KPIT, an India-based automotive software program and engineering options provider, has unveiled its proprietary sodium-ion battery know-how, and is now looking out for manufacturing companions. Ravi Pandit, chairman of KPIT, tells pv journal, that that the corporate has developed a number of variants with vitality density starting from 100 Wh/kg to 170 Wh/kg, and probably reaching 220 Wh/kg.
Whereas lithium-ion battery costs have this 12 months returned to a downward trajectory, the curiosity in promising sodium-ion batteries has not waned. Most lately, India-based KPIT has developed a sodium-ion-based battery know-how that it plans to license to potential companions who might manufacture and commercialize this know-how.
KPIT, which has a robust foothold in software program growth, integration, and validation for electrification packages for main OEMs within the international automotive area, has developed this know-how in cooperation with the Indian Institute of Science Training and Analysis (IISER) based mostly in Pune. The scientific workforce made contributions to materials synthesis, characterization, and battery testing.
“Lithium deposits are concentrated in only a few locations on this planet and lithium processing is concentrated in a single or two nations. That’s the reason about eight years in the past we began taking a look at alternate options to lithium and we needed to have a look at these alternate options which have been ubiquitously accessible throughout the globe and that is why we began engaged on sodium-ion know-how,” Ravi Pandit, chairman of KPIT tells pv journal.
So far, the corporate has developed a number of variants of its sodium-ion know-how with distinct efficiency traits and vitality density starting from 100-170 Wh/kg.
“Once we began engaged on sodium-ion batteries, the preliminary expectation of vitality density was fairly low however during the last eight years the vitality density has been going up due to the developments that we and different corporations have been finishing up,” Pandit says.
The present iteration of KPIT’s sodium-ion cells has an vitality density of 110 Wh/kg and have carbon-based anode and polyanionic cathode.
“We quickly realized a number of benefits of sodium-ion chemistry equivalent to energy density. You’ll be able to cost a sodium ion battery 100% p.c in lower than 20 minutes with 3C charging and nonetheless you will get a protracted life,” Pandit says. “We’ve been testing the cells for about 4,000 to five,000 cycles with such aggressive charging. Nonetheless, in actual world you do not have to do 3C cost on a regular basis and also you don’t should cost to 100% on a regular basis so the precise cycle life might be a lot greater.”
In accordance with Pandit, KPIT additionally has batteries with an vitality density of 135 and even 170 Wh/kg that are displaying steady habits. Nonetheless, the latter ones haven’t been run for 3,000 cycles. “We imagine that we will even go to approach as much as 220 Wh/kg with completely different combos of anodes and cathodes, which comes fairly near the lithium-iron-phosphate lithium-ion chemistry,” Pandit says.
Along with energy density and long-life perks in addition to quicker charging than lithium-ion batteries, Pandit additionally underlines glorious sub-zero and high-temperature tolerance with minimal thermal administration as one other benefit of sodium-ion battery know-how.
“Not like lithium-ion batteries, sodium-ion might be discharged to zero after which safely transported,” he provides.
Sodium-ion know-how has a number of use instances for automotive and mobility, particularly for electrical two and 3-wheelers and industrial automobiles. It additionally has promising functions in stationary deployments, equivalent to UPS backups and grid storage, in addition to within the marine and protection sectors.
“Once we began, we have been largely taking a look at electrical automobile functions for sodium-ion know-how as a result of our key focus is on city mobility,” Pandit says. “We see nice potentialities for this know-how is shared transportation, but additionally in private automobiles. Combining sodium-ion batteries with gas cells is especially fascinating for long-distance heavy-duty software.”
Since KPIT has developed the chemistry ground-up, it may readily tune it to various kinds of functions. “If you happen to have been to have a look at an vitality density of 60 or 70 Wh/kg per and at charging at 1.5 C then you’ll be able to simply count on 20,000 charge-discharge cycles which might make it an ideal match for grid-scale storage functions,” Pandit says.
KPIT has already established a community of provide chain companions and is now actively searching for manufacturing companions, additionally amongst its OEM purchasers.
“Our know-how was developed as a whole drop-in know-how for the lithium-ion batteries, so we’ll want solely small modification within the precursor stage or within the mixing stage to make use of the identical manufacturing traces to supply sodium-ion batteries,” Pandit says. “Because of this establishing a producing plant can take anyplace between 10 to 12 months relying on the accomplice’s state of readiness so that’s the time it’ll take for a launch in a industrial sense.”
In accordance with Pandit, KPIT is already involved with an organization in Germany that does prototype manufacturing on a ten MW manufacturing line and might be expanded to a gigawatt-scale.
“I imagine sodium-ion will play a giant function within the automotive sector even earlier than 2030 and we’ll see vital scale in two years time,” he says. “Within the stationary storage software, the chances are big. Solely pumped hydro will have the ability to match the value level of large-scale sodium-ion batteries.”
Earlier than its newest know-how announcement, KPIT was primarily engaged within the work on battery administration techniques, battery packaging, in addition to the general electrical powertrain. As well as, it has additionally labored on gas cells, which based on Pandit will probably be formally launched within the foreseeable future.
This content material is protected by copyright and will not be reused. If you wish to cooperate with us and want to reuse a few of our content material, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
