Arkema\u2019s dedicated battery dry coating laboratory<\/a>.<\/p>\nI understand there are different approaches to dry coating. Can you outline some of these, how they work, and what impact they could have on battery production?\u00a0<\/p>\n
Within dry coating, we focus primarily on the\u00a0calendering\u00a0and electrodeposition processes. In\u00a0calendering, hot, cylindrical rollers compress loose, powdery battery components into electrode films before laminating the films onto the current collectors. In the case of electrodeposition, the\u00a0component\u00a0mixture must be a fine powder that is deposited onto the current collector before being\u00a0consolidated\u00a0in a\u00a0calendering\u00a0step.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Calendaring processes are already used in serial production by a few pioneers and are considered more advanced. Electrodeposition is an alternative process whose ramp-up has already started at some equipment manufacturers. Both processes can significantly reduce the manufacturing land footprint and improve sustainability by avoiding energy consumption for drying or use of solvent.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Can dry coating technologies improve the battery\u2019s performance at all? Are there specific advantages when it comes to metrics such as energy density, cycle life, or charging speed?\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dry coating processes are widely recognized for their potential to reduce cell production\u00a0cost\u00a0and carbon footprint. They also have a lower space occupancy of the corresponding coating lines (that\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0require long energy consuming drying lines).\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
It is important to remember that they can also offer technical benefits. The electrode coating itself directly affects electrical conductivity, stability, and overall battery performance.\u00a0But dry coating has the potential to prevent binder migration, allowing for thicker electrodes with higher energy storage.\u00a0During cell assembly, these thicker electrodes allow manufacturers to reduce the number of separator and collector layers, which is favorable to increase cell energy density.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Second, the structure of the dry coated electrode differs from their wet-coated counterparts in several aspects. Often, the\u00a0\u201ctortuosity\u201d\u00a0of the dry-coated electrodes is lower, which is another way of saying that dry coating enables more uniform electrode structures with better mechanical stability. These uniform structures could be\u00a0leveraged\u00a0to improve cell power performance (especially at high C-rates) and, as a result, boost the charging rate.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In addition, dry coating is also regarded as a potential enabler for the manufacturing of components used in all-solid-state batteries. For instance, sulfides that are considered promising solid electrolytes are very sensitive, which makes the identification of suitable solvents for wet coating delicate and difficult work. By eliminating the need for slurries and other wet solvents, dry coating could help solve that issue.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dry coating\u00a0eliminates\u00a0the need for solvent evaporation, which helps reduce the amount of electricity used during battery production. To what extent could this reduce the battery industry’s carbon emissions?\u00a0<\/p>\n
As a materials supplier,\u00a0we\u2019re\u00a0probably not\u00a0in the best position to quantify those items. Moreover, the term \u201cdry coating\u201d refers to a wide range of processes\u00a0\u2014\u00a0including\u00a0calendering, electrostatic deposition, and others\u00a0\u2014\u00a0with varying levels of maturity. Most\u00a0remain\u00a0in the research and development phase, which can make it difficult to predict the technology’s broader impact. That said, companies across the battery ecosystem\u00a0generally cite\u00a0the same rough estimates: up to 15% in cost saving along with up to a 40% reduction in carbon emissions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
By\u00a0eliminating\u00a0the need for massive ovens to dry out the wet-coated electrodes, dry coating could also help free up more floor space in gigafactories.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Demand for lithium-ion batteries has been\u00a0shifting away\u00a0somewhat from\u00a0EVs and into backup power and grid-connected energy storage systems (ESS).\u00a0What\u2019s\u00a0driving this?\u00a0<\/p>\n
Demand for EVs is still growing at an impressive path, but, indeed, the current biggest growth is on ESS, which may account to almost 30% of the battery production this year. The biggest driver is the massive scale\u2011up of renewable energy infrastructure such as solar and wind. These energy sources are inherently variable. This creates structural imbalances between supply and demand, which creates pressure on grid stability. It is an excellent business case for electricity storage with the current price of BESS solutions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Battery ESS solves this by storing excess energy when production is high and releasing it during peak demand or low generation. This \u201cenergy shifting\u201d function has become the dominant use case for energy storage, directly enabling higher renewable penetration in electric grids.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Are there any new materials or other battery innovations that\u00a0you\u2019re\u00a0looking forward to?\u00a0<\/p>\n
The underlying materials in a battery can have a significant impact on improving its performance, durability, and safety.\u00a0Arkema has been developing\u00a0solutions in recent\u00a0years along these lines, including new polymer-based binder materials.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Very recently, Arkema developed a new solution for the current collector in lithium-ion batteries. This is a thin, highly conductive metal foil that allows the transfer of electrons to lithium ions. Incorporating a primer coating permits increased current conductivity, adhesion with the electrodes, and corrosion resistance. So, they are a must-have for the cathode in lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) batteries, which are widely used in stationary battery storage. Arkema has developed a class of binders called Incellion Pr to act as a key component of this primer coating, with newer products further increasing its performance.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the dry process, there is also a requirement for a primer-coated current collector, and Arkema is actively working on developing materials in its Incellion Pr series that can be used for that purpose.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"How does the dry-coating process for battery electrodes differ from wet-coating methods, and what challenges is it addressing?…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":568012,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[111,139,69,145],"class_list":["post-568011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=568011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568011\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/568012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=568011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=568011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=568011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}