Project description
Next-generation lithium-ion batteries
Lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries are an advanced battery technology that are used in a wide range of products including personal electronics and electric vehicles. They are also a key enabling technology in emerging markets like grid-scale renewable energy integration and aerospace. To ensure the continued success of these markets, new innovations in Li-ion battery technology are needed to improve performance and reduce the reliance on critical raw materials. The EU-funded Hydra project aims to develop a new generation of Li-ion technology that uses sustainable materials to improve the energy, power, and cost of the battery. The project will combine novel materials and environmentally friendly manufacturing techniques with pilot-scale cell manufacturing to develop high-energy batteries with long lifetime. Moreover, it will build a synergy with strong investments by the project’s industrial partners, aiming to retain a significant market share for Europe.
Objective
The core technological approach of the HYDRA project consists of using hybrid electrode technology to overcome the fundamental limits of current Li-ion battery technology in terms of energy, power, safety and cost to enter the age of generation 3b of Li ion batteries.
HYDRA, taking its name from the mythological beast, will use a multi-headed integrative approach: In addition to novel material development and scale-up of components and battery cells manufacturing, assisted by modelling, HYDRA will build a synergy with strong investments by the project’s industrial partners and foster reaching and keeping a significant market share for Europe.
The necessary competitiveness will be obtained by hybridizing high energy with high power materials.
These materials will be implemented at the cell/electrode level, via sustainable, eco-designed scaled-up manufacture and safe electrolyte systems, demonstrated in pilot scale to TRL6, and will be ready for commercialisation 3 years after the project end.
To reach this target, HYDRA mobilizes a strong industry commitment: the partners include a strong value-chain of suppliers with global competitiveness for xEV batteries and a direct liaison to the market in sectors such as automotive and maritime transport, ensuring a fast-uptake of results, with an added value of 1BN € in the next decade.
Ecological and economical sustainability also keep a strong importance, as HYDRA will be performing life cycle assessments and value-chain analyses on local and global scales. All aspects from raw materials via battery cell production and end-use/market to recycling and 2nd life usage will be evaluated.
The HYDRA concept uses abundant electrode materials like iron, manganese and silicon, and eliminates the use of the CRMs cobalt and natural graphite, with a net CRM reduction of >85%. The new materials will be produced in an environmentally friendly, energy-efficient manner, and using water in place of organic solvents.
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Funding Scheme
RIA - Research and Innovation actionCoordinator
7034 Trondheim
Norway