Porous Power has paired its separator material with a new manufacturing technique, which it said will enable companies to produce dozens of batteries in the same time it currently takes to produce a single cell.
ORNL, science and energy laboratory of the US Department of Energy, selected this project, in part, because it answers all four of the key technology barriers cited in the DOE Vehicle Technologies Program 2008 Annual Progress Report: cost, performance, abuse tolerance and battery life, the company said.
Porous Power claims that its Symmetrix production process eliminates one of the most expensive battery components, free-standing separator membranes, by coating Symmetrix separator film directly on to electrodes.
In addition to reducing overall battery cost, this film can extend the life and capacity of lithium-ion batteries, minimize heat generation in batteries so more energy is available for application use, which enables the batteries to operate at a safer, cooler temperature and allow batteries to charge 50% faster than equivalent batteries with traditional separators, the company added.
Tim Feaver, CEO of Porous Power, said: ”This dramatically alters the cost equation and paves the way for mass production of more affordable lithium-ion car batteries.
”This project with Oak Ridge will accelerate the development of the patent-pending Symmetrix production process and confirm the safest, most cost-effective materials to use in these batteries.”
David Wood, scientist of ORNL, said: ”The auto industry is looking for an entirely new way to produce high-performance lithium-ion cells with superb safety characteristics and a much lower cost than today’s batteries.”
