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Lithium in the limelightLi-ion battery research heats up around the globe

EV evolutionPower grid changes needed

Brushless motorOpen-poles motor winding concept

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ELECTRIFICATION®

Lithium in the limelightLi-ion battery research heats up around the globe

Brushless motorOpen-poles motor winding concept

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and/or company names might be trademarks of their respective owners.

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Select Your PreferenceAMP+ low-to-medium current, high voltage connectors and headers

Wire harness routing challenges and smaller packaging spaces are common in high

voltage systems. With over 3,000 HVA280 combinations, the TE Connectivity AMP+

header and connector family has a safe, reliable solution for you.

Options are not limited by the device header. The same interface is used for 2 - 4mm2

individually shielded wires and multi core wire. Reduced size and mass are achieved

through optimized packaging, an integrated HVIL and floating two-stage latch.

One product family, one company, over 3,000 low-to-medium current, high voltage

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Contents4 Battery standards work is real work Volunteers’ work geared to helping

engineers design safe products for all.

6 Argonne heats up Li-ion battery research The U.S. Department of Energy lab

near Chicago is using federal stimulus money to dive deeper into lithium battery research.

12 Lithium-ion battery industry moves forward

From technology advances to manufacturing capacity expansions, the foundation of the lithium-ion battery industry is becoming stronger and more viable.

18 Tech Report Energy EV evolution will require changes in

nation’s power distribution grid

Energy Rough road ahead for EV battery costs

Energy SAE J1772 ‘combo connector’ inches

closer to adoption

Simulation A new approach to Li-ion battery

modeling

Powertrain Marsilli advances ‘open poles’ motor

winding for hybrids

29 What’s on evsae.com Cover: Li-ion cell production at

Johnson Controls’ plant in Holland, MI.

Brine, lithium carbonate, lithium hydroxide. (Rockwood Lithium)

2 SAE Vehicle Electrification evsae.com

Follow us online.For more information: [email protected] www.cd-adapco.com/automotive

CD-adapco has embarked on a journey of collaboration to create a simulation system which is relevant and focused on today’s trends within the automotive marketplace. The journey so far has taken in energy storage technology, electric machines analysis, electro-thermal behaviour and continues apace to deliver engineering success to all our users.

The system is built around the class-leading CAE tool STAR-CCM+, a tool which deals with complex, heavy weight 3D resolved physical phenomena. These could include a tightly coupled thermal-electromagnetic problem or an electrochemical-thermal process, all solved within one code, STAR-CCM+. Aligned to this complex ‘heart’ of the solution are specific design level tools which are focused on the problems design engineers face in the early part of a project. Such tools allow a subsystem to be developed which ‘parachutes’ the user into the correct design space before deploying STAR-CCM+ to gain those final few percent that make the difference.

The value of such a simulation ecosystem is that there is no duplication. Information entered at the component level is directly interpreted into the complex 3D simulation, allowing a range of engineering groups to use the same models in differing circumstances. This is evident in electric machines design where the upfront analytic tool is used to create a machine which delivers the required torque/speed characteristics. The model is then passed to a thermal group who seamlessly transfer it into a detailed 3 dimensional analysis, adding surrounding cooling systems and componentry, which is used to understand local maximum temperatures within the proposed machine under previously defined operating loads.

Such a tight integration between ‘design’ tools and ‘analysis’ tools provides the most value from a group’s investment in analysis while avoiding redundant calculations.

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Electrifying Success

cdadapcoVELECT1111.indd 1 17/11/2011 14:28




4

SAE Vehicle Electrification®, June 26, 2012, Volume 3, Number 3, (ISSN 2159-4279) is published 6 times a year by SAE International®. SAE International is not responsible for the accuracy of information in the editorial, articles, and advertising sections of this publication. Readers should independently evaluate the accuracy of any statement in the editorial, articles, and advertising sections of this publication that are important to him/her and rely on his/her independent evaluation. For permission to use content in other media, contact [email protected]. To purchase reprints, contact [email protected]. Copyright © 2012 by SAE International. The SAE Vehicle Electrification title is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

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SAE International’s battery stan-dards committees are doing impor-tant work in advancing the cause of vehicle electrification. Their nearly 500 members deserve accolades for taking on responsibilities above and beyond those related to their regular jobs. It is vital to safety and to limited costs of electrified vehi-cles that a group of engineers and related professionals is dedicated to standards responsibilities.

“It’s the right thing to do,” the Chairman of the fast-growing SAE Battery Standards Steering Committee told me in a recent phone interview. That was not a pat on the back Bob Galyen was giving himself; just an acknowledgement of the truth.

As President of Magna E-Car Systems’ Battery Business Unit, he speaks from a position of authority in saying SAE’s standards work “is extremely beneficial to the young electrification-of-the-automobile sector because there are people out there who do not understand bat-teries, who do not understand elec-trified systems. And in order for the technical community to protect it-self and for it to flourish, it has to have documentation written by a large cross section of profession-als…There will be a lot of guys out there who don’t know what they’re doing who can cause physical damage to themselves or others

because they’re not designing safe and effective systems.”

Aside from safety, standards ad-dress costs. Great reductions are possible if automakers can agree on a standard battery module or cell size, which would offer manufac-turing economies of scale. Galyen is temporarily serving as Chair of the Battery Size Standardization Committee, the focus of which is now on the cell (vs. the module). No standardization results are imminent as automakers want to retain as much packaging flexibility as pos-sible, said Galyen.

A much more imminent standard is J2936–Vehicle Battery Labeling Guidelines, from the Battery Standards Labeling Committee. This SAE Recommended Practice pro-vides labeling guidelines for any electrical storage device at all levels of sub-component, component, subsystem, and system-level archi-tectures describing content, place-ment, and durability requirements of labels. It addresses dimensional, positioning, and copy nomenclature, product description, voltage and manufacturing information, as well as end-of-life disposal, shipping, and electrical connection data.

J2929–Electric and Hybrid Vehicle Propulsion Battery System Safety Standard - Lithium-based Rechargeable Cells should be ready by about year’s end.

Battery standards work is real work

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Battery companies around the world are heavily investing in research to maximize the potential of lithium, as are governments and

universities. Argonne National Laboratory outside Chicago is at the forefront of basic and applied research into lithium-based battery technologies.

The U.S. Department of Energy lab near Chicago is using federal stimulus money to dive deeper into lithium battery research.

by Patrick Ponticel

Argonne heats up Li-ion battery research

7SAE Vehicle Electrification evsae.com

June 26, 2012

SAE Vehicle Electrification went to the U.S. Department of Energy lab in late May to meet with Daniel Abraham, a materials scientist who has been at the lab for 19 years and has focused on lithium battery technology for the past 12. He highlighted some of the work Argonne is doing and offered a Li-ion battery primer of sorts.

“We’re constantly pushing the boundaries” of the Li-ion battery’s limits, he said from his office in a plain red brick building that also houses state-of-the-art labs and testing equipment. There’s nothing plain about the research being done in that building and in additional facilities on the 1500-acre (600-ha) campus, including the Blue Gene/P supercomputer and the Advanced Photon Source, which offers the western hemisphere’s brightest storage ring-generated X-ray beams for research in almost all scientific disciplines.

The battery industry is rather structured, according to Abraham, with cathode makers concentrating on cathodes materials, anode

makers on anode materials, etc. Battery manufacturers, such as Johnson Controls and A123 assemble the various components into lithium-ion cells. “We examine the components as well as the whole cell,” he said, “because all of these components in the cell talk to each other. That’s where diagnostics comes in.”

Diagnostics includes opening up a test cell and doing a “postmortem” on it—“although the cell doesn’t have to be completely dead,” Abraham quipped. The task is to find out what went wrong in the cell. The goal is to come up with ideas to minimize or eliminate the processes that degrade cell performance.

“Some of our diagnostic studies are conducted in situ; that is, we watch the behavior of cell components during charge and discharge using X-rays from the Advanced Photon Source and electrons from the Electron Microscopy Center,” said Abraham.

The 80 scientists and engineers (including students and post-docs) working in battery

Battery researchers at Argonne National Laboratory have an arsenal of powerful, high-tech weapons and facilities to help them in their work.


research at Argonne produce their own cells (mainly coin sized) to evaluate different chemistries. At any given moment at Argonne, hundreds of cells are being evaluated. The focus is on performance, safety, life, and cost.

Abraham, who holds a Ph.D. in Metallurgical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, noted that much of the initial basic science for Li-ion batteries was done (and patented) in the U.S., “but the technology was developed and commercialized in Japan.” Still, he said, “some of the best research in the world is still being done here” with expertise in individual battery components as well as the entire cell.

The idea at Argonne, as with all national labs, is to transfer the technology to U.S. companies. Helping the U.S. establish a strong Li-ion battery manufacturing capability to match is research capability is a goal of

Argonne and of the U.S. federal government, which is helping support both via a multi-billion-dollar funding program. The lab got $8.8 million under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to beef up its battery R&D capabilities.

There are many examples of Argonne battery research finding end use in commercial applications. In addition to licensing its technology to General Motors, BASF, Envia, LG Chem, and Toda America, it is working with Dow Chemical and Western Lithium on new development projects.

The separator is the component of the battery that Argonne studies least, since it is an inactive element. In Li-ion battery research and development, “you’re limited by the cathode, so that is where a lot of our focus is,” Abraham said. Higher voltage is a goal for the cathode, “but you need the electrolyte to keep up with the cathode. Most current electrolytes cannot keep up” and so researchers at Argonne and elsewhere are experimenting with new electrolytes and new electrolyte additives.

Li-ion cells generally have a liquid electrolyte that because of its organic content can be flammable. A ceramic-based solid electrolyte has no organic content, according to Abraham. However, the cycling of Li ions between electrodes, called ionic conductivity, occurs at a much slower pace with a ceramic electrolyte. As a compromise, “you could have something that’s between a liquid and a solid—a gel,” he said. “That’s the kind of (alternative solutions) we look at.”

Since the movement of ions back and forth between electrodes (and the corresponding, one-for-one movement of electrons through an external circuit) is what makes a Li-ion

“We’re constantly pushing the boundaries,” says Argonne battery expert Daniel Abraham while holding a sample in a glove box.



June 26, 2012

battery cell, anything that impedes that movement is a target for eradication among researchers at Argonne and elsewhere.

In what amounted to a primer on batteries, Abraham noted that ions travel within the cell as part of larger “associations” with solvent molecules, not as individuals. He also noted that the faster the Li ions are asked to move via applied current, the more they resist; moreover, the faster they are asked to move, the less energy typically can be extracted from the cell. In explaining this, he used the analogy of a bucket being filled with water. Pour water into it slowly, it will fill all the way up. Pour water into it too quickly, some of the water will splash out onto the ground.

Continuing in primer mode, he explained that the speed with which ions are able to move between the electrodes (from anode to cathode during battery use, or discharge; from cathode to anode during charging) is measured as power. Power=energy/unit time. High power allows for fast vehicle acceleration and fast recharging. With fast

recharging ability, the oftentimes large amount of mechanical energy created during vehicle braking can more fully be captured and converted to chemical energy.

Many factors determine the speed of ion movement, according to Abraham, including electrode construction, distance between electrodes, and thickness of the separator. Electrode construction/morphology is an area of great concentration at Argonne, as changing the shape and size of particles on the electrodes can, among other things, reduce the tortuousness of the path along which ions travel through and out of the electrodes (and back). The opposite of a tortuous path is a straight line.

“Modifying particle size/morphology also helps with better material packing within the electrode, thereby increasing energy density of an electrode,” Abraham said.

Helping ions move fast is important, but even more important is keeping them in circulation. The complex chemistry in the cell includes unwanted ion “traps” in the form of

Lithium ions follow a tortuous path along and through various particles in a cell. This image of an oxide particle from a new high-energy cathode was obtained at Argonne’s Electron Microscopy Center.


side reactions, mainly in what is called the solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) at the anode-electrolyte interface. The problem is compounded by the fact that the insoluble products formed constitute obstacles in the path of the ions remaining in circulation. As more and more ions become trapped, cell capacity and power fade.

Abraham explained that the purpose of the SEI is to prevent solvent molecules in the electrolyte from penetrating into, and destroying, the anode’s graphite structure. Unfortunately, the SEI undergoes a

dissolution-reformation process during cycling, especially at high temperatures; portions of it dissolve into the electrolyte, then and a new SEI forms. This process “consumes” Li ions.

With the materials-synthesis tools at their disposal, Argonne scientists also have the capability to change the atomic arrangement of materials. Abraham said that in addition to speeding ion transport, such capability also holds the promise of: increasing cell energy density; increasing oxide/cell voltages; and improving structural stability, which would lead to longer cell life.

Close-up view of the main solid components of a Li-ion cell. An electrolyte helps conduct the Li ions between the positive electrode (cathode) and the anode. At top is a schematic of the cell, which also shows the current collectors (aluminum for the cathode, copper for the anode).



June 26, 2012

Argonne researchers have developed an improved, scalable process for the synthesis of a Li-ion battery overcharge protection redox shuttle. Initial discovery amounts of battery materials are small compared to the kilo-scale amounts needed for validation of new battery technologies. In the background is Greg Krumdick (left) and Kris Pupek.

A more recent battery-related activity at Argonne is scale-up of materials production. “New cell chemistries are of no use to industry if the process for making the material is not scalable,” said Greg Krumdick of the Process Technology Research Group

At the lab level, “you’re just trying to make the material quickly, test it, see if it has the properties you want,” he said. “You aren’t looking at the cost of materials, process optimization, amount of waste being generated. [My group’s] goal is to be able to make the materials cost-effective so industry will adopt them.”

The larger the scale, the more accurate the estimate, Krumdick said. Extrapolating ton-scale costs based on lab-scale processes “is really not going to be accurate.”

The scale-up focus at Argonne is currently on cathode and electrolyte materials, according to Krumdick.

Part of Argonne’s $8.8 million in stimulus funding is going to a new lab for Krumdick’s group. Current facilities allow it to scale up

battery materials to about the 10-kg (22-lb) level; the new, partially complete facility, called the Materials Engineering Research Facility, will allow scale-up to about 100 kg (220 lb). Once at that level, scale-up bugs have been worked out and the product is ready for industrial level production, Krumdick noted. The building was designed to meet codes for higher levels of hazardous materials such as those found in the production of some battery components.

“And even though we were required to ‘Buy American’ with the stimulus funds,” Krumdick said, “some of the equipment for the lab had to be purchased from Asia because it wasn’t available from U.S. manufacturers.” That is the result, he added, of the U.S. having fallen “far” behind in terms of cell and battery materials manufacturing capability.

Argonne is helping the U.S. catch up.


Battery companies around the world are heavily investing in research to maximize the potential of lithium, as are governments and universities—

with some risk. Also striving for lower costs and better products are companies along the entire battery supply chain—from lithium miners to battery recyclers.

Right at the heart of the industry and technology sits global chemical giant BASF. The 160-year-old German materials company

is a relative newcomer to lithium-ion battery technology but is making a major commitment to the technology.

It was about five years ago that BASF made its foray into Li-ion battery technology, said Dr. Phillip Hanefeld, Global Marketing and Strategy, Battery Materials group, in a presentation at the SAE 2012 World Congress in April. The company has made several recent acquisitions to beef up its capabilities and give it global reach.

From technology advances to manufacturing capacity expansions, the foundation of the lithium-ion battery industry is becoming stronger and more viable.

by Patrick Ponticel

Lithium-ion battery industry moves forward


June 26, 2012

KgaA. It will be a couple years, Hanefeld said, before BASF comes out with a new formulation of its own.

In addition to acquisitions, BASF has made major advances in battery materials by licensing technologies. The company is perhaps best known for its NCM 111 technology that was licensed from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory (see other feature in this edition). It has licensed another major lithium-based technology, lithium iron phosphate, from a company called LiFePO4+C Licensing AG.

Those two cathode technologies are complementary, Hanefeld said. With NCM, there is “lot of room to play” by varying the amount of the constituent materials for different end applications. And there is room for significantly improved energy density.

Among those acquisitions was Sion Power, a Tucson, AZ-based company whose focus is on lithium-sulfur chemistry. He acknowledged that Li-sulfur technology is “some years” away from commercialization, with cycle life being a major challenge.

Another recent acquisition includes Ovonic, maker of nickel metal-hydride batteries and cathode active materials for that battery type. Every vehicle on the road today with an NiMH battery includes Ovonic technology, according to Hanefeld, who said BASF sees potential synergies with the latter’s nickel cobalt manganese Li-ion technology. Plus, he said of Ovonic, “they’re an excellent crowd of smart people” who are “coming up with new materials all the time.”

Two other acquisitions were related to electrolyte: Novolyte and a unit of Merck

An optimized electrode manufacturing system is tested using screen printing technology. (BASF)

BASF is pursuing multiple paths for this purpose, one focused on increasing capacity, the other voltage (see Hanefeld explain these two technology paths in this video). There is not much more that can be done with lithium iron phosphate in terms of improving energy density, but its power performance can be improved, said Hanefeld.

BASF is about to bring on line an NCM plant in Elyria, OH, which is being built to accommodate future technologies as well.

Beating BASF to the punch in terms of LiFePo cathode material production is Phostech Lithium Inc., a Clariant group company, which in January began

A BASF lab technician assembles a lithium-ion test cell in a glove box.

Lithium in strong supplyRockwood Lithium bills itself as the global market leader for lithium compounds and one of the largest lithium raw material producers. Thomas Krause, head of marketing/communications at Rockwood, noted that lithium is not found on Earth as a pure element. Lithium, element No. 3 on the periodic table, is the lightest metal. And, Rockwood notes, it combines the highest electrochemical potential of any metal with a low equivalent mass, making it an excellent choice for lithium-ion batteries.

Lithium compounds are found in ore and in brine. Rockwood’s technology is to pump out brine from under lithium deposits in the desert (runoff from nearby mountains serves the leaching agent). The brine is pumped into surface ponds, where 18 months of evaporation and certain processes produce a lithium chloride concentration of about 6%. The lithium chloride then undergoes processes that turn it into, among other things, the battery precursor materials of lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide. The product is shipped to customers in powder form. (Video of the process can be seen at www.rockwoodlithium.com/products/battery_products/lithium_power_for_batteries/lithium_power_for_batteries.en.html.

The company recently announced plans to invest $140 million in a new lithium carbonate production plant in Chile. In addition, the company is completing previously announced expansions of its lithium brine system in Nevada and a new high-purity lithium hydroxide plant in North Carolina.

As of July 1, Rockwood is raising the price of its lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide salts to up to $1000/tonne.

Lithium is plentiful, and there should be little concern about its availability. That is what Dr. Jon Kykawy, Head of Global Research at Byron Capital Markets, told SAE Vehicle Electrification at a recent SAE conference in Detroit.


Brine, lithium carbonate, lithium hydroxide. (Rockwood Lithium)


http://www.rockwoodlithium.com/products/battery_products/lithium_power_for_batteries/lithium_power_for_batteries.en.html




June 26, 2012

commercial production of the material at a new plant in Candiac, Quebec. Phostech calls its carbon-coated cathode product (C-LiFEPO4) Life Power P2, which is made in the four-story, 7000-m2 (75,000-ft2) Candiac plant using a wet process developed by Sud-Chemie. Annual capacity of plant is 2500 t (2800 ton).

In press materials the company calls the material “superior to conventional cathode materials in terms of safety, life cycle, and environmental compatibility.” Other benefits cited include high performance at low temperatures, cycling stability, very high discharge power, and fast recharge. Compared to NMC, it offers about twice the life, according to Clariant.

The company says demand for Life Power P2 is growing particularly in China, Korea, and Japan.

A123 Systems is another major LiFePO player. The company made big news June 12 when it announced a “breakthrough” advancement of its brand-named Nanophosphate technology that allows for use at “extreme temperatures without requiring thermal management.”

The new product, called Nanophosphate EXT, “is designed to maintain long cycle life at extreme high temperatures and deliver high power at extreme lower temperatures,” according to A123 press materials. The company adds that testing at Ohio State University shows that cells made with EXT are expected to be capable of retaining more than 90% of initial capacity after 2000 full charge-discharge cycles at 45°C (113°F). The company expects EXT to offer a 20% increase in power at temperatures as low as -30°C (-22°F).

A123 Systems says its new Nanophosphate EXT is expected to be capable of retaining more than 90% of initial capacity after 2000 full charge-discharge cycles at 45°C (113°F).


The new technology’s cold-cranking capability, applied in a 12-V product, “would eliminate what has historically been the only performance advantage of lead-acid in starter battery applications.” Thus it represents an alternative for the micro-hybrid (stop/start) vehicles, a nascent vehicle category that puts heavy discharge demands on the battery for engine restart as well as heavy recharge demands for brake energy recovery over a large temperature range.

EXT’s improved performance in these parameters comes with no sacrifice to others, such as storage capability, life, power, and safety, says the company. It will not, of course, reveal the details of how these improvements are achieved, but does say it involved enhancements to the cathode, anode, and electrolyte.

A123 Systems plans to put Nanophosphate EXT into volume production in its 20 A·h prismatic cells during the first half of 2013. The company is evaluating the material for use in its other cell products and for applications beyond micro-hybrids, including electric vehicles, telecommunications backup, and military applications.

Johnson Controls Inc. produces Li-ion battery products for traction purposes, but its main and historical focus related to energy storage is the 12-V lead-acid starter battery. In April it was awarded a $5.48 million grant from the United States Advanced Battery Consortium LLC, an organization whose members are Chrysler, Ford, and General Motors, for development of battery technology geared to plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.

Li-ion cell production at Johnson Controls’ plant in Holland, MI.



June 26, 2012

In an interview with SAE Vehicle Electrification, the company’s Vice President Global Product Engineering, Power Solutions, Craig Rigby, said the company currently is in production with a nickel cobalt aluminum product for customers including BMW and Mercedes-Benz. Cells of that battery formulation come in cylindrical form, he noted.

A new Li-ion formulation JCI has decided upon will come in prismatic form, and form factor was a consideration in selection of what formula to pursue. After studying alternatives at great length, Rigby has a strong voice in JCI’s decision to go with nickel manganese cobalt. He said the decision involved many considerations beyond the various formulations’ precise performance characteristics—constraints such as cost and imperatives such as manufacturability.

Rigby does have a lab coat, and sometimes enters the lab environment, “but I’m not an electrochemist (he has a master’s in engineering management and bachelor’s degrees in naval architecture and marine engineering). I rely on my team of experts,” he said in explaining the decision-making process.

“It was a tough decision,” he continued, “but if you do the work right it doesn’t have to be an agonizing thing. If you do the work right, the data will tell you. It becomes very obvious. By the time you get to the meeting where you’re going to pull the trigger, it’s almost a foregone conclusion because you look at data in front of you and you say, “Yeah, you know what, this makes all the sense in the world. It wasn’t like I sat there for hours tearing my hair out saying, ‘What do we do, what do we do?’”

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Tech ReportENERGY

EV evolution will require changes in nation’s power distribution gridThe shift to electric vehicles and plug-in hy-brids heralds a major change for automotive technologies, one that will ripple out to many fields. One of the foremost is the electrical grid that will power these electrified vehicles while also drawing power from a car’s battery pack during peak usage periods.

Electrified vehicles will significantly alter the demand for fuel while also reducing the cost of operating a car. Chevrolet Volt users can recharge battery packs for just a few cents, saving substantial amounts and spending lit-tle on fuel.

“The median Volt driver does 66% of all driving on electric power,” said Michael J. Bly, Executive Director, Group Global Functional Leader for Global Electrical Systems, Infotainment & Electrification at General Motors. “Drivers are getting 900 to 1000 mi on a 9-gal gas tank.”

As more EVs connect to the electrical pow-er grid, power distribution patterns will change significantly, according to panelists of the “Energy Smart: Connected Vehicles and New Opportunities” presentation on April 24 at the SAE 2012 World Congress. The power needed to recharge EVs won’t require signifi-cant upgrades until vehicle volumes are quite high.

“One EV attached to the grid will create about a 25% increase for an average home, which is about like adding an air conditioner,”

said Glen Stancil, Vice President at NRG Energy EV Services.

However, significant changes will be re-quired if EVs fulfill a secondary role: providing power that utility companies can use to help them meet peak demands. Vehicles can sell energy back to utilities at peak times, typically late afternoons on hot days, then recharge batteries later so the vehicles can be driven home from work. Vehicle makers note that to date, usage patterns have been largely for a few short runs per day, such as driving to and from work.

“Over 90% of the Leafs are parked at a giv-en time,” said Minoru Shinohara, Senior Vice President, Nissan Motor Co.

Mark Little, Senior Vice President & Director of GE Global Research, predicts big advances in EV technologies and in the ability to distribute power to and from vehicles and the grid.


June 26, 2012

He explained that the Leaf’s batteries have about 24 kW·h capacity, which roughly matches the average home demands, which range from 20-30 kW·h. However, utility com-panies must make many changes before it’s viable to use EV batteries as a power source. Smart-grid technologies must be installed, and consumer costs for energy must be priced at different rates depending on the time of day.

“The reality is that the smart grid is not very smart,” Bly said. “If we don’t get it operating intelligently pretty soon, consumers will give up on the smart grid. We also need more time-of-day charging. That’s still a small per-centage of the market.”

Panelists generally agreed that such chang-es are going to occur over the next few years. Vehicle batteries are making big advances, and smart-grid technologies are also moving swiftly.

“The cost of wind energy has gone from 20 cents per kW·h to about 5 cents, which is competitive with conventional rates,” said Mark Little, Senior Vice President & Director, GE Global Research. “Solar has gone from 30-40 cents to 10-11 cents per kW·h. That type of innovation will also occur in EVs.”

Along with these technical changes, panel-ists noted that the U.S. must standardize many of its grid technologies. There are more than 3000 utility companies in the U.S., and many of them use different technologies. That will hamper efforts to recharge vehicles dur-ing low-demand periods and make it difficult for vehicle owners to provide power to utility companies.

“We have a lot to do in grid energy man-agement,” Little said. “We need improved software to manage energy distribution.”

Terry Costlow

ENERGY

Rough road ahead for EV battery costs

“When you move into an all-electric vehicle,” Ford CEO Alan Mulally recently told a Fortune magazine forum on green technology, “the battery size moves up to around 23 kW·h, [and] it weighs around 600 to 700 lb. They’re around $12,000 to $15,000 [each]” in a com-pact car the size of a $20,000+ gasoline-pow-ered Focus. “So you can see why the eco-nomics are what they are.”

Despite the highly anticipated arrival in 2011 of vehicles fully or partially powered by batteries, the numbers for the first full year of sales for the Chevrolet Volt range-extender and the Nissan Leaf EV full-electric have been weaker than expected. If car buyers didn’t hesitate over limited range and re-charging infrastructure, the cars’ high upfront

A technician at Nexeon, maker of advanced silicon anodes for Li-ion batteries, works with an experimental coater.


Tech Report

costs certainly scared off many potential customers. Those high price tags are largely driven by the cost of the lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery.

Unfortunately, those costs are not likely to drop anytime soon, according to Kevin See, lead analyst for the electric vehicle service of Lux Research, an independent research and advisory firm that focuses on emerging tech-nologies. “The costs are too high and will re-main so despite increasing economies of scale,” he stated, which bodes ill for wide-spread adoption of EVs in the near future. “We need innovations and new strategies to reduce the costs further, faster.”

While other promising avenues such as lith-ium-air, lithium-sulfur, and magnesium-based batteries may become available at some point, they all remain immature technologies. For the rest of the decade, plug-in vehicles’ fates will be tied to the cost of Li-ion batter-ies. “Lithium-air is a major value proposition,”

he noted, “but it can’t cycle repeatedly and it has a long way to go.”

Value-chain cost structure“We follow the entire value chain of the EV market, and it is the materials that go into the batteries that determine both its performance and cost,” See observed. The analyst and his colleagues try to read the tea leaves of the fu-ture EV market by developing a quantitative model of the cost structure of Li-ion batteries. They then use it to investigate how expected technological innovations might affect costs.

Reviewing Lux’s recent report, he empha-sized that while increasing manufacturing scale is critical, it will not be nearly enough to reach aggressive cost targets.

“The first premise we looked at is that scale will be the savior of the EV market, that rising production volumes will cut costs enough” to drive widespread vehicle acceptance, See said. Incremental improvements in materials properties and cost will help further, but the result still falls short of the major leap that will be required.

“That gets you nowhere close to the U.S. Advanced Battery Consortium target of $150/kW·h by 2020.”

The Lux team next ran the cost model to see what happens by 2020 if the batteries use the same materials as today but succes-sor designs are augmented by the incremen-tal technical innovations that are likely to oc-cur in the coming two decades. Such a “busi-ness-as-usual” scenario yielded nominal EV pack costs of $397/kW·h in 2020.

Battery makers’ secret sauceAside from liquid vs. solid/semisolid electro-lyte types, the report said, cathode technol-ogy remains the principal Li-ion cell differen-

Envia Systems’ high-energy-density Li-ion cells use cathode technology developed at Argonne National Laboratory. (Envia Systems)


June 26, 2012

tiator. It accounts for the largest percentage of cell cost and is typically the limiting factor in cell design and cell capacity.

Using their cost-barometer model, Lux re-searchers considered the effect on cost if an advanced Li-ion battery were to feature a voltage increase of 1 V (4.7 V overall) and a cell capacity rise of 40 MA·h/g, which would require a future cathode capable of storing 200 MA·h/g of electric charge. In this optimal case, the 2017 nominal pack cost drops from $477 to $384/kW·h, a 19% reduction.

The Lux report highlighted several cathode materials with higher capacity potential. Lithium-manganese-spinel is attractive for cost and safety but lags in energy—a fault that can be ameliorated by mixing it with high-energy-content materials such as nickel-manganese-cobalt-oxide (NMC) and lithium-nickel-oxide. The flexible NMC formulation provides tunable ratios of three elements for tailoring performance and cost. Lithium-iron-

phosphate (LFP) excels in safety characteris-tics but entails sacrifices in performance.

Meanwhile, other next-generation materials promise higher energy and lower costs, ac-cording to the Lux report. Cathodes with both higher capacity and voltage could boost en-ergy density and thus lower cost per kilowatt-hour. One possibility is lithium-iron-manga-nese-phosphate, which could retain the ad-vantages of LFP while significantly raising en-ergy content. An alternative is the lithium-rich “layered-layered” NMC cathode technology licensed from Argonne National Laboratory, which offers higher capacity and operating voltages. Issues with cycle life must be overcome before this material can be com-mercialized.

Anode innovations aheadSilicon represents one of the most highly re-searched alternative anode materials because

Cell costs come down with scale but remain high without further innovation.


of its high theoretical capacity, the report not-ed, but it will take time to emerge because sil-icon undergoes significant volume changes as lithium ions move in and out of it. This pro-cess mechanically stresses the anode, caus-ing breakage and limiting cycle life.

Lithium titanate, another alternative anode, has excellent power performance, potentially providing a strong value proposition for fast-charging batteries. Lithium titanate also al-lows for a higher degree of usable energy than carbon anodes, but it sacrifices energy density. Electrolyte suppliers look to mix and

match additives to push performance. Within the liquid, solid, or gel electrolyte categories, researchers vary the formulations to improve thermal stability and safety, for instance. As cathode developers seek to use higher volt-ages, voltage-resistant electrolytes will be-come crucial, according to the report. Ionic liquids may provide a long-term solution. These salts feature low melting temperatures, which allow for higher-voltage operation, but high costs and low ionic conductivity mean significant work remains before they will be ready for mass production.

SQM, FMC, Chemetall, Talison Lithium, Admiralty Resources

Component materials

Cathode materials: Toda Kogyo, Umicore, Sumitomo Chemical, Nippon Denko, Nichia, Mitsubishi Chemical, 3M, BASF, Dow Chemical, Formosa PlasticAnode material: Hitachi Chemical, JFE Chemical, Kureha, Mitsubishi Chemical, 3M, Conoco PhillipsSeparator: Toray, Celgard, Asahi Kasei, Ube Chemical, Entek, SK Innovation, Sumitomo Chemical, Mitsubishi ChemicalElectrolytes: Cheil, Mitsui Chemical, Ube Industries, Dow Chemical, Novolyte, Mitsubishi Chemical, Formosa Plastics, BASF

Cells

China BAK, E-One Moli, Dow Kokam, Boston-Power

AC Propulsion, Magna, Eaton

End users

Transportation: Ford, Chrysler, BMW, HyundaiUtility: ABB, American Electric Power, Xcel Energy, AESStationary power: GE, China Sanke Electrical, Eaton, APC (Schneider Electric), Liebert (Emerson), Toshiba,Portable power: Black & Decker, Original Power, Milwaukee Tools, Makita, military

Source: Lux Research Inc.

Raw materials Modules and packs

Saft, Tianjin Lishen (Lio), Ultralife

Tesla, Ford, General Motors

Panasonic/Sanyo (PEVE), NEC (AESC), GS Yuasa (Lithium Energy Japan and Blue Energy), LG Chem, SK Innovation, SB LiMotive, A123 Systems, Valence Technologies

Toyota (PEVE), Nissan (AESC), Mitsubishi (Lithium Energy Japan), Honda (Blue Energy)

BYD

The lithium-ion battery value chain is becoming more vertically integrated.

Tech Report


June 26, 2012

Optimize everything “There are a lot of different strategies,” See said, but some of the surest routes to cost re-ductions are: • Improved performance at the cell and pack level • More efficient use of materials • Expanded window of usable energy • Reductions in battery capacity fade. Batteries have to be oversized to ensure long-term function, as they suffer perfor-mance degradation over time, said See, who believes a potential cost savings of 20% to 30% can be realized by a reduction in over-sizing. Battery management technology also im-pacts costs. A battery management system can improve a battery’s performance with no improvement in the cell itself—especially in regards to cycle life and defense against the effect of defective cells—by controlling small-er groups of cells and optimizing the usable SOC window of each group of cells using new software algorithms. See said that the industry’s need for ma-terials innovation to drastically cut costs has led to significant activity in the lithium-ion bat-tery value chain, including capacity expan-sion, new entrants to the market, and partner-ships. “Suppliers and end users have to cooper-ate to grow the electric vehicle market fur-ther,” he advised. “Automakers are getting in-creasingly involved in battery design and even the materials, and they’ll need to sup-port and cooperate more and more with their suppliers.”

Steven Ashley

ENERGY

SAE J1772 ‘combo connector’ inches closer to adoption

J1772 enables a single vehicle inlet to be used for ac charging and for higher-rate dc charging. The first-generation J1772 plug fits into the upper part of the inlet, with the lower pins for dc charging left open. The new “combo connector” is similar to the first-generation J1772 plug but also incorporates pins to fit into the lower portion of the inlet.

SAE International’s J1772 “combo connec-tor,” which will allow for both slower ac charg-ing and faster dc charging of plug-in vehicles using a single vehicle electrical inlet, got its first North American public demo after months of internal testing by automakers.

The three major domestic automakers (Chrysler, Ford, General Motors) and the five major automakers from Germany (Audi,


BMW, Daimler, Porsche, Volkswagen) will use the new connector—an evolution of the existing J1772 connector—to charge electri-fied vehicle models at the Electric Vehicle Symposium in Los Angeles. The rollout of ac-tual production vehicles equipped with the new connector begins in CY2013.

The EVS show demo reflects strong sup-port among those automakers for J1772 over CHAdeMO (short for “charge and move”), the Japanese standard on which is based the connector currently used for dc fast charging on the Nissan Leaf and Mitsubishi i electric vehicles. The current-generation Chevrolet Volt is designed for the first-generation J1772 connector, which does not allow for dc fast charging. The two Japanese EV models are available with two vehicle electric inlets, one for CHAdeMO dc charging and one for J1772 ac charging. The Volt has a single J1772 inlet for ac charging only.

The advantages to having a single vehicle inlet include mass savings, cost savings, and customer convenience, according to Britta Gross, GM Director, Infrastructure Planning.

She said the purpose of the demo is, in part, to show that “this is a collaborative ef-fort. We [GM] learned a lot of lessons on the EV1, and we have vowed to make sure some of the hard lessons learned don’t happen again. One lesson is that we can’t go it alone on infrastructure, and on the standard for in-frastructure.

“So we vowed on the [Chevrolet] Volt pro-gram to not proceed until the industry had consensed around charging infrastructure. We focused on ac level 1 and 2 charging [J1772] and got unanimous agreement throughout the industry on it. With dc, the in-

dustry got together and agreed to leverage what’s been done on [J1772] to provide a small-package, ergonomically designed unit that leverages what we already had before.”

A revision to the J1772 standard that will accommodate the combo connector technol-ogy currently is out for ballot, according to Gery Kissel, Chair of the SAE International J1772 Task Force whose title at GM is Engineering Specialist, Global Codes and Standards Development. He said there is little reason to think it will not be approved by July or August.

Kissel said the standard will allow for charging up to 500 V, with maximum current of 200 A, “which could yield a charger up to 100 kW.”

He and Gross both say it is their hope that eventually the industry will coalesce around a single dc fast charge standard.

Patrick Ponticel

Gery Kissel, Chair of the SAE International J1772 Task Force, says the update to the standard should be completed by July or August. He is shown here holding an original J1772 connector at a conference in 2010. (Patrick Ponticel)

Tech Report


June 26, 2012

SIMULATION

A new approach to Li-ion battery modeling

of solid particles in electrodes. While the res-olution of scanning devices currently is rela-tively poor for such microscopic structures, there is no doubt that within a few years an adequate resolution will be possible. This will allow for the building of CAD models of solid and fluid regions of battery cell electrodes.

Commercial software allows creation of quality grids in arbitrarily complex geome-tries. Grid-generation methods based on tet-rahedral elements have been available for a long time. These elements are not best suited for diffusion-dominated problems such as those in battery electrodes, requiring layered (prismatic) meshes along solid-liquid interfac-es. However, over the past decade methods of generating polyhedral grid with prismatic layers along interfaces have been developed, allowing for an adequate resolution of com-plex geometry present in electrodes.

Computing power is steadily growing. Computational grids made of hundreds of

Most models of lithium-ion batteries follow the one-dimensional analysis approach. The major drawback of this is that the porosity and so liquid-phase salt transport and solid-phase electronic conductivity are not explic-itly resolved and the diffusion of Li into and out of solid is modeled using representative spherical particles assuming perfect symme-try. These modeling assumptions limit the achievable accuracy; refinement of spatial computational grid and time steps cannot overcome the modeling error introduced by the above assumptions.

Researchers at Battery Design LLC and CD-adapco set out on a new approach, one that would avoid the limitations of the stan-dard approach by resolving the structure of the electrode and explicitly modeling the transport of lithium in the electrolyte and solid phases. The following factors motivated the researchers to go down this path.

It is now possible to obtain exact geometry

Schematic representation of a section across a Li-ion battery cell, with typical dimensions of each component.


millions of control volumes currently are used in some advanced niche applications, such as Formula One, but it will become com-monplace in the near future.

The method to allow a detailed modeling of porous electrodes and associated processes is by explicitly separating solid and fluid re-gions within electrodes and performing a three-dimensional discretization based on fi-nite volume method. Used for this research were manufactured geometries that have similar porosity, tortuosity, and active-sur-face-area-to-volume ratio comparable to real electrode material in order to develop the ba-sic models and computational procedure. Real geometries can then be introduced as they become available without the need to modify the solution method. Other research groups are pursuing similar approaches.

The complex model was implemented with-in the finite volume framework of the compu-tational continuum mechanic software STAR-CCM+. A sample application was undertaken, focused on a small region of a LiMn2O4 chem-istry cell. The results were compared with an established 1-D model and favorable and re-alistic trends are shown within the 3-D model. Further studies will include the analysis of grid and time step dependence and the de-termination of minimum size of computational

domain needed to obtain reliable solutions with minimum effort.

Having shown the credibility compared to a 1-D model, this 3-D model will be further en-hanced to include detailed analysis of effects at the SEI layer to account for possible Li-ion plating due to local conditions. As the under-standing of other capacity-fade processes evolves within literature, these can be added to this base modeling framework.

Attention will also now turn to improve-ments in the generation of representative models and the overall user process to en-able industry to repeat and extend the report-ed work. In parallel to the generation of fur-ther idealized models (which will include bind-er, conducting aid, range of particle sizes and shapes, etc.), this code will also be used on data generated from scanning tomography of actual electrode samples, as soon as they become available with sufficient quality need-ed to generate computational models of the presented kind. Further effects that can be accounted for in the future include electrolyte flow, expansion and contraction of solid ma-terial during charging and discharging, edge effects, etc.This article is based on SAE technical paper 2012-01-0663 by Robert Spotnitz of Battery Design LLC; and Boris Kaludercic, Samir Muzaferija, Milovan Peric, Gaetan Damblanc, and Steve Hartridge, CD-adapco.

A completed mesh for cathode active material (the electrolyte has been removed for clarity).

Tech Report


June 26, 2012

POWERTRAIN

Marsilli advances ‘open poles’ motor winding for hybridsAccording to Marsilli, a leading winding sys-tems manufacturer based in Italy and an ex-hibitor at this year’s SAE World Congress in Detroit, brushless motor design is facing a “revolution phase” as traditional needle-wound or field-coil motors have reached their maximum efficiency, being limited mainly by the fill factor. Marsilli is advancing the open-poles motor winding concept to assist motor manufacturers in various markets, including automotive hybrids, actuators, and industrial automation, to increase motor performances by up to 20-25% and reduce material costs.

These performance improvements depend on the overall design of the motor and the specific motor application, according to S. Kumar Rajasekhara, President and CEO of Marsilli North America, based near Baltimore, MD. “It can be related to higher torque, better efficiency, and better material utilization. However, this performance result has been reported to us based on the increased fill fac-tors that we can achieve through our innova-tive winding concepts…Our strength is our ability to participate in a co-design effort to redesign the customer’s motor in order to achieve more of their goals along the lines of smaller, lighter, and material cost savings.”

Open-poles winding makes it possible, within the same space, to apply more wire turns to obtain a higher motor torque, or to use a larger wire size, allowing a higher motor current. “The inner side of the lamination stack design in a traditional closed stator is conditioned by the air gap required to allow

the needle passage between the pole-shoes,” the company explained. “Reducing the air gap between the pole-shoes, the magnetic field increases, reducing the cogging effect and making it possible to add more wire turns.”

Marsilli boasts two main advantages gained with this motor-winding process: higher pow-er density allows for the manufacture of a more powerful motor within the same size en-velope; or, if the same power output is main-tained, it is possible to reduce size and weight—and, consequently, material costs as well.

Lower wire stress during winding can also result in material-cost reduction, according to Marsilli, by allowing use of a less-expensive type of wire (thinner and less sophisticated in-sulation enamel). In addition, wire-length opti-mization reduces the copper cost; “the mag-netic field is proportional to the number of turns and not to their length, and considering that all wires out of the lamination are useless for creating the magnetic field,” the company noted.

A new motor winding product line, the MWM (Motor Winding by Marsilli), is struc-tured on two different series. One series is designed for a single-pole motor winding concept, to enable winding single stator poles and then allow for assembling and con-necting. The second series is designed to manage the chained phase concept—to wind an entire stator using the open chain pole and then closing the stator upon completion of winding.

For the single-pole MWM, known as the SX machine, the motor poles are wound singu-larly, then assembled on the lamination and electrically connected to create the stator. Suitable for complex winding designs (i.e., paired coils), the SX motor-winding machine


features a wire-clamping gripper to keep the wire ends in position, a special programmable device to control the crossing of the wires, optional wire stripping, and allows easy prod-uct changeover.

With the CX motor-winding machine for the chain-poles concept, the motor poles (already integrating into the lamination) are aligned one on side of the other on a tool, then the motor phases are wound around the poles, without cutting the wire between the poles. The pole stack is then closed to create the stator. Some of its main features include an interpolation winding method using torque motors, three programmable axes shuttle for precise winding layering (Z axis) and loading/unloading operations, three programmable axes system for parking and cutting devices, wire parking clamps on the shuttle, movable holding fixtures to simplify loading/unloading operations, and an optional stator automatic closing unit.

“We have already applied these concepts in steering motor applications, starter-motor generators, torque motors in various automo-tive applications, stepper motors for gauges, etc.,” said Rajasekhara. “Although there is currently no hybrid application in production, there is frenetic activity ongoing in developing the hybrid motor applications. Due to confi-dentiality reasons, we cannot divulge too many details about this ongoing development and co-design efforts with our customers.”

Is the technology suitable for heavier-duty commercial vehicles as well? “In general, yes; however, it depends upon the sizes of motors to be considered,” Rajasekhara told SAE Magazines. “We continue to expand our product offerings to include larger wire sizes,

motor sizes, etc., so it would not be appropri-ate to limit the applications that we would consider. We can also work with motorcycle and off-road vehicle applications.”

He added that Marsilli is “witnessing an ex-plosion of the use of motors as energy-effi-cient replacements to power-hungry automo-tive solenoids, which typically perform simple on-off functions. We expect this trend to push us toward greater innovation within the auto-motive motor industry.”

Ryan Gehm

Marsilli claims two main advantages gained with open-pole motor winding: higher power density allowing for a more powerful motor within the same size envelope; or, if the same power output is maintained, a possible reduction in size and weight.

Tech Report


June 26, 2012

ELECTRIFICATIONvehicle

What’s on evsae.com

SAE Vehicle Electrification Digital Magazine Schedule for 2012

In the past decade, “vehicle electrification” has rapidly evolved from a mere buzzword to a key element in every global OEM’s product-development plans.

For the engineers charged with developing the technology solutions that will drive elec-trification, SAE International has created an exclusive new source of information. It’s a new Vehicle Electrification Web portal at evsae.com created to be the “go-to” source for engineering professionals looking for the latest technical information on technology advances, product solutions, supplier news, and vehicle-development trends from the most plugged-in experts in the electrified-

vehicle field. You’ll also be able to find infor-mation on the latest SAE books, events, tech-nical papers, standards, and training—as well as content from an increasing number of SAE partners. The site is being updated and up-graded continually, so check it out and come back often.

In addition, this SAE Vehicle Electrification digi-tal magazine is part of a series devoted to the most significant hybrid and electric vehicles and the current and future technologies being devel-oped for them and other vehicles.

evsae.com is the new source of engineering connectivity. Bookmark it!

February 21

April 18

June 26

August 21

October 25

December 18

Electrifying interviews at SAE 2012 CongressSAE Magazines editors conducted a number of video-interviews at the April 24-26 SAE 2012 World Congress in Detroit. Two of them were with representatives of companies with products related to the electric vehicle. Paul Heitmann, Manager of Utility Solutions, ECOtality, spoke about his company’s Blink charging stations; the video can be viewed at right, or by visiting http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOF2JK3dL2c&feature=youtu.be.

Ken Stewart, Vice President of Business Development at Protean Electric, spoke about his company’s in-wheel motor technol-ogy. The video can be viewed at right, or by visiting http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=492IVJBdRd4&feature=youtu.be.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOF2JK3dL2c&feature=youtu.be

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOF2JK3dL2c&feature=youtu.be

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=492IVJBdRd4&feature=youtu.be

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=492IVJBdRd4&feature=youtu.be

vehicle electrification

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