDQuMC4xNzE5MzQxMzk1LjYwLjAuMA.." target="_blank">Bryan Vogt</a>, professor of chemical engineering, also contributed to the paper. &nbsp;

Photo by mohamed abdelghaffar from Pexels

Rechargeable solid-state lithium batteries are an emerging technology that could someday power cell phones and laptops for days with a single charge.

Making rechargeable batteries more sustainable with fully recyclable components

In 10 years, solid-state batteries made from rock silicates will be an environmentally friendly, more efficient and safer alternative to the lithium-ion batteries we use today. Researcher at DTU have patented a new superionic material based on potassium silicate - a mineral that can be extracted from ordinary rocks.It is the battery in your electric car that determines how far you can drive on one charge and how quickly you can re-charge. However, the lithium-ion battery, the most widely used electric car battery today, has its limitations— in terms of capacity, safety and also availability. Because lithium is an expensive, environmentally harmful material and the scarcity of the relatively rare metal can hinder the green transition of car transport.As more and more people switch to electric cars, we need to develop a new generation of lithium-free batteries, which are at least as efficient, but more eco-friendly and cheaper to produce. This requires new materials for the battery’s main components; anode, cathode, and electrolyte, as well as developing new battery designs.It is a research field that is currently occupying researchers all over the world, because when we find new ‘recipes’ for batteries, it will enable a significant reduction of the transport sector’s carbon emissions.At DTU, researcher Mohamad Khoshkalam has invented a material that has the potential to replace lithium in tomorrow’s super battery: solid-state batteries based on potassium and sodium silicates. These are rock silicates, which are some of the most common minerals in the Earth’s crust. It is found in the stones you pick up on the beach or in your garden. A great advantage of the new material is that it is not sensitive to air and humidity. &nbsp;This makes it possible to mould it into a paper-thin layer inside the battery.<h2>Patented superionic material</h2>The potential of the milky-white, paper-thin material based on potassium silicate is huge. It is an inexpensive, eco-friendly material that can be extracted from silicates, which cover over 90 per cent of the Earth’s surface. The material can conduct ions at around 40 degrees and is not sensitive to moisture.This will make scaling up and future battery production easier, safer and cheaper, as production can take place in an open atmosphere and at temperatures close to room temperature. The material also works without the addition of expensive and environmentally harmful metals such as cobalt, which is currently used in lithium-ion batteries to boost capacity and service life.“The potential of potassium silicate as a solid-state electrolyte has been known for a long time, but in my opinion has been ignored due to challenges with the weight and size of the potassium ions. The ions are large and therefore move slower,” says Mohamad Khoshkalam.To understand the perspectives of Mohamad Khoshkalam’s discovery, one must first understand the crucial role the electrolyte plays in a battery. The electrolyte in a battery can be a liquid or a solid material—a so-called solid-state electrolyte. &nbsp;The electrolyte allows the ions to move between the battery’s anode and cathode, thereby maintaining the electrical current generated during discharging and charging. In other words, the electrolyte is crucial for the battery capacity, charging time, lifespan, and safety.The electrolyte’s conductivity depends on how fast the ions can move in the electrolyte. The ions in rock silicates generally move slower than the ions in lithium-based liquid electrolytes or solid-state electrolytes, as they are larger and heavier. But Mohamad Khoshkalam has found a recipe for a superionic material of potassium silicate and a process that makes the ions move faster than in lithium-based electrolytes.“The first measurement with a battery component revealed that the material has a very good conductivity as a solid-state electrolyte. I cannot reveal how I developed the material, as the recipe and the method are now patented,” Mohamad Khoshkalam continues.<img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNzIwNTcxMDU2Mzc5LV85NkE5NjM0LmpwZyIsImVkaXRzIjp7InJlc2l6ZSI6eyJ3aWR0aCI6OTUwLCJmaXQiOiJjb3ZlciJ9fX0=" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">A battery cell for a solid-state battery can be made completely thin. In the lab, there are six steps in the production of the solid-state electrolyte, which is a paper-thin material that lies between the anode and cathode of the battery cell. Photo: Frida Gregersen<h2 id="isPasted">The battery everyone is waiting for</h2>Both researchers and electric car manufacturers consider solid-state batteries to be the super battery of the future. Most recently, Toyota has announced that they expect to launch an electric car with a lithium solid-state battery in 2027-28. However, several car manufacturers have previously announced electric cars with solid-state batteries, only to subsequently pull out.In a solid-state battery, the ions travel through a solid material and not through a liquid, as in the regular AA+ lithium-ion batteries you can buy in the supermarket. There are several advantages to this; the ions can move faster through a solid material, making the battery more efficient and faster to charge.A single battery cell can be made as thin as a piece of cardboard, where the anode, cathode, and solid-state electrolyte are ultra-thin layers of material. This means that we can make more powerful batteries that take up less space. This offers benefits on the road, as you will be able to drive up to 1,000 km on a single 10-minute charge. In addition, a solid-state battery is more fireproof, as it does not contain combustible liquid.Before we see the solid-state battery on the market, however, there are several challenges that need to be solved. The technology works well in the laboratory, but is difficult and expensive to scale up. Firstly, materials and battery research is both complex and time-consuming because the materials are super sensitive and require advanced laboratories and equipment. The lithium-ion batteries we use today took over 20 years to develop, and we’re still developing them.Secondly, we need to develop new ways of producing and sealing the batteries so the ultra-thin material layers in the battery cell do not break and have continuous contact in order to work. In the laboratory, you solve it by pressing the layers of the battery cell together at high pressure, but it is difficult to transfer to a commercial electric car battery, which consists of many battery cells.&nbsp;<h2>Solid-state rock battery is high-risk technology</h2>Unlike lithium solid-state batteries, solid-state batteries based on potassium and sodium silicates have a low TRL (Technology Readiness Level). This means there is still a long way to go from discovery in the lab to getting the technology out into society and making a difference. The earliest we can expect to see them in new electric cars on the market is 10 years from now.It is also a high-risk technology, where the chance of commercial success is small and the technical challenges are many. Nevertheless, Mohamad Khoshkalam is full of optimism:“We have shown that we can find a material for a solid-state electrolyte that is cheap, efficient, eco-friendly, and scalable—and that even performs better than solid-state lithium-based electrolytes.”A year after the discovery in the laboratory at DTU, Mohamad Khoshkalam has obtained a patent for the recipe and is in the process of establishing the start-up K-Ion, which will develop solid-state electrolyte components for battery companies. The K-ion is part of the DTU Earthbound initiative, where they receive support to get their research out of the laboratory faster and into society to make an impact.The next step for Mohamad Khoshkalam and his team is to develop a demo battery that can show companies and potential investors that the material works. A prototype is expected to be ready within 1-2 years.<hr><h3 id="isPasted">The batteries of the future</h3><h4>Now: Lithium-ion batteries in improved versions</h4>It is hard to beat lithium’s ability to conduct ions, but the material is expensive and difficult to obtain. We will see new, improved lithium-ion batteries with a lower concentration of cobalt and lithium.<h4>Within 5 years: Sodium-ion and potassium-ion batteries, as well as lithium solid-state batteries</h4>Sodium and potassium-ion batteries have a high TRL (Technology Readiness Level). Several automakers expect to mass-produce it within 5 years. The development of lithium solid-state batteries is further ahead. We will therefore see them on the market before potassium and sodium solid-state batteries.&nbsp;<h4>Earliest from 10 years: Solid-state batteries of rock silicates&nbsp;</h4>Potassium and sodium solid-state batteries have a low TRL. This means that many steps must be taken before the battery can be commercialized. The technology works in the laboratory, but several technical challenges must be solved before the technology can be scaled up into a functional electric car battery that can be mass-produced. &nbsp;

In 10 years, solid-state batteries made from rock silicates will be an environmentally friendly, more efficient and safer alternative to the lithium-ion batteries we use today.

Tomorrow's super battery for electric cars is made of rock

Graphene has been called “the wonder material of the 21st century.” Since its discovery in 2004, the material—a single layer of carbon atoms—has been touted for its host of unique properties, which include ultra-high electrical conductivity and remarkable tensile strength. It has the potential to transform electronics, energy storage, sensors, biomedical devices, and more. But graphene has had a dirty little secret: it's dirty.Now, engineers at Columbia University and colleagues at the University of Montreal and the National Institute of Standards and Technology are poised to clean things up with an oxygen-free chemical vapor deposition (OF-CVD) method that can create high-quality graphene samples at scale. Their work, published May 29 in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07454-5" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Nature</a>,&nbsp;directly demonstrates how trace oxygen affects the growth rate of graphene and identifies the link between oxygen and graphene quality for the first time.“We show that eliminating virtually all oxygen from the growth process is the key to achieving reproducible, high-quality CVD graphene synthesis,” said senior author <a href="https://hone.me.columbia.edu/people/james-hone" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">James Hone</a>, Wang Fong-Jen Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Columbia Engineering. “This is a milestone towards large-scale production of graphene.”Graphene has historically been synthesized in one of two ways. There’s <a href="https://quantum.columbia.edu/videos/let-it-rip-scotch-tape-quantum-research" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">the “scotch-tape” method</a>, in which individual layers are peeled from a bulk sample of graphite (the same material you’ll find in pencil lead) using household tape. Such exfoliated samples can be quite clean and free from impurities that would otherwise interfere with graphene’s desirable properties. However, they tend to be too small—just a few tens of micrometers across–for industrial-scale applications and, thus, better suited for lab research.&nbsp;To move from lab explorations to real-world applications, researchers developed a method to synthesize large-area graphene about 15 years ago. This process, known as CVD growth, passes a carbon-containing gas, such as methane, over a copper surface at a temperature high enough (about 1000 °C) that the methane breaks apart and the carbon atoms rearrange to form a single honeycomb-shaped layer of graphene. CVD growth can be scaled up to create graphene samples that are centimeters or even meters in size. However, despite years of effort from research groups around the world, CVD-synthesized samples have suffered from problems with reproducibility and variable quality.&nbsp;The issue was oxygen. In prior publications, co-authors Richard Martel and Pierre Levesque from Montreal had shown that trace amounts of oxygen can slow the growth process and <a href="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jp5070215" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">even etch the graphene away</a>. So, about six years ago, Christopher DiMarco, GSAS’19,designed and built a CVD growth system in which the amount of oxygen introduced during the deposition process could be carefully controlled.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1717630086125-jacob-amontree-xingzhou-yan-columbia-engineering-816x460.jpg" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Jacob Amontree (left) and Xingzhou Yan (right) displaying their pristine CVD graphene synthesized on ultra-flat copper/sapphire wafers. Credit: Zhiying WangCurrent PhD students Xingzhou Yan and Jacob Amontree continued DiMarco’s work and further improved the growth system. They found that when trace oxygen was eliminated, CVD growth was much faster—and gave the same results every time. They also studied the kinetics of oxygen-free CVD graphene growth and found that a simple model could predict growth rate over a range of different parameters, including gas pressure and temperature.The quality of the OF-CVD-grown samples proved virtually identical to that of exfoliated graphene. In collaboration with colleagues in Columbia’s physics department, their graphene displayed striking evidence for the fractional quantum Hall effect under magnetic fields, a quantum phenomenon that had previously only been observed in ultrahigh-quality, two-dimensional electrical systems.&nbsp;From here, the team plans to develop a method to cleanly transfer their high-quality graphene from the metal growth catalyst to other functional substrates such as silicon — the final piece of the puzzle to take full advantage of this wonder material.“We both became fascinated by graphene and its potential as undergraduates,” Amontree and Yan said. “We conducted countless experiments and synthesized thousands of samples over the past four years of our PhDs. Seeing this study finally come to fruition is a dream come true.”

The Hone lab at Columbia Engineering created over 100 identical graphene samples with their oxygen-free chemical vapor deposition method. Credit: Jacob Amontree & Christian Cupo

Columbia Engineers link oxygen to graphene quality and develop new techniques to reproducibly make the wonder material at scale.

Graphene Gets Cleaned Up

Closing in on the theoretical maximum efficiency, devices for turning heat into electricity are edging closer to being practical for use on the grid, according to University of Michigan research.&nbsp;Heat batteries could store intermittent renewable energy during peak production hours, relying on a thermal version of solar cells to convert it into electricity later.&nbsp;“As we include higher fractions of renewables on the grid to reach decarbonization goals, we need lower costs and longer durations of energy storage as the energy generated by solar and wind does not match when the energy is used,” <a href="https://che.engin.umich.edu/people/lenert-andrej/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Andrej Lenert</a>, U-M associate professor of chemical engineering and corresponding author of the study recently published in Joule.Thermophotovoltaic cells work similarly to photovoltaic cells, commonly known as solar cells. Both convert electromagnetic radiation into electricity, but thermophotovoltaics use the lower energy infrared photons rather than the higher energy photons of visible light.&nbsp;The team reports that their new device has a power conversion efficiency of 44% at 1435°C, within the target range for existing high-temperature energy storage &nbsp;(1200°C-1600°C). It surpasses the 37% achieved by previous designs within this range of temperatures.“It’s a form of battery, but one that’s very passive. You don’t have to mine lithium as you do with electrochemical cells, which means you don’t have to compete with the electric vehicle market. Unlike pumped water for hydroelectric energy storage, you can put it anywhere and don’t need a water source nearby,” said <a href="https://eecs.engin.umich.edu/people/forrest-stephen-r/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Stephen Forrest</a>, the Peter A. Franken Distinguished University Professor of Electrical Engineering at U-M and contributing author of the study.In a heat battery, thermophotovoltaics would surround a block of heated material at a temperature of at least 1000°C. It might reach that temperature by passing electricity from a wind or solar farm through a resistor or by absorbing excess heat from solar thermal energy or steel, glass or concrete production.&nbsp;<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1717629790558-Bosun_Roy-Layinde.jpg" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Bosun Roy-Layinde, a recent PhD graduate of chemical engineering, demonstrates how he measures the amount of power generated by his thermal photovoltaic cells. Photo: Brenda Ahearn, Michigan Engineering.“Essentially, using electricity to heat something up is a very simple and inexpensive method to store energy relative to lithium ion batteries. It gives you access to many different materials to use as a storage medium for thermal batteries,” Lenert said.The heated storage material radiates thermal photons with a range of energies. At 1435°C, about 20-30% of those have enough energy to generate electricity in the team’s thermophotovoltaic cells. The key to this study was optimizing the semiconductor material, which captures the photons, to broaden its preferred photon energies while aligning with the dominant energies produced by the heat source.But the heat source also produces photons above and below the energies that the semiconductor can convert to electricity. Without careful engineering, those would be lost.&nbsp;To solve this problem, the researchers built a thin layer of air into the thermophotovoltaic cell just beyond the semiconductor and added a gold reflector beyond the air gap—a structure they call an air bridge. This cavity helped trap photons with the right energies so that they entered the semiconductor and sent the rest back into the heat storage material, where the energy had another chance to be re-emitted as a photon the semiconductor could capture.“Unlike solar cells, thermophotovoltaic cells can recuperate or recycle photons that are not useful,” said Bosun Roy-Layinde, U-M doctoral student of chemical engineering and first author of the study.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1717629808947-TPVcell_test-featured+%281%29.jpg" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">To measure the power produced by his photovoltaic cells, Roy-Layinde holds a heat source held over the photovoltaic cell, which emits the infrared radiation that the cell converts into electricity. Wires connected to the photovoltaic cell run the electricity to a sensor that reads the voltage and amperage. Photo credit: Brenda Ahearn, Michigan Engineering.A recent study found&nbsp;<a href="https://doi.org/10.1021/acsenergylett.4c00774" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">stacking two air bridges</a> improves the design, increasing both the range of photons converted to electricity and the useful temperature range for heat batteries.“We’re not yet at the efficiency limit of this technology. I am confident that we will get higher than 44% and be pushing 50% in the not-too-distant future,” said Forrest.The team has applied for patent protection with the assistance of U-M Innovation Partnerships and is seeking partners to bring the technology to market.This research is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation (grant numbers 2018572 and 2144662) and the Army Research Office (grant number W911-NF-17-0312). &nbsp;&nbsp;Forrest is also the Paul G. Goebel Professor of Engineering and professor of electrical engineering and computer science, materials science and engineering, and physics.

Thermophotovoltaics developed at U-M can recover significantly more energy stored in heat batteries.

Renewable grid: Recovering electricity from heat storage hits 44 percent efficiency

An international team of researchers, led by the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nanoengineering.eng.cam.ac.uk/" target="_blank">NanoEngineering Group</a> at the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.graphene.cam.ac.uk/" target="_blank">Cambridge Graphene Centre</a>, has developed a new materials theory based on ‘Murray’s Law’, applicable to a wide range of next-generation functional materials, with applications in everything from rechargeable batteries to high-performance gas sensors. The&nbsp;<a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-47833-0" target="_blank">findings</a> are reported in the journal&nbsp;Nature Communications.Murray’s Law, put forward by Cecil D. Murray in 1926, describes how natural vascular structures, such as animal blood vessels and veins in plant leaves, efficiently transport fluids with minimum energy expenditure.“But whereas this traditional theory works for cylindrical pore structures, it often struggles for synthetic networks with diverse shapes – a bit like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole,” says first author Cambridge PhD student&nbsp;<a href="https://www.eng.cam.ac.uk/profiles/bz279" target="_blank">Binghan Zhou</a>.Dubbed ‘Universal Murray’s Law’, the researchers’ new theory bridges the gap between biological vessels and artificial materials and is expected to benefit energy and environmental applications.“The original Murray’s Law was formulated by minimising the energy consumption to maintain the laminar flow in blood vessels, but it was unsuited for synthetic materials,” says Binghan Zhou.“To broaden its applicability to synthetic materials, we expanded this Law by considering the flow resistance in hierarchical channels. Our proposed Universal Murray’s Law works for the pores of any shape and suits all common transfer types, including laminar flow, diffusion, and ionic migration.”Ranging from daily usage to industrial production, many applications involve ion or mass transfer processes through highly porous materials – applications that could benefit from Universal Murray’s Law, say the researchers.For instance, when charging or discharging batteries, ions physically move between the electrodes through a porous barrier. Gas sensors rely on the diffusion of gas molecules through porous materials. Chemical industries often use catalytic reactions, involving laminar flow of reactants through catalysts.“Employing this new biophysical law could greatly reduce the flow resistance in the above processes, boosting overall efficiency,” adds Binghan Zhou.The researchers proved their theory using graphene aerogel, a material known for its extraordinary porosity. They carefully varied the pore sizes and shapes by controlling the growth of ice crystals within the material. Their experiments showed that the microscopic channels following the newly proposed Universal Murray’s Law offer minimum resistance against fluid flow, while deviations from this Law increase the flow resistance.“We designed a scaled-down hierarchical model for numerical simulation and found that simple shape changes following the proposed Law indeed reduce the flow resistance,” says co-author&nbsp;<a href="https://www.eng.cam.ac.uk/profiles/dl359" target="_blank">Dongfang Liang</a>, Professor of Hydrodynamics at the Department of Engineering.The team also demonstrated the practical value of Universal Murray’s Law by optimising a porous gas sensor. The sensor, designed in accordance with the Law, shows a significantly faster response compared to sensors following a porous hierarchy, traditionally considered to be highly efficient.“The only difference between the two structures is a slight variation in shape, showing the power and ease of application of our proposed Law,” says Binghan Zhou.“We have incorporated this special natural Law into synthetic materials,” adds&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nanoengineering.eng.cam.ac.uk/people" target="_blank">Tawfique Hasan</a>, Professor of Nanoengineering at the Cambridge Graphene Centre, who led the research. “This could be an important step towards theory-guided structural design of functional porous materials. We hope our work will be important for new generation porous materials and contribute to applications for a sustainable future.”The research was funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). Professor Hasan is a Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge.<hr>Reference: Binghan Zhou et al. ‘<a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-47833-0" target="_blank">Universal Murray’s law for optimised fluid transport in synthetic structures</a>’ . Nature Communications (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-47833-0

A macro photo of the veins of a leaf  Credit: MLARANDA from Pixabay

The natural vein structure found within leaves – which has inspired the structural design of porous materials that can maximise mass transfer – could unlock improvements in energy storage, catalysis, and sensing thanks to a new twist on a century-old biophysical law.

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