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Envia Systems twice the energy density of lithium cobalt

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http://www.enviasystems.com/
Envia has developed a cathode material based on inexpensive metals (including manganese) that stores more energy per unit of weight than anything else in use today – twice the energy density of lithium cobalt oxide. Because of the material’s stability at higher voltages, it is able to access high capacities with long cycle life. The combination of high capacity and low cost metals helps to significantly lower the price per kilowatt-hour (kWh) of energy storage. By putting more energy in each battery, the number of batteries required decreases – by 50% in Envia’s case, dramatically reducing the overall cost of the application.
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http://www.enviasystems.com/downloads/Press_Release_GM.pdf
GM Ventures Makes Strategic Investment in Envia Systems
2011-01-26
Leads an equity investment round of $17 million
Early testing of Envia’s composite cathode material shows improvement in energy density of lithium-ion cells by up to one-third for more capable and affordable electrically driven vehicles of the future DETROIT -- General Motors Ventures LLC invested $7 million in Newark, Calif.-based Envia Systems to provide GM’s battery engineering team with access to advanced lithium-ion cathode technology that delivers higher cell energy density and lower cost. In a separate agreement, GM has secured the right to use Envia’s advanced cathode material for future GM electrically driven vehicles.
“Skeptics have suggested it would probably be many years before lithium-ion batteries with significantly lower cost and higher capability are available, potentially limiting sales of electric vehicles for the foreseeable future,” said Jon Lauckner, president of GM Ventures. “In fact, our announcement today demonstrates that major improvements are already on the horizon.”
Other participating investors in Envia are Asahi Kasei and Asahi Glass; as well as current investors Bay Partners, Redpoint and Panagea Ventures. The funding of the investor group totaled $17 million.
“With our high-capacity manganese rich cathode material, Envia is addressing two key issues in the next generation battery cells – higher capability and lower cost,” said Atul Kapadia, founding investor, chairman and CEO of Envia Systems. “The investments announced today from GM and the two new strategic investors, demonstrate the excitement around our technology, as well as the importance of the challenge.
“We believe our battery materials have taken the technology lead that will help lower price points and unlock the market potential for our customers,” Kapadia said. “With our technology and products, we believe that Envia is best-positioned to win a significant portion of this very large battery materials market.”
Envia’s advanced cathode technology uses inexpensive materials that store more energy per unit of mass than current cathode materials. Since the cathode is a key driver for the overall battery cost, the more energy the cathode delivers, the lower the battery cost because fewer cells are needed.
“Our test results on small-format cells show that Envia’s high-capacity composite cathode material can increase the energy density of lithium-ion cells by up to one-third, at an equivalent level of reliability, safety and durability,” said Micky Bly, GM executive director for Electrical and Battery Systems. “We estimate this improvement in cell energy density and less expensive material will drive a substantial reduction in cell cost, leading to lower cost battery packs like the one in the Chevy Volt.” Envia’s cathode technology also will offer benefits for other devices and applications where low-cost, high-energy density storage solutions are needed.”
Said U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu: “Today we are once again seeing the benefits for the American people that come with federal investments in science and innovation. With this new agreement, a battery technology, originally developed at the Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory, is making its way into the market. By supporting American innovation, commercialization and manufacturing, this partnership is helping to boost U.S. competitiveness and create the jobs of the future.”
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tks
loCK
 
GM Ventures — the VC arm of the auto giant GM — is now rapidly starting
to invest its $100 million fund into auto tech innovations. This morning GM
Ventures said it has pumped $7 million into battery startup Envia Systems,
participating in a $17 million round, which also included Asahi Kasei, Asahi
Glass, Bay Partners, Redpoint and Panagea Ventures. GM says it has also
secured the rights to use Envia’s cathode materials for future GM vehicles.
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http://www.gigaom.com/cleantech/gm-ventures-invests-7m-in-battery-startup-envia/
 
Anyone know if we can buy these yet? $125/KWH!!!! I spent twice as much for half that :evil:
Thanks for shedding some light on these new batteries =D
 
neptronix said:
uh oh.. general motors investing in a battery tech company.. we all know how that ended up last time, now don't we.. :lol:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patent_encumbrance_of_large_automotive_NiMH_batteries

Let us hope history does not repeat itself.
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I think that things are a bit different, or at least I'm hoping that a big car maker like GM is not getting involved just to kill and bury this new tech. Let's look at it this way, maybe it's better that GM gets involved and ends up offering a 300+ mile E-car for under $25 000 instead of another company like Tesla taking this new tech just to keep on making cars that would still sell for over $150 000.
 
The current problem isn't the existence of stable high-voltage cathode materials. There are many.

The problem is an electrolyte that is both compatible, and doesn't break-down, that doesn't cost $10,000 a liter to make.
 
I want my 3KG battery to last me 20 miles at 40mph! : ) Any info on available prototype for DIY community? LOL

On snag though. Looking at the graph, it looks like capacity drops off quite a bit after a few charge cycles. So my guess is the 400Wh/Kg is probably when it's new. I think it will be closer to 250-260Wh/Kg once you "break it in." Still pretty good I guess.

http://enviasystems.com/announcement/
 
Yeah..seems like these are really 300wh/kg cells which is still awesome...but they need to fix the huge degradation over the first 10cycles before they can honestly claim 400wh/kg. Still...if 400wh/kg is possible for 10 cycles with these cells..maybe their 2nd gen cells will do it for 100-1000?!
 
neptronix said:
+ 45AH until 10 cycles, then it produces 35-25AH for the rest of it's working life - weird.
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Silicon anode structures have a huge volume change between charge and discharge. It causes pieces to break-away from being electrically connected to the current collector foils. This is what causes the traditional drastic capacity loss in the first few cycles of a battery using a silicon anode rather than a traditional carbon anode.

What is amazing, is that it doesn't keep falling off like other silicon anode batteries.

4kwhr in a ~30lbs pack. Yes please.

We need to know if it's powered by unicorn horn powder or something to hold the silicon together though...
 
liveforphysics said:
We need to know if it's powered by unicorn horn powder or something to hold the silicon together though...
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Rainbow-flavoured unicorn semen thankyou very much :wink:
 
Mmm! Rainbow flavored! My favorite kind!


So, poking the numbers around a bit, using their own numbers of 365g/cell, 45Ah, and 400wh/L, it means the nominal voltage is 3.24v.


The graph of the cathode voltage/capacity follows traditional LiCoO2 that was over-charged badly quite closely.

For example, charge your 5Ah Nano-tech cell to 4.45v and it will accept and discharge more than 7Ah. It just only lasts a dozen or so cycles before it's wrecked.

Regardless though, these are steps in the right direction and I'm very excited. :)
 
Yup steps in the right direction
 
lester12483 said:
They need to bring this technology out now and stop talking about it.
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It is not worth it just yet the cycle life is too short. And with gm involved who knows what will happen. But the truth is there is a lot of company's working on new battery tech and if they don't release it to sell it they will go bankrupt. You can't develop a new battery and hold the tech secret and not release it because its just a matter of short time till someone else beets you to market with something equal or better! So you will see batteries come out that are better all in time.
 
Arlo1 said:
...
It is not worth it just yet the cycle life is too short......
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is 300 cycles really too short for e-bikes ?

at best, i charge every 2 days, and i'm generous here, so that's 2 years life almost if i'm not mistaken.

If they don't sell them too expensive, in 2 years i'll want to move on to the next generation anyway.

so do we really need much more than 500 cycles for e-bikes ?

not sure.
 
I charge 1-4 times a day! Yes a bigger battery needs less cycles but i am just trying to say give it a little while and i bet they get these batteries to >1000 cycles!!!
 
It's funny, because in 10 cycles, it goes from 400wh/kg to 300wh/kg, and then it's showing the cathode profile of overcharging far past what current solvent/electrolyte limitations are. Realistic cathode voltage profile for available materials science is going to put it ~250wh/kg (and the cycle life should go UP in a huge way). Then it's a 0.3C rate cell... Add in the proper foil thickness to carry decent currents to be useful in an EV, add in the carbon particles to make it conduct decently enough to use at EV c-rates, and you're going to be down in the 180wh/kg like all the other decent EV pouch cells all reading being used.
 
It's funny, because in 10 cycles, it goes from 400wh/kg to 300wh/kg
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it is not losing capacity @ the rate it seems...

first cycles are at 100%DOD with increasing c rates, there after they discharge to 80%DOD (@C/3) hence the cliff...
 
liveforphysics said:
It's funny, because in 10 cycles, it goes from 400wh/kg to 300wh/kg, and then it's showing the cathode profile of overcharging far past what current solvent/electrolyte limitations are. Realistic cathode voltage profile for available materials science is going to put it ~250wh/kg (and the cycle life should go UP in a huge way). Then it's a 0.3C rate cell... Add in the proper foil thickness to carry decent currents to be useful in an EV, add in the carbon particles to make it conduct decently enough to use at EV c-rates, and you're going to be down in the 180wh/kg like all the other decent EV pouch cells all reading being used.
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The more i read about it, the more it sounds like it's more suited to an electric car that would have a >1000 mile range.

Most people would probably put 1 cycle on it each month, lol..
 
Envia has created a lithium ion battery that has an energy density of 400 watt-hours per kilogram
Envia says with an energy density of 400 watt-hours per kilogram, its battery cell costs could be at $125 per kWh

http://gigaom.com/cleantech/a-battery-breakthrough-that-could-bring-electric-cars-to-the-masses/
 
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