From December 5th to 8th the 7th ICNaB Conference – the “International Conference on Sodium Batteries” took place in Ulm. The organizers, the Helmholtz Institute Ulm (HIU) and the Center for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research Baden-Württemberg (ZSW) welcomed over 200 researchers and numerous representatives from science, industry and politics.
Today PhD student Arantzazu Letona from metal air research line presented at 7th ICNaB 2022 International #Conference on #Sodium #Batteries our work on Na air batteries! @HelmholtzUlm @energigune_brta @Ikerbasque great work! pic.twitter.com/ldMAYykIKZ
— Nagore Ortiz-Vitoriano (@nagore_o) December 8, 2022
The program consisted of 41 lectures, the presentation of scientific posters and awards for them. The organizer duo, consisting of Dr. Margret Wohlfahrt-Multiens (ZSW) and Prof. Dr. Stefano Passerini (HIU), sounded optimistic: “The ICNaB conference showed the many different aspects of sodium batteries that are being investigated and developed to make them cheaper, technologically mature and, especially, sustainable, as well as it underlined the clear interest of industries world-wide in their production as energy storage devices complementary to lithium-ion batteries”, Passerini said.
Sodium-ion batteries are the focus of Passerini’s research group. These cells consist of materials that are described as available, uncritical, particularly inexpensive, powerful and at the same time durable. Therefore, these batteries are also considered sustainable. Passerini expects sodium battery production to ramp up as early as next year.
First speaker, Ingo Höllein from @BMBF_Bund, this morning at the 7th https://t.co/MZ7QJBymJJ – International #Conference on #Sodium #Batteries in Ulm. @KITKarlsruhe @uni_ulm @DLR_en @ulm_donau pic.twitter.com/lFMEKLmzds
— Helmholtz Institute Ulm ???? (@HelmholtzUlm) December 6, 2022
The ICNaB conference in Ulm also dealt with the development of sodium batteries from the laboratory to mass production. This transition from research to industrial production brings with it many challenges for both universities and companies: from material development, procurement, locations to plant construction and personnel issues. In addition, the conference addressed necessary infrastructure investments as well as sustainable production and recycling.
In addition, the conference also addressed the necessary infrastructure investments and the need for sustainable production and recycling. A scientific poster session gave participants, especially young scientists, a platform for discussion. The POLiS cluster of excellence, the University of Ulm, as well as the HIU and the ZSW were particularly involved.
It is so good to be at conferences in person again, and what a fabulous and friendly crowd at #icnab for our PhD student Izzah at her first poster presentation. pic.twitter.com/hiLfVkyYff
— Energy Materials Group (Birmingham) (@EnergyMatBham) December 7, 2022
Best Poster Awards
1st Prize (EERA JP Energy Storage: 300 EUR)
Winner: Emily Foley, UC Santa Barbara (USA)
Poster Title: “Investigating Polymorphism and Synthesis in Na2Fe2F7 and its Effect on Electrochemical Properties”
2nd Prize (EERA JP Energy Storage: 200 EUR)
Winner: Alexander Martin Kempf, TU Darmstadt (DE)
Poster Title: “Unlocking high-rate performance in C/Sn-composites by employing an ultra-fast heating process”
3rd Prize (“ChemSusChem” book voucher at “Wiley”: 200 EUR)
Winner: Till Ortmann, Justus Liebig University Giessen (DE) (POLIS)
Poster Title: “Growth Behaviour of Sodium Metal at NaSICON-Type Solid Electrolyte for Reservoir-free Sodium Solid State Batteries”
4th Prize (“Batteries&Supercaps” book voucher at “Wiley”: 100 EUR)
Winner: Silvia Porporato, Polytechnic of Turin (IT)
Poster Title: “An electrochemical investigation of electrode materials coupled with ionic liquid-based electrolytes for Na-ion batteries”
More information:
https://www.icnab22.com/
https://natron.energy/
https://www.zsw-bw.de/
Whether electromobility, portable electronics or grid storage for the power supply – life without lithium-ion batteries is difficult to imagine today. But the mining of lithium and other necessary raw materials such as nickel and cobalt causes high ecological costs and soon comes up against natural limits. An alternative may be calcium-sulphur batteries, the development of which is being promoted in the CaSino joint project coordinated by the German Aerospace Center (DLR).
Fueled by our electrolyte. And our anode which makes >5000 cycles.
Again, the challenge is the polysulfides. https://t.co/23EZQ78FDA— Maximilian Fichtner (@MaxFichtner) December 14, 2022
First prototypes were developed at HIU
“Like lithium, calcium has a high storage capacity and cell voltage,” says Maximilian Fichtner, director of the Helmholtz Institute Ulm (HIU), which was founded by KIT in cooperation with Ulm University. “It is also the fifth most abundant element in the earth’s crust and is equally available worldwide. Calcium is therefore also much cheaper than lithium and offers a more stable materials supply chain.” With the development of the first stable prototypes, the team at HIU had already laid the foundation for the new calcium technology. Through innovative material development, significant advances in terms of cycle stability and energy density are now to be achieved in CaSino.
Improved electrolytes for longer life
“The biggest challenge is still the reactivity of the calcium, which causes it to form unfavorable surface layers,” explains Zhirong Zhao-Karger from the HIU, who is in charge of the project. “Thanks to a boron-based electrolyte, however, we are already achieving the best electrochemical properties according to the latest state of the art.” Together with IoLiTec GmbH, a specialist for ionic liquids, the HIU is now striving to further improve the electrolyte. The Federal Ministry of Education and Research is initially funding CaSino for three years.
More information:
https://www.kit.edu/kit/31698.php
October 12th, 2022
Prof. Dr. Stefano Passerini has been awarded this year’s Alessandro Volta Medal.
The award ceremony took place during the 242nd meeting of the Electrochemical Society (ECS) in Atlanta (USA) on October 12, 2022. The society awards the prize every two years for outstanding research work in the field of electrochemistry and solid state research.
The jury recognized Passerini’s research activities in the development of materials for high-energy batteries and supercapacitors. These pursue the goal of creating sustainable energy storage systems from environmentally friendly and available materials.
The Italian chemist, currently deputy director of the Helmholtz Institute Ulm, received the award in particular as a pioneer in the field of ionic liquids and the development of sodium-ion batteries. Stefano Passerini has been one of the most cited scientists in this field for years and has already published more than 600 articles in specialist journals, books and conference papers.
Sodium-ion batteries are the focus of Passerini’s research group. These cells are made of materials that are described as available, particularly inexpensive, powerful and at the same time long-living. Therefore, these batteries are also considered sustainable. Passerini expects sodium battery production to ramp up as early as next year.
Along with Passerini, Jerry Barker was awarded the Volta Medal. Jerry Baker is the co-founder of the British company Faradion Ltd. The start-up company sells first Sodium-ion batteries.
The award consists of a silver medal and $2,000 in prize money. Like every awardee, Passerini was invited to give a “Volta Award Lecture” on a certain topic of great interest. In his lecture (“From the Oil Barrel to Reactive Metals: An Approach to the Energy Transition”), Passerini presented various solutions of electrochemical storage models. According to Passerini, particularly reactive, metal-based storage systems based on aluminum and sodium are able to meet all sustainability and storage criteria. Both the steam combustion of molten aluminum to produce hydrogen and heat make interesting models. In addition, liquid saltwater batteries could one day help store energy electrochemically in seawater.
The Volta Medal was established by the “Europe Section” of the Society for Electrochemistry in 1998 to recognize outstanding achievements in electrochemistry and solid state scientific and technological research.
Alessandro Volta was an Italian scientist and is considered the inventor of electrochemistry. He is said to have invented the “voltaic pile”, known today as the first electric battery. The SI unit of electrical potential (voltage), better known as Volt, is named after him.
More information:
https://ecs.confex.com/ecs/242/meetingapp.cgi/Paper/168249
https://www.electrochem.org/volta-medal
https://www.electrochem.org/242/division-awards/
October 19th, 2022
The Japanese company Horiba presents its annual award for innovative work in the field of analytical measurement technology that contributes to decarbonisation. This year, Prof. Helge Stein, Research Unit leader at HIU, receives the award for his research on data driven acceleration of materials discovery and upscaling through correlative spectroscopy and lab-scale manufacturing.
The 500,000 yen prize was awarded to Prof. Stein with the jury stating that the automation of material discovery experiments he has achieved will add a new dimension to the research of energy materials for decarbonisation in all energy sectors.
The Masao Horiba Award was established in 2003, to highlight innovative work in analytical measurement technologies. This information is critical to understanding many phenomena and, thus, forms the basis of new scientific research. These properties also form the foundation for the transition of materials to industrial production. For the product and process optimization, these analytical and measurement technologies are indispensable. The Masao Horiba Award, named after the founder of HORIBA, Ltd., should contribute to illuminating the achievement of researchers who are working hard in the field of analytical and measurement technology.
Visit a country for the first time and make it into local newspapers twice ✅ I think this should be a new benchmark for everyone! Thanks! pic.twitter.com/s7W4UE0lYq
— Helge S. Stein ??? (@helsoeste) October 19, 2022
More information:
https://www.postlithiumstorage.org/en/communication/news/details/helge-stein-receives-masao-horiba-award
In the seminar at the Helmholtz Institute Ulm (HIU), outstanding international battery researchers share their scientific findings and technological inventions with Ulm scientists and students. The seminar takes place every Tuesday at 2:00 p.m. during the lecture period.
21.10.2022
Dr. Oleg A. Borodin
Battery Science Branch, US DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory, Adelphi, USA
02.11.2022
Prof. Dr. Elie Paillard
Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy
16.11.2022
Prof. Dr. Benjamin Butz
Micro- and Nanoanalytics Facility, University of Siegen, Germany
21.12.2022
Dr. Theresa Schoetz
Department of Chemical Engineering, The City College of New York, CUNY, NY 10031, USA
11.01.2023
Prof. Dr. Monika Schönhoff
Institute of Physical Chemistry, University of Muenster
01.02.2023
Dr. Martina Mernini
MG Marposs, Italy
06.02.2023
Dr. Nicolò Campagnol, Dr. Matthias Künzel & Monica Wang
Battery Insights by McKinsey & Company, Rue Brederode 2, 1000 Bruxelles, Belgien, RUEDSD, Belgium
06.03.2023
Dr. Manuel Smeu
Department of Physics & Materials Science and Engineering Program, Binghamton University
September 6th to 8th, 2022
More than 100 battery experts met in Ulm from September 6th to 8th to discuss the latest developments in batteries that do not require lithium. The 4. “International Symposium on Magnesium Batteries”, MagBatt4 for short, has been established in Ulm since 2016 and attracts researchers from all over the world. This time, the program was expanded to multivalent batteries in addition to magnesium batteries and was discussed in a total of 37 lectures and one poster session.
Multivalent batteries are based on magnesium, calcium, aluminum and zinc. They offer an interesting alternative in terms of the amount of energy that can be supplied, safety, manufacturing and disposal costs and limited environmental impact. The development of completely new battery chemistries is a major challenge. In particular, the high cationic conductivity of multivalent cations such as Mg2+ and Ca2+, Zn2+ or Al3+ is difficult to achieve at ambient temperatures in solid electrolytes. Various phenomena have been discovered that can improve conductivity, such as e.g., nanoparticulate additives, nano-encapsulation, stabilization of disordered polymorphs with high dynamics in the solid state, etc. Development of electrodes compatible with high-performance electrolytes is also challenging.
More information:
https://www.postlithiumstorage.org/de/news-events/detaileite/magbatt-iv
In the seminar of the Helmholtz Institute Ulm (HIU), outstanding international battery researchers share their scientific findings and technological inventions with scientists and students in Ulm. The seminar takes place every Tuesday at 2 pm during the lecture period.
25.04.2022
Prof. Dr. Bing Joe Hwang
National Taiwan University of Science and Technology & National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center, Taiwan
11.05.2022
Prof. Dr. B. Layla Mehdi
Department of Mechanical, Materials and Aerospace Engineering, University of Liverpool, L693GH, UK The Faraday Institution, Harwell Science and Innovation Campus, Didcot OX110RA, UK
18.05.2022
Prof. Dr. Andrea Balducci
Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Institute for Technical Chemistry and Environmental Chemistry and Center for Energy and Environmental Chemistry Jena (CEEC Jena)
23.05.2022
Dr. Linas Vilčiauskas
Center for Physical Sciences and Technology (FTMC), Vilnius, Lithuania
24.05.2022
Prof. Po-Ya Abel Chuang
University of California, Merced, USA
08.06.2022
Prof. Xuehang Wang
Radiation Science and Technology, Faculty of Applied Sciences, TU Delft, The Netherlands
15.06.2022
Dr. Tobias Placke
MEET Battery Research Center, Institute of Physical Chemistry, University of Münster, Corrensstraße 46, 48149 Münster, Germany
20.07.2022
Prof. Alexandru Vlad
IMCN Institute, Universitè catholique de Louvain, Belgium
22.07.2022
Dr. Dominik Soyk
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Germany
14.09.2022
Prof. Dr. Prabeer Barpanda
Materials Research Centre, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India
21. Februar 2022
ERC Starting Grant for Dr. Dominic Bresser – Charging batteries faster thanks to innovative anode materials
For the development of innovative electrode materials in the RACER research project, young researcher Dr. Dominic Bresser was awarded with a Starting Grant by the European Research Council (ERC).
Long-lasting batteries that can be charged quickly are the key to a breakthrough in climate-friendly electromobility. How much energy a battery can absorb and how long it takes to charge is physically limited, among other things, by the atomic structure and the elements in the electrode material. In the research project RACER (“Highly Redox-active Atomic Centers in Electrode Materials for Rechargeable Batteries”), the previous limits are now to be expanded with the help of innovative material concepts.
Great News from #Ulm! ??For the #development of #innovative #anode #materials in the RACER #research project, Dominic Bresser was ? awarded with a #Starting #Grant by the @ERC_Research. ⚡️?https://t.co/xDWJS3wIfi @KITKarlsruhe @uni_ulm @DLR_de #batteries
— Helmholtz Institute Ulm ?? (@HelmholtzUlm) February 21, 2022
“We use a completely new storage mechanism for the charge carriers,” says Dr. Dominic Bresser, who heads the project at the Helmholtz Institute Ulm (HIU). “In addition to the typical reversible storage of ions as charge carriers in the crystal lattice of the electrode material, we now also use controlled redox reactions at the atomic level.” As a result, the energy density can be significantly increased while at the same time having a high rapid charging capability.
Dominic Bresser’s research group, Electrochemical Energy Storage Materials, recently published a “Proof of Concept” for the project: “At the beginning we want to understand the underlying mechanism in much more detail. So, the first step is experimenting with our proof of concept material iron-doped cerium oxide. In this case, iron is the highly redox-active center,” says Bresser, adding: “We want see if we can replace iron by other elements and the effect of this substitution. In fact, we have a couple of preliminary data which shows that we can still achieve the same mechanism also with other elements.”
But we would still stick to cerium oxide as the host structure, with all its characteristics; advantages and disadvantages. For example, cerium is considered a rare earth element, although it should be mentioned that cerium is as abundant as copper at the large scale. “Accordingly, the second step will be to replace the cerium by, ideally, much more abundant elements such as titanium or manganese and transfer the mechanism for the cerium oxide host structures to such other metal oxide host structures that are ideally based on very abundant metals, environmentally friendly, non-toxic, cost-efficient and so on. This is the major target of this project,” says Dr. Bresser.
Three ERC Starting Grants for Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
For his research, Dr. Dominic Bresser received a Starting Grant from the European Research Council (ERC). With the award for the young researcher, the ERC has already awarded three Starting Grants to KIT in the 2021 funding round. The selected projects will be supported for five years with up to 1.5 million euros each.
11. Februar 2022
Batterieforschung: Start für das erste vollautomatische Labor Eine neue High-Tech-Forschungsanlage beim Exzellenzcluster POLiS beschleunigt die Batterieentwicklung – Besuch der Wissenschaftsministerin zum Start
Rund um die Uhr Batterien bauen, tausende Grenzflächen analysieren, die Ergebnisse mithilfe Künstlicher Intelligenz (KI) autonom auswerten und dann gleich das nächste Experiment planen: Eine neue Anlage beim Exzellenzcluster POLiS erledigt die Materialentwicklung vollautomatisch und digital. Das autonome Forschungslabor entstand in einer Kooperation des Karlsruher Instituts für Technologie (KIT), der Universität Ulm sowie des Helmholtz-Instituts Ulm (HIU) und ist nun in Betrieb gegangen. Beim Start mit dabei war die baden-württembergische Wissenschaftsministerin Theresia Bauer.
#Battery #Research ??♀️??? goes #Artificial #Intelligence in #Ulm: Some words by @TheresiaBauer, Minister for #Science of #Baden–#Württemberg, @MaxFichtner & @helsoeste @BIGMAP_EU @CELEST_18 @ClusterPolis @KITKarlsruhe @DLR_de @uni_ulm @ZSW_BW @ClusterPolis #THELAEND #AI pic.twitter.com/GL03vGvL3D
— Helmholtz Institute Ulm ?? (@HelmholtzUlm) February 10, 2022
Für die Verkehrs- und Energiewende werden neuartige leistungsfähige und nachhaltige Batterien benötigt. Dies stellt eine große Herausforderung dar, denn von der Idee bis zum fertigen Produkt dauert es mit gegenwärtigen Methoden Jahrzehnte. Mit einer nun fertiggestellten High-Tech-Anlage bei POLiS soll es zukünftig sehr viel schneller gehen. Entwickelt wurde das Leuchtturmprojekt im Exzellenzcluster POLiS, in dem das KIT gemeinsam mit der Universität Ulm an den Batterien der Zukunft arbeitet. „Mit der Förderung dieser neuen Materialentwicklungsplattform ist eine weltweit einmalige Forschungsinfrastruktur entstanden. Wir erhoffen uns einen deutlichen Schub für die Forschung an Energiespeichern, die bei der Umstellung unseres Energiesystems und unserer Mobilität unerlässlich sind. Zugleich konnten wir mit der Förderung Professor Helge Stein als einen kreativen und umtriebigen Kopf für unser Team in Ulm gewinnen“, sagt Theresia Bauer, Ministerin für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kunst in Baden-Württemberg, die POLiS und das HIU anlässlich des Starts besuchte.
#Batterieforschung: Start für das erste vollautomatische Labor. Eine neue High-Tech-Forschungsanlage beim Exzellenzcluster POLiS beschleunigt die Batterieentwicklung – Besuch der Wissenschaftsministerin zum Start. https://t.co/GzCdv8zrtV pic.twitter.com/k80nVj5t1y
— KIT Karlsruhe (@KITKarlsruhe) February 10, 2022
Weltweit erste vollintegrierte Plattform zur beschleunigten Forschung zur elektrochemischen Energiespeicherung
Helge Stein, Tenure-Track-Professor am KIT und POLiS-Forschungsbereichssprecher erklärt die Vorzüge der Anlage: „Wir sind nun in der Lage, Batterien und deren Einzelkomponenten automatisiert zu synthetisieren und zusammenzubauen, eine Messung anzustoßen und diese vollautomatisiert auszuwerten. Basierend auf der Datenlage kann die KI-gestützte Anlage sogar entscheiden, welches Experiment als nächstes durchgeführt werden soll.“ Mit seiner Forschungsgruppe hat Stein die zugrundeliegende kombinatorische Materialsynthese, die Hochdurchsatz-Charakterisierung sowie die Data-Mining-Techniken unter Zuhilfenahme von Methoden der KI in der Versuchsauswertung und -planung entwickelt. Die Anlage mit dem Namen PLACES/R (Platform for Accelerated Electrochemical Energy Storage Research) stellt die weltweit erste vollintegrierte Plattform zur beschleunigten Forschung zur elektrochemischen Energiespeicherung dar.
Neues Paradigma für die Batteriematerial-Entwicklung
Batterieforschung ist geprägt von der Suche nach der idealen Kombination aus Materialien, deren Zusammensetzung und Verfahrenstechniken. Alle möglichen Variationen mit allen Materialien zu testen, würde mit klassischen Methoden allerdings Jahrtausende in Anspruch nehmen. „Unsere Anlage kann mehrere hundert solcher Variationen am Tag testen. Dies entspricht in etwa dem durchschnittlichen Lebenswerk eines Forschenden“, so Stein. Neben der Beschleunigung durch Automatisierung kann durch die Algorithmen und KI eine zusätzliche, um den Faktor zehn schnellere Optimierung erreicht werden und vielversprechende Batteriekonzepte damit noch schneller und kostengünstiger zur Marktreife gebracht werden.
Eingebettet ist die neue Forschungsanlage in einen europäischen Rahmen: Die erfassten Daten aus allen Bereichen des Batterieentwicklungszyklus werden mit 34 Institutionen aus 15 Ländern im Projekt BIG-MAP der europäischen Forschungsinitiative BATTERY2030+ geteilt. „Das vollautomatisierte Labor wird uns und unsere europäischen Partner nicht nur in die Lage versetzen, Komponenten für neue Batterien viel schneller entwickeln zu können. Es wird auch sicherstellen, dass Batterien zu so niedrigen Kosten hergestellt werden können, dass es in Zukunft noch attraktiver sein wird, Strom zum Beispiel aus Sonne und Wind in Batterien zu speichern“, sagt Professor Maximilian Fichtner, geschäftsführender Direktor des HIU sowie Sprecher von POLiS.
After checking out @helsoeste's new labs at @ClusterPolis, Minister Theresia Bauer followed a couple of scientific presentations at HIU. Core message: Ulm's #battery ? research is based on cooperation: @ZSW_BW @uni_ulm @KITKarlsruhe @CELEST_18 #THELAEND https://t.co/tX19W1lt4T pic.twitter.com/iSvCc0mLxm
— Helmholtz Institute Ulm ?? (@HelmholtzUlm) February 10, 2022
Weitere Informationen:
https://www.kit.edu/kit/pi_2022_011_batterieforschung-start-fur-das-erste-vollautomatische-labor.php
December 10, 2021
Intl. Symposium on Modeling of Fuel Cells and Batteries
In these days, a new edition of the „Modval“ Symposium is being organized by the German Aerospace Center (DLR). The conference is held on March 14-16, 2022 and is co-sponsored by the Helmholtz Institute Ulm and POLiS Cluster of Excellence. More than 100 attendees will be expected and will have the opportunity to extend their networking promoting new research collaborations.
Event: Modval18 will be held in presence.
COVID19-Restrictions: The “2G” rule applies. We ensure to provide you with the maximum possible safety.
Registrations: Registrations via event website
Date: March 14-16, 2022
Modval18
Modval18 is the 18th event of an international symposium on Modeling and Experimental Validation on fuel cells and batteries. Initiated in 2004, the symposium aims to connect researchers in academia and industry as well as theorists and experimentalists. Taking place every year in March, the venue alternates between Germany and Switzerland and is always hosted by an academic institution. This time it is organized by the DLR Institute for Technical Thermodynamics, based in Stuttgart. The DLR models batteries as a partner of the Helmholtz Institute Ulm (HIU).
Focus of the symposium is to present and discuss the latest research, the advances made in modeling, as well as in experimental work for model validation for fuel cells, batteries and electrolysis.
The conference focuses on Modeling and Validation of Electrochemical Energy Devices. Contributing authors are encouraged to pay special attention to the validation of their modeling approaches. Innovative models of batteries and fuel cells are highly welcome.
The symposium will at least cover the following topics:
Modeling and Simulation
Validation
Call for Abstracts (submission ends December 31, 2021)
We thank you for being interested in giving a presentation / poster presentation at the Modval18. Looking forward to read your abstract we are delighted that you have chosen to participate actively in this conference. As in previous years, the Modval18 will feature invited talks, contributing talks, and poster presentations.
Further Information: