ABAT - Advanced Electrical Storage

With increasing concerns of the future sustainability of our energy-intensive way of life, interest has grown recently on the positive impacts that storage of electricity can have on diversification of energy sources away from GHG -producing fuels and the utilization of renewable energy. With the exception of bio-fuels, most renewable energy (e.g.. wind, wave, hydro, solar etc...) is most usefully harvested as electricity. Given the intermittant and generally un-controllable nature of many renewable energy sources, there are clear benefits to being able to store surpluses of electricity for higher demand periods. This enables more efficient usage of renewable and non-renewable energy sources and can reduce capital and infrastructure costs. Consequently, ICPET has partnered with NRCan -CETC to evaluate and develop electrical storage systems for stationary applications ranging from residential to utility.

This project is currently focused largely on the development of next-generation, lithium ion battery technology required to enable its usage in the larger format batteries for stationary electrical storage and transportation applications. Electric storage for transporations is a key element of the Alternative Propulsion segment of the NRC Auto Sector Plan.

In the area of transportation, urban air quality and the rising cost of petroleum and other hydrocarbons is driving the rapidly growing interest in expanding electric transportation. Add to this the fact that transportation accounts for 25% of GHG emissions, 52% of NOx, 31% of VOCs, 76% of CO and 20% of PM2.5 in Canada as a whole (with much greater percentages in urban areas), and it is not hard to make a case for change. With recent advances in batteries, electric vehicles, once discounted as impractical are being re-considered. Hybrid electric vehicles, introduced only a few short years ago, have captured a large and ever increasing market at a pace that no one (except maybe Toyota) ever envisioned. Under the best circumstances, they can improve fuel efficiency by about 25%, but they still are fuelled almost solely (except through regenerative braking) by petroleum. Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles are anticipated to be the next-generation of HEVs. PHEVs (as they are now called) have all the benefits of HEVs including having a conventional combustion engine to provide unlimited range, and can also be "fuelled" with electricity from a standard electrical outlet. To make PHEVs better able to benefit from being fuelled electrically, the storage capacity of the battery is increased to increase the range that the vehicle can travel on electric drive. Almost all hybrid electric vehicles currently use nickel metal hydride batteries for their electrical storage. These batteries are ideal for HEVs as they combine high power density with excellent safety characteristics. However, they are not practical for PHEVs as their storage capacity is too low (i.e. they would consume all the cargo space in the vehicle), and there is little possibility of their meeting the cost targets for PHEVs. Lithium ion batteries have about 3 times greater energy density than nickel metal hydride batteries, and in recent years, their power density has improve to the point that is comparable to or better than the current batteries used in HEVs. However, much improvement is still required to improve their safety to the level required for transportation applications and to lower their cost. These are the main issues that the lithium ion battery research at ICPET is aimed to address. In addition to our in-house research program, ICPET manages a PERD / eco-ETI program on Electric Mobility on behalf of NRCan's Office of Energy R&D.

Related Information

Institutes:

• NRC Institute for Chemical Process and Environmental Technology