2023-10-29 08:00:00
All rechargeable batteries work on the same general principle. They are all equipped with two electrodes, which are the arrival points of the electrical charges. In lithium-ion batteries like those found in cars and cell phones today, electrical charges (lithium atoms, in this case) go to an electrode called an anode during recharging, and to the other electrode (the cathode) during use. And between the two electrodes there is a liquid called electrolyte through which the charges come and go.
It is this type of battery that the future factory that the Swedish giant Northvolt intends to build east of Montreal must manufacture, attracted by massive government aid: $2.9 billion from the provincial and $4.4 billion from the federal government. according to what was revealed last month.
Now, it is true that this announcement came at a time that may seem a little strange. Almost everyone who researches batteries agrees that the next technological leap will come from what are called solid state batteries, a major difference from batteries. current is that, as their name indicates, the electrolyte between the anode and the cathode is not liquid, but solid.
These batteries, it is predicted, could store twice as much energy per volume/weight as current Li-ion batteries, which would give electric vehicles a range of 1,200 km — and they would recharge much faster, too. space of only 15 minutes.
Currently, we are capable of achieving this kind of performance in the laboratory, but large-scale production is not expected to be possible before at least 2030, and probably quite a bit later because the industrial processes required do not yet exist and their development promises to be difficult, according to an article published in 2021 in the scholarly journal Energy Letters.
From 2027?
But now, the automobile giant Toyota announced last July that it had made a major breakthrough in this area, and has added a layer in the Financial Times at the start of the week: mass production of solid electrolyte batteries could occur as early as 2027, so we might as well say tomorrow morning.
Many experts have been perplexed by these announcements, but they nonetheless raise the question: what will happen to the Northvolt factory if Li-ions are called upon to be replaced sooner or later? less short term by solid electrolytes? Will we witness a scenario like Nokia and Blackberry, these two former giants of cell phones which were practically wiped off the map in just 4 or 5 years by the arrival of the iPhone? And will the Northvolt factory become a huge white elephant?
The question is all the more relevant as there is no longer much “space” left to improve Li-ion, whose performance is approaching its theoretical physical limits, we read at the start of the year in Nature Communications.
But despite everything, it is very unlikely that this type of disaster scenario will come true, comments Mickaël Dollé, a chemistry researcher at the University of Montreal who is carrying out work on solid electrolyte batteries. And for more than one reason, in fact.
Objective: cars
“It always takes a period of at least 5 to 10 years to transition from one technology to another,” he says. I looked at what happened with metal hydride batteries [l’ancienne technologie de piles rechargeables qui fut remplacée par le lithium-ion], and that’s about how long it took. And that’s only if the new technology really respects all the conditions of competition on the market. »
That would take it into the late 2030s — assuming Toyota actually manages to begin mass production as early as 2027-28, which remains a very big assumption for now. However, it is a safe bet that solid electrolyte batteries will not respect all market conditions, at least not initially, says Mr. Dollé.
“What we are aiming for with solid electrolytes is, first and foremost, electric vehicles,” he explains. And there, it’s really going to be a question of cost. For a new technology like solid state, it will probably start more in a niche market like luxury cars. So initially, it will probably benefit Lexus more [marque de prestige de Toyota]. »
As there are still only around 10% of new vehicles sold in the world that are electric (or plug-in hybrids) and this share is growing rapidly, we can reasonably think that there is still quite a bit of room, and for a long time, for new Li-ion factories.
And even if solid electrolytes took up all the space fairly quickly – within, say, 10 or 15 years – that would not necessarily mean that the Northvolt factory would become a big empty hangar. Because yes, there would in principle be a way to recycle certain important parts of a Li-ion factory for the manufacture of solid electrolyte batteries.
“It would of course require adjustments, but, if we look at the electrode shaping techniques used today, there is no reason why it cannot be modified to accommodate solid electrolytes,” says M. . Dollé. Especially if the company has already made the investments for the equipment, because it is very expensive. »
“The possibility of doing that would also depend on the type of technology, because there are several different kinds of solid state [donc plusieurs sortes d’électrodes différentes] which are currently being developed, he continues. But on this point, I would also say that the fact that there is not yet a solid electrolyte technology that all manufacturers consider to be THE most promising, that means that it will probably remain in small markets at first. beginning. »
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