Given the increasing demand for electrical storage capacities and the associated challenge of material availability and high costs, alternative battery concepts are coming into focus for specific applications. The project BALU focuses on further developing the aluminium-graphite dual-ion battery (AGDIB), which has shown great potential in the area of high-dynamic load requirements with its high power density. Combined with its economic advantages and environmental aspects, substituting critical raw materials, the technology is an alternative to cost- and material-intensive lithium batteries.
The overall aim of BALU is to develop a production technology for cost-effective, more sustainable and recyclable cell concepts of the rechargeable aluminum-ion batteries and to implement the cells in a functional demonstrator to show the substitution of cost-intensive lithium titanate (LTO) cells. The project has the goal to transfer the production of AGDIB cells from laboratory scale with TRL3 to industry-compatible production conditions with TRL6. This requires high research efforts to develop and evaluate suitable cell concepts, addressing material-specific issues while examining manufacturing capabilities for such battery cells. Simultaneously, aspects regarding recyclability in the context of the Circular Economy are integrated.
Fraunhofer (IISB Erlangen, IKTS Dresden, IST Braunschweig)
Universität Bayreuth, BayBatt
Sika Werke GmbH
Alzner Battery
As part of the "Batterie2020Transfer" program funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), the project BALU brings together a consortium of research institutes and industry companies with broad expertise in the fields of materials research, production technology, battery system technology and life cycle assessment (LCA). The project partners are investigating all steps from cell and module design to system integration with regard to their recycling-oriented design and are looking at the entire product life cycle from a holistic perspective. The IWF Institute will carry out the environmental assessment of the new AGDIB design at an early stage of development, identifying main hotspots, critical process parameters, evaluating energy and material flows along the life cycle, with the use of prospective LCA to reflect the upscaling to a higher TRL.