A Switzerland-based startup, Innolith AG, which makes rechargeable Inorganic Battery Technology, recently announced that it is developing world’s first 1000 Wh/kg rechargeable battery.
Car battery of over 1000km on a single charge
Under development in the company’s German laboratory, the new Innolith Energy Battery would be capable of powering an Electric Vehicle (EV) for over 1000km on a single charge. The Innolith Energy Battery would also radically reduce costs due to the avoidance of exotic and expensive materials combined with the very high energy density of the system.
First non-flammable lithium-based battery
In addition to its range and cost advantages, the Innolith Energy Battery will be the first non-flammable lithium-based battery for use in EVs. The Innolith battery uses a non-flammable inorganic electrolyte, unlike conventional EV batteries that use a flammable organic electrolyte. The switch to non-flammable batteries removes the primary cause of battery fires that have beset the manufacturers of EVs.
“The EV revolution is currently stymied by the limitations of available batteries,” explains Sergey Buchin, CEO of Innolith AG. “Consumers want an adequate range on a single charge in an affordable EV, and confidence that it is not going to catch fire. The Innolith Energy Battery is the breakthrough technology that potentially can meet all these needs.”
Innolith will be bringing the Energy Battery to market via an initial pilot production in Germany, followed by licensing partnerships with major battery and automotive companies. Development and commercialisation of the Innolith Energy Battery is anticipated to take between three and five years.
Innolith has used an innovative conversional approach in the chemistry of its Energy Battery to generate the high energy density seen in each cell. Conversion reaction materials offer a new and promising route to high-energy-density battery cells as they overcome the poor performance of traditional intercalation-based materials. This new approach will enable batteries to reach cell-level energy content values that have never been possible before.
Years of dedicated research
“This new breakthrough has been made possible by years of dedicated research into all aspects of inorganic electrolytes and their application to rechargeable batteries,” comments Innolith Chairman, Alan Greenshields. “Simply put, the experience gained in how to build high power batteries with exceptional robustness and cycle life has proved to be the right basis for building high energy products too. The absence of organic materials, a key aspect of Innolith’s battery technology, removes the critical source of safety risk and chemical instability of high energy batteries. It all fell into place in 2018 from an R&D perspective, with several extraordinary breakthroughs.”
Innolith has patents pending for the key inventions of the Energy Battery and is also maintaining commercial confidentiality on the cell chemistry mechanism. Under all licensing agreements for the Energy Battery, Innolith will retain control of all specialty chemical supply in order to protect its intellectual property.
Innolith has already proven the breakthrough character of non-flammable, inorganic rechargeable batteries with its first product, a Grid-Scale Power Battery that is used today in the PJM grid in the US to provide 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, which is between 10 and 100 times the maximum number of cycles of existing Li-ion batteries in use today.
Headquartered in Basel Switzerland, Innolith AG has developed an inorganic battery technology platform that delivers rechargeable batteries with unprecedented levels of safety, durability, power and now energy. The platform replaces the flammable, organic-solvent based electrolytes used in all other commercially available lithium-ion batteries with a non-flammable liquid electrolyte made entirely from inorganic materials. Innolith conducts primary research at its labs in Bruchsal, Germany.
— Press release
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