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Electric vehicle battery research in US gets $11 million

Seven research projects aiming to develop advanced batteries for electric vehicles are to receive $10.96 million from the US Department of Energy (DOE) over the next three years.

The projects, which are being supported by the DOE from its annual appropriations, will also receive a further $19.36 million in private sector contributions.

Improving the performance of battery materials and developing the manufacturing processes to produce them are the main focus on the funding, which ultimately aims to reduce the cost of batteries for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs).

Last December, the DOE announced initial funding for projects at 3M Company, BASF Catalyst LLC and FMC Corporation totalling $13.9 million, including cost-sharing.

The additional funding announced yesterday will provide $1.1 million to A123Systems to develop a high throughput electrode fabrication process for its lithium-ion batteries.

Meanwhile, Angstron Materials LLC will receive $1.6 million from the DOE for a $3.2 million project investigating nano carbon fiber/graphene high-capacity anodes. Nanofiber anodes, this time a high-energy composite, will be the subject of a $1.35 million joint project at North Carolina State University and American Lithium Energy LLC.

The DOE is also funding an $800,000 project at SION Power Corporation to demonstrate the viability of lithium sulphur (Li-S) rechargeable battery technology.

The performance of lithium-ion batteries will be addressed with three projects. EnerDel Inc. gets $3.3 million to overcome the problem of overcharging, while $2.36 million will go to TIAX LLC to prevent internal short circuits. And finally, MaxPower Inc. will receive $500,000 to adapt its battery management systems to lithium-ion batteries.

For further information:
www.energy.gov

17 June 2009

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