Swedish sodium-ion battery developer ALTRIS was selected by InnoEnergy as one of the winning applications for a 2-year innovation project that aimed to scale up its cathode material for Na-ion batteries. The InnoEnergy’s Innovation Project initiative selects companies with sustainable energy innovations that have high commercial potential and provides them with investment funding.
FENNAC project focused on two areas: production scale-up / commercialisation of Fennac, as well as performance and safety testing. ALTRIS was thankful to be joined by two heavyweight partners to realise this project. Ahlstrom-Munksjö, a French manufacturer of fiber-based products that provided heat-resistant separators for the Fennac-based battery cells and CIDAUTthe Foundation for Transport and Energy Research and Development in Spain to develop and perform safety cell testing.
The project kicked off in July 2021 with an extensive feasibility study, which included analysis of the market, competitors, value chain, IP protection strategy, business model, and financial projections. The project finished in July 2023 and the outcomes of the project were presented including the design of the pilot production line, procurement of the required large-scale equipment, the design of the recycling system and the required equipment from Altris. CIDAUT also presented his extensively work on the development of test protocols for the safety of Fennac-based cells, with results from the cell components mechanical deformation analysis, the different abuse tests on the complete cells and the simulation models developed in the project to understand the severity of failures in the Na-ion batteries.
Outcomes from the FENNAC project were recently presented from ALTRIS with their commercial-sized sodium-ion battery cell with the highest energy density to date (160 Wh/kg). This achievement is made in a research partnership with NORTHVOLT, a Swedish supplier of high-quality battery cells, which intends to use sodium-ion technology as a foundation for its next-generation energy storage solutions in upcoming markets.
The 244th ECS meeting took place at Gothenburg (Sweden) from the 8th to the 12th of October. This international conference brings together the most active researchers in academia, government, and industry—professionals and students—to engage, discuss, and innovate in the areas of electrochemistry and solid-state science and related technologies. This is the premier destination for industry professionals to experience five days of learning, technical presentations, business development, and networking opportunities.
CIDAUT had the opportunity to present its work on the development of simulation models to improve battery safety. This work is focused on the lithium metal batteries (LMBs) safety studies including the investigation of predictive models to determine the critical parameters that would lead to potential failure and provide critical insights to understand the mechanical and internal short circuit behaviour of LMBs under mechanical abuse. Having a numerical model that correctly represents the cells and its response under different abuse tests could allow identifying main issues and helping on the cell design and chemistries to be used. To develop these models using LS-Dyna, it has been necessary to carry out studies of mechanical deformation on cell components and the complete cells. These studies have offered a better knowledge of the deformation of the inner components of the battery being useful to identify the mechanism that initiate short circuits under mechanical misuse conditions. Building numerical models for batteries requires experimental work that provides not only the data for mechanical behaviour of individual components (anode, cathode, separator, etc.), but also validation data for simulations of internal short circuit induced by mechanical abuse.
Last July, the kick-off meeting of the COLHIBRI project was held at the CIDAUT facilities. The meeting was attended by the project partners: COGERSA, IMASA TECHNOLOGIES (IMATECH); Ingeniería y Biogás, S.L. (Inbiogas); JALVASUB Engineering SL and CIDAUT Foundation as coordinator.
The general objective of this project is to develop new systems for the production of electrical and thermal energy based on H2 technologies that constitute a more efficient and cleaner alternative to current cogenerations based on ICE (Internal Combustion Engine). It is also intended that, within the solutions based on H2 technologies, the proposed interaction between them will allow an advantageous solution to be obtained in terms of both investment and operating costs. The strategic objectives consider enhancing the transition towards the circular economy and creating more efficient ways for the production of renovable H2 from biogas, as well as increasing the available supply of renewable H2 and decarbonising the waste treatment industry (WWTP, landfills, anaerobic digestion of waste, etc.).
The kick-off meeting served to officially start research on each of the subsystems that make up the mobile research laboratory that will eventually integrate the complete system consisting of the biogas treatment system, the reforming system for obtaining H2 and the high-temperature PEM stack that will use the H2 obtained. The consortium was convened for an upcoming meeting to start sharing the requirements of each of these subsystems.
During these months, work has also been carried out on the development of the project website (https://colhibri.es/), as well as on the presentation of the project at various dissemination events such as the Green Gas Mobility Summit in Madrid and the III Renewable Gas Exhibition (III Salón del Gas Renovable) in Valladolid.
This project, with file number PR-H2CVAL4-C1-2022-0054, has been approved in the first call corresponding to the “Incentive Programme 4: Basic-Fundamental Research Challenges, Innovative Pilots and Training in Key Enabling Technologies within the Incentive Programmes for the Innovative and Knowledge-based Renewable Hydrogen Value Chain”, included in the framework of the Incentive Programmes for the Innovative and Knowledge-based Renewable Hydrogen Value Chain in the Framework of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan – Funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU.
In recent months, CIDAUT has participated in various conferences and congresses to discuss and disseminate CIDAUT’s vision of the current energy transition.
On 27 June, Alfonso Horrillo, head of CIDAUT’s Energy and Environment area, moderated the round table “Society and Energy Transition” at the 10th Sernauto Congress. He discussed the need to decarbonise mobility by using technologies that allow us to find the right solution for each type of mobility. To this end, we have the challenge of offering citizens sustainable and affordable mobility while maintaining the competitiveness of the industry.
The III OKGREEN Conference “Present and future of green hydrogen in Castilla y León” was held on 5 July in Valladolid, organised by Ok Diario and sponsored by DH2 Energy. José Ignacio Domínguez, head of Energy projects at the CIDAUT Foundation, participated by commenting on the importance of renewable hydrogen as a decarbonising energy vector. He also recalled that we are at the moment of implementing the new hydrogen economy, being necessary to continue with the technological development to reduce costs and increase the reliability of these hydrogen technologies.
Finally, CIDAUT also actively participated in the Green Gas Mobility Summit 2023, organised by GASNAM-Neutral Transport on 20 and 21 September in Madrid. This congress is the reference point for the use of renewable gases in the mobility sector in Spain. During this event, CIDAUT presented different initiatives in which it is working to introduce hydrogen in maritime and road transport. Some of these projects in which CIDAUT participates are: Hydromar project, NewBunker project, Zeppelin project and Colhibri project.
The presentation of Hydeal took place on 14 June at the Nexo Fundación Caja de Burgos building in the capital of Burgos. This project constitutes the largest integrated renewable and competitive hydrogen hub in the world, which will create a “new and clean industrial revolution”, and will be an “opportunity” for the economic development of Castilla y León. This was defined by the president of the Hydeal Ambition platform, Thierry Lepercqu, who unveiled this project at a business meeting in Burgos of the Castilla y León Hydrogen Association (H2CYL). CIDAUT, as a member of this association, had the opportunity to attend the meeting and share impressions with the attendees and the other members of the association.
Hydeal is a project that was born in Spain three years ago and is based on the generation of green hydrogen in Castilla y León for the production of green steels, fertilisers and green ammonia. During the presentation of the project, the Hydeal representative explained that this project can be used in industrial developments or in mobility, and can “feed industrial parks”, which are “smaller consumers”, but thanks to this project they can “change their processes not only in a clean way, but also in a competitive way”. He stressed that one of the most important things about hydrogen is that it is “competitive”.
The meeting, which was attended by the Director General of Economic Policy and Competitiveness of the Junta de Castilla y León, Rosa Cuesta, the Director General of Industry of the Junta de Castilla y León, Jesús Jimenez and representatives of the Regional Energy Entity and the Directorate General of Infrastructures and Environmental Sustainability, brought together more than 70 attendees from 50 different companies, both from the Region and from outside it.
The meeting took the opportunity to host the first meeting of the associates of the Castilla y León Hydrogen Association (H2CYL), including CIDAUT. This meeting aimed to “promote consumption generation projects and technological development in the field of renewable hydrogen”, as explained by its president, Rafael Barbero.
The Automotive Cluster of Castilla y León, FaCyL, as part of the activities programmed by the Think Tank ‘Retos de Futuro de la Automoción de Castilla y León’ of the sectorial brand Polo de la Automoción, brought together around twenty experts on June 8. The objective was to share knowledge and develop a strategic vision on the roadmap for the sustainability of this ecosystem on the occasion of the celebration of Environment Day. This collaborative activity seeks to draw a strategic path for companies in the community in this area.
CIDAUT’s participation, led by José Ignacio Domínguez, from the Energy and Environment area, provided the vision of a technology centre with extensive experience in the automotive sector. Sustainability is one of the key lines of research, both from the point of view of the circular economy of the materials used, and from the perspective of efficiency and zero emissions from the propulsion systems of battery electric and hydrogen fuel cells vehicles. This activity provided an insight into how automotive companies in the autonomous community are facing the challenges involved in adapting to the manufacturing process of new vehicle models that are more environmentally friendly. In addition, the dynamic has also made it possible to exchange experiences on how companies see the new mobility and what actions can be developed to achieve a better understanding between all the actors involved in this challenge.
