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Apr 5, 2019 - 02:01 pm
Innolith Li-ion battery apparently achieves 4 x energy density
BATTERYBATTERY CELLGERMANYINNOLITHSWITZERLAND

Swiss energy technology company Innolith says they have developed the world’s first lithium-based rechargeable battery with an energy density of 1000 Wh/kg, which, for example, would give electric cars a range of more than 1000 km on a single charge. The battery apparently uses less expensive exotic materials and is non-flammable.

It would appear that Innolith has managed three significant breakthroughs here: the battery’s non-flammable nature, its high-density and the reduction of reliance on expensive materials.  Sergey Buchin, CEO of Innolith AG said that they had focused on overcoming the limitations currently inhibiting electric vehicle uptake: “Consumers want an adequate range on a single charge in an affordable EV and confidence that it is not going to catch fire.”

The inflammable nature of the battery is a result of the use of a non-flammable inorganic electrolyte. The company says that this will be the first non-flammable lithium-based battery for use in EVs. The battery’s high energy density has been able to make a big jump because of a conversional approach in the chemistry, overcoming the poor performance of traditional intercalation-based materials.

Innolith Chairman, Alan Greenshields explained that the breakthrough came through years of research into all aspects of inorganic electrolytes. He explained that “The absence of organic materials, crucial for the stability of Innolith’s high power product, removes the key source of safety risk and chemical instability of high energy batteries.” The research and development team were apparently able to make several breakthroughs in 2018 after years of research.

Innolith has already proven the breakthrough character of non-flammable, inorganic rechargeable batteries with its first product, a Grid-Scale Power Battery. This was launched in late 2018 with inorganic grid-scale lithium-ion battery technology capable of many thousands more cycles at a third of the cost of standard lithium batteries. The technology is currently in use in the U.S. providing fast frequency regulation services. The chemistry used in this battery has been proven to operate for more than 55,000 full depth of discharge cycles: This is between 10 and 100 times the maximum number of cycles of existing lithium-ion batteries in use today.

Innolith intends to initially launch its new product, simply called the ‘Energy Battery’, on the market by means pilot production at the company’s facilities in Germany. This will be followed by licensing partnerships with battery and automobile manufacturers. The development and marketing of Innolith Energy Battery is expected to take between three and five years.

https://www.electrive.com/2019/04/05/innolith-li-ion-battery-apparently-achieves-4-x-energy-density/