Lithium-Ion and Other Cell Chemistries 89 Saft—French lithium-ion manufacturer Saft has been working in lithium-ion batteries since the early 2000s. Saft offers large cylindrical cells in both primary (nonrechargeable) and secondary (rechargeable) products. Their market has focused on aerospace, satellite, military, stationary and grid, and automotive markets applications. As part of the JV with Johnson Controls, they were one of the recipients of the U.S. DOE funding projects. With operations in both Europe and the United States, Saft continues to find new applications for their cells.
Toshiba—Japanese-based Toshiba Corporation has been very active in the lithium-ion battery market, focused on their LTO chemistry-based Super Charged Ion Battery (SCiB™). XALT Energy—XALT Energy began life as the Dow-Kokam JV, a JV between Kokam America, a distributor of NMC-based pouch cells from Kokam Korea, Dow Chemical Company based in Midland, Michigan, and French battery pack designer Dassault Systems. As one of the recipients of the U.S. DOE funding, they opened a lithium-ion manufacturing plant in Midland, Michigan. In 2012, Dow decided to exit the battery business and the company was reformed in 2013 as XALT Energy.
Design Guidelines and Best Practices Lead acid is a good fit for applications that requires standby type power, high power pulses, low cycle requirements, does not have weight or volume restrictions and low requires very costs. Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMh) has become the largest battery used in hybrid electric vehicles today. NiMh and nickel cadmium became popular due to their higher energy density as compared to lead acid. One of the challenges with nickel-based chemistries is the “memory effect” that the chemistries suffer from.
Sodium-based chemistries offer about the same energy density as nickel-based chemistries, but are required to operate at very high temperatures in order to maintain their salts in a molten form. Lithium-ion has quickly grown to take over many of the battery applications that other chemistries have been used for in the past. Lithium-ion offers about twice the energy and power density of nickel-based chemistries, and about four times the energy density and power density of lead acid chemistries. There are many different form factors available for lithium-ion batteries. The three major form factors are cylindrical, prismatic can, and pouch-type cells.
The most popular cathode chemistries today are lithium iron phosphate, lithium cobalt oxide, lithium manganese oxide, nickel manganese cobalt, and nickel cobalt aluminum. The major anode materials being used are graphite and carbons, both hard and soft carbon types. There are many cell manufacturers from which to choose, evaluate them based on your market needs, applications, and performance requirements.