Increasing demands for lower environmental impact from vehicles, including heavy-duty vehicles, have driven several vehicle manufacturers to consider adding hybrid electrical vehicles (HEV’s) to the product portfolio. Present research on batteries for HEV’s is mainly focused on lithium-ion battery chemistries, since lithium-ion batteries has the most promising technical potential compared to other types of batteries. However, the uncertainty regarding battery lifetime combined with a high battery cost can have a negative impact on large scale commercialisation of heavy-duty hybrid vehicles in the near future. A large part of present lithium-ion battery research is focused on new materials, but there is also research focusing on ageing of already established lithium-ion battery chemistries. Cycle ageing of batteries often includes complete charging and discharging of batteries or the use of standardized test cycles. Battery cycling in real HEV applications is however quite different compared to this kind of laboratory testing, and real life testing on vehicles is a way of verifying the soundness of laboratory ageing. The aim of this study was to develop a test method suitable for real life testing of lithium-ion batteries for heavy-duty HEV-usage, with the purpose of investigating the correlation of battery ageing and usage in real life applications. This concept study includes both cell level battery cycling and performance testing on board vehicles. The performance tests consist of discharge capacity measurements and hybrid pulse power characterization (HPPC) tests. The main feature of this test equipment is that it is designed to be used on conventional vehicles, emulating an HEV environment for the tested battery. The functionality of the equipment was verified on a heavy-duty HEV with satisfying results. Results from real life testing of 8 batteries using the developed test equipment on four conventional heavy-duty trucks shows that the concept of comparing battery ageing with battery usage has a most promising potential to be used as a tool when optimizing battery usage vs. lifetime. Initial results from this real life study shows significant differences in state of charge (SOC) and power distributions between cycled batteries, but so far only small differences in ageing. Lithium-ion batteries of the type lithium manganese spinel/lithium titanate (LMO/LTO) were used in this study. / Ökande krav på minskad miljöpåverkan från fordon, inklusive tunga fordon, har drivit flera fordonstillverkare till att addera hybridiserade fordon till produktportföljen. Forskning på hybridfordonsbatterier är idag huvudsakligen inriktad på litiumjonbatterikemier, vilken har den mest lovande tekniska potentialen jämfört med andra typer av batterikemier. Det finns idag en risk att osäkerheten kring litiumjonbatteriers livslängd i kombination med en hög batterikostnad kan ha en negativ inverkan på en storskalig kommersialisering av tunga hybridfordon inom den närmsta framtiden. En stor del av batteriforskningen är inriktad på nya material, men det finns även forskning som fokuserar på åldring av redan etablerade litiumjonbatterikemier. Vid åldringsprov används ofta standardiserade testcykler eller cykler där batterierna blir fullständigt laddade och urladdade. Cykling av batterier i verkliga förhållanden skiljer sig dock från den typen av laboratorietester och provning på fordon är därför ett sätt att kontrollera att laboratorieprovning ger relevanta resultat gällande åldring. Syftet med denna studie var att utveckla en testmetodik lämplig för provning av litiumjonbatterier för tunga hybridfordon i verklig drift, med syfte att undersöka kopplingen mellan batteriers åldrande och hur det används. Detta koncept inkluderar battericykling på cellnivå och möjligheten att utföra batteriprestandatester på fordon, där prestandatesterna består av kapacitetsprov och pulsprov. Den viktigaste egenskapen hos den utvecklade testmetodiken är att provning sker på konventionella fordon genom att emulera en hybridmiljö för det testade batteriet. Funktionaliteten hos den utvecklade testutrustningen verifierades på en tung hybridlastbil med goda resultat. Resultaten från en fältstudie av 8 batterier på 4 lastbilar där den utvecklade testutrustningen användes påvisar att testmetodiken har en lovande potential att kunna användas som ett verktyg vid optimering av utnyttjandegrad och livslängd för HEV-batterier. De initiala resultaten från denna fältstudie påvisar skillnader i laddningsgradsfördelning och batterieffektfördelning mellan cyklade batterier, men ännu bara små skillnader i åldring. Litiumjonbatterier av typen litiummanganspinel/litiumtitanat (LMO/LTO) användes i denna studie. / QC 20111205

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Date:                                       2022-06-01 Level:                                      Bachelor thesis in Business Administration, 15 cr Institution:                              School of Business, Society and Engineering, Mälardalen University Authors:                                 João Vitor Barroso França          Karl Isaksson            Alex Josefsson                                                 (99/04/01)                                (97/10/31)                 (95/09/08) Title:                                        LITHIUM-ION BATTERIES FROM A CLEAN ENERGY PERSPECTIVE: The Case of Northvolt Supervisor:                              Konstantin Lampou Keywords:                               Northvolt, Lithium-Ion Battery, SDG, Sustainability, Clean energy Research question:                  How does a company in the Lithium-Ion Battery Industry contribute to affordable and clean energy for all? The case of Northvolt Purpose:                                  The purpose of this study aims at understanding what values and implementations Northvolt has in its business to integrate targets from the UN’s SDG number seven. Because of the complexity of the research area, the authors adopted an extensive literature review on articles concerning corporate social responsibility (CSR), sustainable development (SD), and Lithium-Ion batteries. Method:                                   This research was conducted through interpretive, inductive, and exploratory logic, together with a qualitative case-study research approach, where six different managers from Northvolt were interviewed, and secondary data related to Northvolt, and the Lithium-Ion battery Industry was collected and analyzed. Conclusion:                             The authors concluded that, with a vertically integrated business model, Northvolt is a disruptor in the LIB industry. Additionally, the company focuses more extensively on reaching targets beyond the UN’s SDGs. As a booming market globally, challenges around sustainability, carbon footprint transparency, and reaching global demand for the products are extensive. Northvolt’s business revolves around innovation and the company has a strict sustainable approach in a very energy-intensive industry. Northvolt’s vision is to create the greenest battery on the market, which can indicate that CSR values overlap with business operations. Northvolt contributes to global goals by taking all elements of the supply chain into account.

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Tin dioxide (SnO2) is considered one of the most promising anode materials for Lithium ion batteries (LIBs), due to its large theoretical capacity and natural abundance. However, its low electronic/ionic conductivities, large volume change during lithiation/delithiation and agglomeration prevent it from further commercial applications. In this thesis, we investigate modified SnO2 as a high energy density anode material for LIBs. Specifically two approaches are presented to improve battery performances. Firstly, SnO2 electrochemical performances were improved by surface modification using Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD). Ultrathin Al2O3 or HfO2 were coated on SnO2 electrodes. It was found that electrochemical performances had been enhanced after ALD deposition. In a second approach, we implemented a layer-by-layer (LBL) assembled graphene/carbon-coated hollow SnO2 spheres as anode material for LIBs. Our results indicated that the LBL assembled electrodes had high reversible lithium storage capacities even at high current densities. These superior electrochemical performances are attributed to the enhanced electronic conductivity and effective lithium diffusion, because of the interconnected graphene/carbon networks among nanoparticles of the hollow SnO2 spheres.

With a growing demand for electrical energy storage materials, lignin-derived carbon materials have received increasing attention in recent years. As a highly abundant renewable carbon source, lignin can be converted to a variety of advanced carbon materials with tailorable chemical, structural, mechanical and electrochemical properties through thermochemical conversion (e.g. pyrolysis). However, the non-uniformity in lignin structure, composition, inter-unit linkages and reactivity of diverse lignin sources greatly influence lignin fractionation from plant biomass, the pyrolysis chemistry, and property of the resulting carbon materials. To introduce a better use of lignocellulosic biomass to biofuels and co-products, it is necessary to find novel ways to fractionate lignin and cellulose from the feedstock at high efficacy and low cost. Deep eutectic solvent (DES) was used to extract lignin from high lignin-content walnut and peach endocarps. Over 90% sugar yields were achieved during enzymatic hydrolysis of DES pretreated peach and walnut endocarps while lignins were extracted at high yields and purity. The molecular weights of the extracted lignin from DES pretreated endocarp biomass were significantly reduced. The native endocarp lignins were SGH type lignins with dominant G-unit. DES pretreatment decreased the S and H-unit which led to an increase in condensed G-units, which may contribute to a higher thermal stability of the isolated lignin. Lignin slow pyrolysis was investigated using a commercial pyrolysis–GC/MS system for the first time to link pyrolysis chemistry and carbon material properties. The overall product distributions, including volatiles and solid product were tracked at different heating rates (2, 20, 40 ℃/min) and different temperature regions (100-200, 200-300 and 300-600 ℃). Results demonstrate that changes in reaction chemistry as a factor of pyrolysis conditions led to changes in yield and properties of the resulting carbon materials. Physical and chemical properties of the resulting carbon material, such as porosity, chemical composition and surface functional groups were greatly affected by lignin slow pyrolysis temperature and heating rate. Lignin-derived activated carbons (AC) were synthesized from three different lignin sources: poplar, pine derived alkaline lignin and commercial kraft lignin under identical conditions. The poplar lignin-derived ACs exhibited a larger surface area and total mesopore volume than softwood lignin-derived AC, which contribute to a larger electrochemical capacitance over a range of scan rates. The presence of oxygen-containing functional groups in all lignin-derived ACs, which participated in redox reaction and thus contributed to an additional pseudo-capacitance. By delineating the carbonization and activation parameters, results from this study suggest that lignin structure and composition are important factors determining the pore structure and electrochemical properties of the derived carbon materials. A 3-dimensional, interconnected carbon/silicon nanoparticles composite synthesized from kraft lignin (KL) and silicon nanoparticles (Si NPs) is shown to have a high starting specific capacity of 2932 mAh/g and a retaining capacity of 1760 mAh/g after 100 cycles at 0.72 A/g as negative electrode in a half-cell lithium-ion battery (LIB) test. It was found the elemental Si and C of the C/Si NPs were most likely linked via Si-O-C rather than direct Si-C bond, a feature that helps to alleviate the mechanical degradation from Si volume change and assure a sound electronic and ionic conductivity for enhanced electrochemical performance. EGA-MS and HC-GC/MS analyses suggest that the interaction of the Si, O and C can be tailored by controlling pyrolysis conditions. This study systematically investigated the interconnecting aspects among lignin source, pyrolysis chemistry, characteristics of the derived carbon materials and electrochemical performance. Such knowledge on the processing-structure-function relationships serves as a basis for designing lignin-based carbon materials for electrochemical energy storage applications.

Traditional electric vehicle and stationary battery systems use series-connected battery packs that employ centralized battery management and power processing architecture. Though, these systems meet the basic safety and power requirements with a simple hard- ware structure, the approach results in a battery pack that is energy and power limited by weak cells throughout life and most importantly at end-of-life. The applications of battery systems can benefit significantly from modular, scalable battery systems capable of advanced cell balancing, efficient power processing, and cost gains via reuse beyond first-use application. The design of modular battery systems has unique requirements for the power electronics designer, including architecture, design, modeling and control of power processing converters, and battery balancing methods. This dissertation considers the requirements imposed by electric vehicle and stationary applications and presents design and control of modular battery systems to overcome challenges associated with conventional systems. The modular battery system uses cell or substring-level power converters to combine battery balancing and power processing functionality and opens the door to new opportunities for advanced cell balancing methods. This approach enables balancing control to act on cell-level information, reroute power around weaker cells in a string of cells to optimally deploy the stored energy, and achieve performance gains throughout the life of the battery pack. With this approach, the integrated balancing power converters can achieve system cost and efficiency gains by replacing or eliminating some of the conventional components inside battery systems such as passive balancing circuits and high-voltage, high-power converters. In addition, when coupled with life prognostic based cell balancing control, the modular system can extend the lifetime of a battery pack by up to 40%. The modular architecture design and control concepts developed in this dissertation can be applied to designs of large battery packs and improve battery pack performance, lifetime, size, and cost.

Ces travaux de recherche ouvrent une nouvelle voie d’élaboration par voie sèche (sans utilisation de solvants organiques) d’électrodes pour batterie lithium-ion. Le procédé consiste en l’extrusion des différents constituants de l’électrode (liant, matière active et agent conducteur) en présence d’un polymère sacrificiel. Une première étude a porté sur le choix de l’agent conducteur et la nature du revêtement du substrat collecteur afin d’optimiser les propriétés électriques de l’électrode. Ensuite, afin d’une part justifier la cohésion des charges malgré un faible taux de liant et d’autre part expliquer certaines pertes de performances notamment en terme de conductivité électrique et ionique, nous avons étudié les interactions charges-polymère et mis en évidence la présence de polymère adsorbé/greffé à la surface des charge, connu sous le terme de « bound rubber ». Dans une dernière étude, nous avons enfin montré qu’il était possible de contrôler le taux de porosité de l’électrode permettant ainsi de formuler sans solvant une électrode répondant totalement au cahier des charges initial. En effet, des électrodes avec un taux de matière active supérieur à 80 %m (taux de charges global supérieur à 80 %vol), un taux de porosité de 40 %, une épaisseur inférieure à 100 μm, électriquement conductrices, et enfin de capacité initiale de 145 mA.h/g ont été réalisées / This study aims to find a new way of lithium-ion battery electrodes production using dry process. The production procedure consists on the extrusion of different compounds of the electrode (binder, active material and conductive agent) with a sacrificial polymer. First, a study was established to choose optimal conductive agent and coating material of the collector substrat in order to optimize electrical properties of the electrode. Then the interaction between charges and polymer was studied to justify charges cohesion despite the low amount of the binder and to explain some performances loss mainly in terms of ionic and electrical conductivity. This study revealed the presence of adsorbed / grafted polymer on the surface of charges, known as "bound rubber". Finally, we showed that electrode porosity could be controlled. In addition it was proved that it is possible to perform a dry electrode responding to initial specifications. In fact, electrodes with active material content greater than 80 wt% ( rate of global fillers greater than 80 vol % ), a rate of porosity of 40 vol % , a thickness less than 100 μm, high electrically conductive and finally a specific capacity of 145 mA.h/g were performed

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / The geometric and electrochemical characteristics of different lithium ion batteries (LIBs) are investigated in this study. The core work is to study the impact of the calendering process on NMC cathode electrodes performance. X-ray CT image processing by Python, MATLAB, ImageJ and Avizo is utilized in this study. NMC electrodes with different calendering conditions were fabricated to calculate electrochemical properties of the cells. Charge/discharge of the electrodes under 0.1C, 0.2C, 0.4C, 1C, 2C, 4C and 0.1C (retention test) rates were cycled for three times respectively between 4.2 V and 3.0 V. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy testing was used to further explain the effects of NMC density on rate capability. Geometric properties of NMC electrodes with different calendering conditions were calculated from the computed tomography data of the electrodes. A synchrotron transmission X-ray microscopy tomography system at the Advanced Photon Source of the Argonne National Laboratory was employed to obtain the tomography data. X-ray CT image processing before the data analysis was introduced. Python based Tomopy and ASTRA toolbox were used to filter the original HDF5 data and reconstruction. ImageJ was used to help remove noise, adjust contrast and cropping. Iso2mesh and image processing tool box were used in MATLAB to generate meshed 3D structure of CT data. Geometric properties of NMC electrodes including porosity, pore size distribution, particle size distribution, specific surface area and tortuosity were calculated from the computed tomography data of the electrodes. The geometric and electrochemical analysis show that calendering can increase the electrochemically active area, which lead to improving of the rate capability. However, more calendering will result in crushing of NMC particles, which can reduce the electrode capacity at relatively high C rates. This study shows that the optimum electrochemical performance of NMC electrode at 94:3:3 weight ratio of NMC:binder:carbon black can be achieved by calendering to 3.0 g/cm3 NMC density. LTAP solid electrolyte and NMC cathode material mix electrode-electrolyte X-ray CT data was studied in last chapter. By using 8 kev X-ray energy, we could distinguish NMC active material, LTAP solid electrolyte and the others three phase. On the basis of NMC electrode image processing method, dilation and multiply threshold method is applied to get three-phase 3D geometry. A comparing of connection area between NMC and LTAP of 700psi and 1300psi electrode was analyzed. Geometric properties like tortuosity, di_usion length and e_ective di_usivity were generated from the CT data.