(Plenary) An Overview of Advanced Batteries R&D at the U.S. Department of Energy
Authors: Howell David 
Published: February 2020

The Vehicle Technologies Office (VTO) of the U.S. Department of Energy funds early stage, high-reward/high-risk R&D on advanced transportation technologies to reduce the nation’s use of imported oil and reduce harmful emissions. A major objective is to enable the next generation of electric vehicle (EV) battery technologies to achieve the cost, range, and charging infrastructure necessary for wider adoption of EVs. VTO R&D has lowered the cost of EV battery packs to the value of $197/kWh (in 2018), which amounts to ~80% reduction since 2008. Yet even further cost reduction in high-energy batteries is necessary for EVs to achieve head-to-head cost competitiveness (without Federal subsidies). The three main challenges are further reducing battery costs (both initial and life cycle), eliminating dependence on critical materials, and developing safe batteries that can be charged in under 15 minutes. Accordingly, VTO strategic objectives for EV battery storage include reducing the cost of EV battery packs to under $150/kWh using technologies that significantly reduce or even eliminate dependency on critical materials (such as cobalt) and utilize recycled material feedstocks – while focusing R&D on material innovations, cell level electrochemical optimization, improved sustainability and reduced cost. In FY 2018, VTO battery R&D funding was approximately $110 million. The various batteries R&D program elements are described below.

A combination of fast-charging batteries and a network of high capacity chargers can minimize customer range anxiety, promote EV market penetration, and increase the total electric miles driven. Research activities to understand/enable extreme fast charging (XFC) (i.e., charging an EV at a power rate of up to 400 kW) began in 2017. A national laboratory team (consisting of Argonne National Laboratory, Idaho National Laboratory, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory) engaged with industry stakeholders to obtain industry perspectives on fast charging issues. A number of XFC projects have recently started based on the findings.

Current lithium-ion batteries contain a substantial amount of cobalt, a critical and expensive material requiring dependence on foreign sources. In 2018, VTO initiated substantial research to significantly reduce or eliminate cobalt from the lithium-ion battery. VTO sponsors research to develop recycling processes for extracting the materials therein. Recycling lithium-ion batteries can potentially meet one third of domestic cathode demands by 2025.

The advanced cell and battery R&D activity focuses on the development of robust batteries to significantly reduce battery cost, increase life and performance. A large part of this effort occurs in close partnership with the automotive industry, through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Advanced Battery Consortium. VTO also supports battery and material supplier R&D projects funded/administered via the National Energy Technology Laboratory – for increasing performance and reducing cost of lithium-ion batteries. There are also ongoing projects to enhance/validate predictive capabilities of computationally efficient electrochemical models for electrode designs and conducting new experiments to predict the behavior of batteries under abuse.

The Advanced Battery Materials Research & Development activity addresses fundamental issues of materials and electrochemical interactions associated with rechargeable automotive batteries – developing new materials by using advanced material models, scientific diagnostic tools and techniques. Current projects include next generation
lithium-ion battery R&D to advance material performances, designs, and processes by using an alloy or intermetallic anode and/or high-voltage cathode; and beyond Li-ion battery technologies which include solid-state, lithium metal, lithium sulfur, lithium air, and sodium-ion systems. In addition, VTO is funding the Battery500 Consortium which has the aggressive goal of developing a battery cell with a specific energy of 500Wh/kg.