![]() ![]() The company pivoted to batteries when one of its researchers discovered that graphene derived from that carbon could be used as a buffer between lithium and sulfur inside a new kind of battery. “It turned out that the economics didn’t work at all for that,” Liddle tells me. Lyten began as a commercial endeavor to collect waste methane from oil fields, convert it to inert carbon and sequester it deep underground. “If you do this, you end up with 3D graphene, which is 1,000 times more reactive, electrically and chemically” than the flat version. “That’s two-dimensional graphene,” he says, which is structurally similar to a soccer net laid flat, “only in nano form.” Liddle then crumples the paper into a ball. On a video call, George Liddle, director of analytics for Lyten, a San Jose-based company that specializes in making composites for batteries, holds up a piece of paper with the edge facing outward. ![]() We want to make sure we’re around for another 100 years.” “We’re transforming a 100-year-old business based on the internal combustion engine into an all-EV business. In 2021, when GM CEO Mary Barra committed to go 100 percent electric by 2035, Maten says, “The first thing we said was, ‘Oh man, we’re going to need a lot of batteries.’” That led to taking a hard look at the supply chain and making “a concerted effort to onshore or nearshore that supply chain to make sure it’s sustainable.” Now, he says, “just about every month we bring on another partner to secure” critical minerals.įailure is not an option, Maten says. Michael Maten, GM’s senior strategist for EV and energy policy says the change was coming whether Congress acted or not. Or let’s make batteries that use less nickel.” China refines nearly all of the minerals used by battery makers, Prochazka adds, “so now we’ll have processing facilities in the U.S.” Last month, Nevada-based Panasonic Energy announced that in 2025 it would start making EV batteries from nickel recycled in that state. If cobalt and nickel are hard to get, Prochazka says, then “let’s make batteries that use less cobalt, or no cobalt. Taken together, the bills stand to transform the electric vehicle battery industry and force innovation, much as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act did in the 2010s, when Tesla secured a $465 million federal loan to complete development of its Modern S sedan and open its plant in Fremont, California. or its allied nations and 100 percent North American-manufactured or -assembled components will qualify for the full credit. By 2029, only EVs with 80 percent of their minerals sourced within the U.S. has offered a $7,500 tax credit to buyers of most new EVs since the end of 2009 but starting in 2023, the IRA ties that tax credit to certain requirements for sourcing of critical minerals and manufacturing of batteries. ![]() ![]() The passage of two new federal laws, the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, is expected to move the industry along. Other minerals come from countries with which the United States would prefer to loosen economic ties, including Russia, which provides 20 percent of the world’s dwindling stores of nickel, and China, which supplies virtually all the graphite used in EV batteries internationally. The Democratic Republic of Congo produces more than 70 percent of the world’s cobalt, often by exploiting child labor under unsafe working conditions. It relies on imported critical minerals - not just lithium, but cobalt, copper, graphite, and nickel - that are acquired by hacking into mountains or by pumping scarce desert groundwater into ponds, then waiting for water to evaporate and leave the mineral behind. Lithium’s better energy density means a li-ion battery can store a third more watt-hours per kilogram than Ni-MH batteries can, which means they last longer and weigh less.īut the lithium battery still has serious drawbacks. Lithium-ion, or li-ion, was a big step up from the nickel-metal hydride (Ni-MH) batteries that had been powering most hybrid and electric vehicles, including the wildly popular Prius. “The battery system is the secret,” Eberhard explained at the time, “behind our four-second 0-60 mph acceleration.”Įberhard and his collaborator, Marc Tarpenning, named their new electric vehicle company after Nikola Tesla, and two years later, in 2008, the Tesla became the first commercially produced, lithium-ion-powered vehicle to hit the auto market. The Roadster, as it was called, contained a lot of innovative engineering, but nothing about it mattered more than the 6,831 lithium-ion battery cells packed into its rear compartment, which gave the vehicle its range and speed. Sixteen years have passed since engineer Martin Eberhard unveiled his futuristic custom-designed sports car before a crowd of investors, journalists, and potential buyers in a Santa Monica Airport hangar. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |