Kickstarting next-generation battery production in Australia

Key facts

A unique reactor (BATMn), built in Bacchus Marsh, is being used to help establish battery materials manufacturing in Victoria – an Australian first.
The more abundant and cheaper material lithium manganese oxide (LMO) is resurging as a potential battery cathode material for light vehicles such as scooters.
This three-year, $9.4 million project has been funded by the Federal Government’s Cooperative Research Centre projects (CRC-P) program.
Two successful, highly innovative companies are working on the project with Deakin: Calix Ltd and Boron Molecular.
UK battery company AMTE Power – specialising in cutting-edge, high-energy battery production – is making a 3kWh demonstration battery pack for scooters.

Creating a cheaper, more environmentally-friendly battery

Deakin researchers, in collaboration with technology company Calix, are making swift progress towards producing cheaper, more efficient, environmentally-sound batteries right here in Australia.

In collaboration with Calix – a multi-award-winning technology development company – researchers at Deakin University are on the way to firing-up Australian battery production. The team has achieved a breakthrough in producing high-performance battery electrode materials, which has been one of the missing links for Australian battery production.

By improving the performance of abundant and affordable minerals, initially lithium and manganese, the researchers hope to halve the current cost of battery electrode production – one of the costliest parts of the battery.

Batteries can be expensive, volatile and toxic. Thanks to the Deakin team, the prospect of producing a next-generation battery in Australia from Australian-sourced, safer materials at half the current cost is highly likely.

Batteries contain three parts – a cathode, an anode and an electrolyte. This research seeks to improve the properties and production of the cathode and electrolyte components to achieve a safer, more powerful, easier-to-recharge, cheaper and more environmentally-friendly battery.

Until now, most of Australia’s minerals used in battery production have been exported as raw materials, with the high-value-added benefits lost to the economy. Calix’s breakthrough technology removes the need to export minerals for battery components. Known as ‘Flash Calcining,’ their process rapidly makes high surface area materials that look like mineral honeycomb and have special qualities.

The researchers at Deakin’s battery research facility, the Battery Research and Innovation Hub (formerly known as BatTRI-Hub), have demonstrated to Calix that their in-house lithium manganese oxide (LMO) materials can perform at very high rates. In a joint research project, they showed that the Calix production process improves these materials, achieving battery cathodes with outstanding capability for holding charge and recharging. In fact, the Calix material performs equal to or better than commercial LMOs and the Calix manufacturing process is faster and cheaper than traditional technologies.

Ionic liquids offer unique potential as electrolytes

The electrolyte development arm of this project will further help to make Calix materials a stand-out for next-generation batteries such as lithium metal battery cells and high voltage battery cells. Specialty chemical and polymer manufacturer Boron Molecular is drawing on its chemical synthesis and large-scale production expertise to develop improved electrolytes for the new batteries. Their work draws on Deakin’s world-leading expertise in ionic liquid electrolytes, which have an outstanding ability to withstand high temperatures of operation, as well as being non-volatile and less toxic than traditional electrolytes.

A faster transition to cleaner energy

Focussing on minerals that are more abundant, accessible and affordable, these batteries will have several environmental benefits. As well as protecting precious resources, they will aid the transition to electric vehicles and reduce CO2 emissions by hastening the replacement of petrol and diesel-powered vehicles. Fossil-fuel powered scooters are a dominant source of pollution in many cities, contributing to health-related effects from poor air quality, greenhouse gas emissions and Climate Change.

The immediate end goal is a cheap LMO-based battery that works well at the smaller scale, initially for use in electric scooters – a huge market in Asia – as well as small cars and power tools, amongst other applications. The potential international markets are enormous.

And the research is progressing at speed, Calix’s unique $2.7m electrically-powered BATMn reactor at Bacchus Marsh, the first of it's kind in Australia, was launched in 2019 to produce battery electrode materials. The reactor is a key provider of novel materials for the storEnergy consortium, an Industrial Transformation Training Centre for Future Energy Storage Technologies led by Deakin’s Professor Maria Forsyth.

Despite having a shorter range and requiring more frequent charging, these new batteries will have a very fast charging time of about 15 minutes, compared to the 6-12 hours of batteries in current electric vehicles

Grants and funding

This research is funded through the Cooperative Research Centre projects (CRC-P) program. Announced in 2019, the $9.4 million CRC-P for Advanced Hybrid Batteries project is a collaboration between Calix, Deakin’s Institute for Frontier Materials (IFM) and the Battery Research and Innovation Hub (led by Prof Patrick Howlett), and Boron Molecular Pty Ltd.

Collaboration

This research is taking place primarily at Deakin’s Waurn Ponds campus at the Battery Research and Innovation Hub – a unique, world class research and innovation centre focused on advanced battery prototyping and the commercialisation of energy storage technologies.

The expertise at the Battery Research and Innovation Hub led to the establishment in 2018 of storEnergy – a $4.3 million ARC Industrial Transformation Training Centre for Future Energy Storage Technologies, led by Alfred Deakin Professor Maria Forsyth, a former ARC Laureate Fellow, renowned in her field as a world expert in electromaterials and corrosion sciences. The Battery Research and Innovation Hub Director, Professor Patrick Howlett and research fellow Dr Robert Kerr work closely with Professor Forsyth.

The Calix researchers involved are: Dr Matt Boot-Handford, research and development manager for batteries and catalysts, and plant manager, BATMn; Dr Dabin Wang, R&D-Materials Scientist (Batteries and Catalysts); and Dr Lakshmi Vazhapully, Deakin PhD graduate and Materials Engineer, R & D Batteries and Catalyst.

The Australian specialty chemical and polymer manufacturer, Boron Molecular, which has successfully commercialised multiple Australian innovations, is the third partner in the project, bringing chemical synthesis and production to the development of electrolytes.

Commercialisation

Once this research has proved successful, the next step will be to develop other electrode materials, such as NMC cathodes, and patent the processes. Calix Ltd and the Battery Research and Innovation Hub are in discussions with potential manufacturers in Victoria, with battery production expected to begin in Australia within five years, underpinned by the Deakin research.

The project leaders have engaged UK-based battery manufacturer AMTE Power to make a 3kWh scooter pack using Calix LMO cathode powders, fine-tuned by the Deakin team. Drawing on AMTE’s expertise in cell manufacturing, this battery pack will demonstrate that the Calix process works. Development work on the Calix materials will continue over the coming 12 months, with the scooter pack expected to be completed by December 2021.