https://newatlas.com/energy/catl-500-wh-kg-condensed-battery
CATL launches ultra-high density 500-Wh/kg "condensed battery"
By Loz Blain
April 20, 2023
CATL says it's ready for mass production of super-dense 500-Wh/kg lithium batteriesCATL
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In huge news for zero-emissions aviation, Chinese company CATL is set to go
to mass production on a "condensed battery" it says can squeeze in more than twice as much energy as a Tesla Model Y battery, by weight – while being
safe enough to fly with.
Lithium batteries started an avalanche of innovation when they became widely available, largely because they could hold significantly more energy by
weight than other contemporary chemistries. Touchscreen smartphones, drones, all-day laptops, long-range electric cars and the first generation of battery-powered aircraft were some of the results.
But more energy storage is always better – you can either make things last longer, or weigh less – and manufacturers have been racing to raise the bar with next-gen battery technologies. One key metric in the aviation world is specific energy – the amount of energy stored per kilogram of battery, and
CATL says it's ready to set a new benchmark.
The lithium-based condensed battery was launched Wednesday at the Auto
Shanghai expo, with CATL claiming blockbuster energy density figures "up to
500 Wh/kg." The highest density cells we've seen previously would be from Amprius, which was shipping batteries at 450 Wh/kg more than a year ago. Meanwhile, the 4680 battery cells in Tesla's Model Y are being measured at around 244 Wh/kg.
CATL says the new batteries feature innovations in "ultra-high energy
density cathode materials, innovative anode materials, separators, and manufacturing processes," and use "highly conductive biomimetic condensed
state electrolytes to construct a micron-level self-adaptive net structure
that can adjust the interactive forces among the chains," improving performance, efficiency and stability.
Other than the banner figure for specific energy, the company is giving
little away at this point. We don't yet know what these cells will offer in terms of energy density by volume, for example, or power density. CATL says they'll deliver "excellent charge and discharge performance as well as good safety performance."
High-density batteries could be huge for electric passenger aircraft
CATL
The company says it's already partnering with electric aircraft companies, looking to satisfy aviation-grade safety and quality standards. Clearly this will be of extreme interest to anyone developing an eVTOL aircraft, provided the cells can put out enough power for VTOL operations – but electric fixed-wing passenger aircraft will also get an impressive range boost out of this tech.
CATL says it "can achieve mass production of condensed battery in a short period of time," and indeed, it expects to put an automotive-grade version
of this battery into mass production before the end of the year – although
we don't know what kind of specific energy figure we can expect from that.
We've seen plenty of next-gen battery technologies promising huge density figures over the last five or more years, but far fewer that make it through
to the product stage. So it's exciting to hear that these are likely to
start rolling out in serious numbers in the coming months.
Source: CATL
https://www.catl.com/en/news/6015.html
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