VW introduces “Dry Coating” batteries, with a 30% reduction in production costs
PowerCo SE is planning to introduce an entirely new manufacturing process at its battery cell manufacturing facilities in Europe and North America. The new technology will significantly increase the efficiency and sustainability of mass production of battery cells. The battery manufacturer, a subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group and based in Salzgitter in Lower Saxony, intends to industrialize the so-called dry coating process.
The technology allows for a reduction in energy consumption of around 30% and internal tests have already given positive results. Together with the German printing press specialist Koenig & Bauer AG, PowerCo will further develop and industrialize the Dry Coating procedure.
Thomas Schmall, Member of the Board of Management of the Volkswagen AG Group for Technology and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of PowerCo SE:
“ We have the know-how and the right experts to take cell manufacturing to a new level and offer our customers significant cost benefits. Our goal is to establish industrial production of sustainable and affordable batteries .”
To achieve this, PowerCo and Koenig & Bauer have signed a joint development agreement. Together they will develop a roller press for powder coating electrodes on a large industrial scale. The Dry Coating procedure makes it possible to produce electrodes without wet coating and subsequent drying at high costs.
With the new procedure, the most energy-consuming part of cell production and the use of chemical solvents are no longer necessary. PowerCo is already testing and optimizing the technology in a pilot line in one of its laboratories in Northern Germany. As a printing specialist, Koenig & Bauer will develop an industrial powder coating machine.
According to PowerCo estimates, the new technology has the potential to save about 30% of the energy and 15% of the space required, resulting in savings of hundreds of millions of Euros per year.
Powder instead of solvents – the features of the dry coating procedure
The electrodes (cathode and anode) are the "core" of the battery cell and define its energy density and performance. In modern industrial electrode production, battery materials are mixed with liquid additives and solvents to form a slurry. Afterwards, they are coated onto copper or aluminum foil, then dried and calendered.
PowerCo's Dry Coating procedure allows powdered base materials to be adhered directly to the foil, similar to a printing procedure . As a result, two of the four steps in the electrode manufacturing process become obsolete. The powder coating can be applied to the foil extremely finely and evenly; the resulting layer is as thin as a hair. This ensures excellent spatial energy density and a long cycle life while improving the battery's fast-charging capability.
A breakthrough for environmentally friendly batteries
The new technology reduces the required space by 15% – huge savings potential. For each block of an ordinary Gigafactory with a production capacity of 20 GWh, four parallel coating and drying lines can be saved, equaling an area of 7,000 square meters.
As a result, the external length of the facility can be reduced by approximately 100 metres. By not having to operate energy-intensive drying ovens and extraction systems, energy equivalent to the annual consumption of 40,000 private homes will be saved.
In addition, the use of chemical solvents is no longer required, which must be laboriously recycled at high energy costs in silo-like towers outside the plants.
As the oldest printing press manufacturer in the world, Koenig & Bauer offers the broadest product portfolio in the industry. The core competence of our partner is the production of technologically innovative and cost-effective printing systems. The new machining technology will exit the development stage at the end of 2024.
For the subsequent period, we have agreed to exclusive rights. The contractual details are confidential and separate agreements have also been entered into. Production is scheduled to start in 2026/2027. “Our implants are designed to be retrofitted quickly and easily. In total, we have foreseen about 30 predictable innovations in products and production, so we are able to adapt our plants to all relevant new processes as soon as they enter the market,” says Sebastian Wolf, Chief Operation Officer of PowerCo.racking?
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The VW article introduces “Dry Coating” batteries, with a 30% reduction in production costs, comes from Scenari Economici .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/vw-introduce-le-batterie-dry-coating-con-un-abbattimento-dei-costi-di-produzione-del-30/ on Thu, 29 Jun 2023 07:00:41 +0000.