Energy Storage

Polyplus is a US company that develops solid-state and semi-solid state electrolytes for lithium-air, lithium-sulphur and advanced lithium-ion batteries. After 20 years of R&D, they are now ready to enter both military and consumer electronics applications.

Lithium-sulfur batteries are considered to be one of the most competitive candidates for "post-lithium" technology due to their advantageous cost and specific energy.

Researchers have succeeded in recovering important metals - lithium, cobalt and nickel - from battery waste with nearly 100 per cent purity.

InEnSto is an Israeli startup developing primary batteries with unprecedented energy density. Technology Analyst Lorenzo Grande interviewed their team.

Seeo is a US battery start-up that was recently acquired by Bosch. They have developed an innovative solid polymer electrolyte that can be coupled with lithium metal to boost gravimetric and volumetric energy density, while making the device safer.

Prieto Battery is a company developing polymer-based Li-ion batteries. They have struck strategic partnerships with Intel and Black & Decker.

Hydro Quebec is a Canadian company developing lithium metal sheets for lithium metal batteries. They can manufacture said sheets down to 20 micron thickness.

Johnson Battery Techonologies is a spinout of Excellatron Solid State LLC that is developing solid-state batteries that can have 2-3 times the energy density of conventional Li-ion and are able to operate in a broad temperature range. The applications envisioned include, and are not limited to, the oil&gas, medical, wearables, and automotive industries.

Kalptree is working on microbatteries that can be bundled together to enable flexible devices. The company was founded in the Silicon Valley in late 2012.

Flashcharge Batteries is a company based in Florida developing fast-charging energy storage devices based on redox polymers. They claim 60x faster charging rates, 20x more power and 50x longer cycle life than conventional Li-ion batteries.

Enovix is a company founded by former executives at Intel, Form Factor and SunPower to produce Li-ion batteries with pure silicon anodes. The company's 3D architectural approach is supposed to deliver 16% improvements in performance year-on-year.

Blue Solutions is a French company that produces Li-ion batteries that employ a lithium metal anode and a polymer electrolyte. These rechargeable batteries are used in Bolloré's Bluecar, an electric microcar with a 250 km driving range.

The pace is hotting up. As the lithium-ion battery business grows rapidly over the coming 15 years a vital way of buying time, clout in purchasing materials, routes to market, technology, economy of scale and brand awareness will be acquisitions.

In the quest for a radically better lithium-ion battery, a promising direction is the so-called "lithium-rich" cathode, in which the cathode contains a higher proportion of lithium than normal.

Tesla Motors is well known as an electric vehicle maker. But it also has business in energy storage sector, especially with the launch of Powerwall/Powerpack, which is a significant part of its future business and layout.

IDTechEx spoke with Christelle Nay, Communication Manager at Saft, about their engagement in the battery industry for use in industrial, commercial and large scale marine vessels applications.

Engineers have created an edible supercapacitor that can wipe out E. coli or power a camera from inside the body.

In May 2016, China's largest lead acid battery maker Chaowei admitted the domestic lead-acid E bike battery market has stopped growing and will only remain stable for the next five years.

How will trucks clean up their act to avoid becoming illegal under the impending 2025 and 2030 legislation? This article discusses the different approaches.

In the first of a series of articles on the future of battery manufacturing, IDTechEx Technology Analyst Lorenzo Grande describes the opinions and outlook from the German players relative to the latest worldwide trends in battery manufacturing.