Epic

Aim of the overall project:

The objective of the overall Epic project is to reduce the production costs of battery electrodes by increasing the drying speed by at least 50 % and reducing the energy costs during drying by at least 20 % compared to the current state of the art. This is achieved by the use of innovative drying technologies and a knowledge-based design of the drying process. In addition, post-drying is implemented in the best possible way in terms of energy and quality, and moisture management is adapted to the specific material system along the process chain from drying to cell assembly. This results in a significant cost savings potential and a decisive improvement in the environmental balance sheet, which strengthens Germany’s position as a battery production location in international competition. In an intermediate step on the way to industrial mass production, the project results are to be directly incorporated into the planning of the research factory (FFB) in order to ensure the best possible electrode drying there in terms of costs, quality and environmental protection.

Goals and tasks of iPAT

The aim of this subproject is, on the one hand, to investigate novel drying processes for battery electrodes and their efficient combination with existing convective drying or sole use. The goal is knowledge-based optimization on a pilot scale to significantly increase process speed and product quality. On the other hand, the influence of the dew point on the initial loading, the post-drying as well as the remoistening of post-dried electrodes is analyzed in the sense of a holistic moisture management along the process chain (from wet to post-dried electrode and electrode installed in the cell) for the determination of limit values for moisture loadings of cell components as well as for the identification of cost saving potentials and process and quality improvements. In this context, the subproject focuses on the evaluation of scalable processes in TRL level 4-5, in the case of post-drying still on a smaller scale. Thus, the scientific process studies and results contribute to the process design and optimization of drying and post-drying, which can be further developed in their industrial maturity in the FFB and thus transferred directly and in high maturity to industry.

Contact:

Fabienne Huttner
fabienne.huttner(at)tu-braunschweig.de

Thomas Loellhoeffel
t.loellhoeffel(at)tu-braunschweig.de