The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has agreed to invest in seven cost-shared research projects for the development of advanced batteries for electric drive vehicles. The total DOE investment for these projects is up to $10.96 million over three years, subject to annual appropriations. Private sector contributions will further increase the financial investment for a total of up to $19.36 million. The selections are part of DOE's continuing work to develop high-efficiency electric drive vehicle battery technologies and is part of President Obama's energy security strategy.
The projects will focus on improving battery material performance, developing manufacturing processes to increase performance, and decreasing the cost of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) batteries. PHEVs are hybrid vehicles that can be driven in electric-only mode and recharged from a standard electric outlet. These vehicles provide fuel diversity and decreased petroleum consumption. The acceleration of lithium-ion battery development is a key step in the successful commercialization of PHEVs, which will be capable of traveling up to 40 miles without recharging.
These projects were selected from the Vehicle Technologies Program In December 2008, DOE announced the initial selection of three battery materials and manufacturing projects. They were 3M Company (St Paul, Minnesota), BASF Catalyst LLC (Iselin, New Jersey, and Elyria, Ohio) and FMC Corporation (Charlotte, North Carolina). The additional selections in this announcement are:
- A123Systems, Inc of Watertown, Massachusetts, has been selected for negotiation of an award for up to $1.1 million for a project to develop a high throughput electrode fabrication process for their lithium ion battery technology.
- General Motors Corporation of Detroit, Michigan; and HST Auto of Escondido, California; has been selected for negotiation of a three-year award of up to $3.2 million with a DOE share of up to $1.6 million, project to develop hybrid nano carbon fiber/graphene platelet-based high-capacity anodes for lithium batteries.
- EnerDel Inc. of Indianapolis, Indiana, has been selected for negotiation of an award for up to $3.3 million for a project to develop a chemical shuttle agent that will eliminate the danger of overcharging lithium ion batteries developed for plug in hybrid electric vehicles, hybrid electric vehicles, and electric vehicles.
- MaxPower Inc. of Harleysville, Pennsylvania, has been selected for negotiation of an award for up to $500,000 for a project aimed at adapting MaxPower's present battery management systems (BMS) for lithium-ion batteries to recognize the imminent appearance of an internal short and to take action to operate the battery in a safe state.
- North Carolina State University of Raleigh, North Carolina, teamed with American Lithium Energy LLC of San Marcos, California, has been selected for negotiation of an award for up to $1.35 million for a project to develop high-energy composite nanofiber anodes for materials for lithium ion batteries.
- SION Power Corporation of Tucson, Arizona, has been selected for negotiation of an award for up to $800,000 for a project aimed at demonstrating the viability of their lithium sulfur (Li-S) rechargeable battery chemistry for electric drive vehicles.
- TIAX LLC of Cambridge, Massachusetts, has been selected for negotiation of an award for up to $2.36 million for a project aimed at understanding and preventing internal short circuits in lithium ion cells. Results from the proposed program will help develop guidelines to enable development of technologies for safe battery packs, guidelines that will permit original equipment manufacturers to develop their own proprietary technologies for mitigating short-circuit induced safety incidents.
For more information, see the Vehicle Technologies Program Web site.
