24M company raises funds to develop a new type of lithium-ion battery, the discharge continues for more than 8 hours

According to reports, 24M, a battery start-up company located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, completed the development of D-series battery products in November this year, and continues to commercialize its advanced battery manufacturing processes. 24M is raising funds for the commercial processing of new lithium-ion batteries. This round of financing includes investor Itochu (Itochu), one of Japan's largest industrial company groups, and investors Kyocera and NorthBridge Venture Partners (NorthBridge Venture Partners). The funds will be used for the design and development of new batteries for electric vehicles, and for 24M to build a commercial-scale processing plant for its semi-solid battery technology. 24M company was founded in 2010, its battery technology is based on the research of MIT professor Yet-MingChiang. 24M said in an interview with industry media in 2015 that it would process grid-scale batteries before 2017. This work took longer than expected, and its battery material technology has encountered some difficulties in its conversion from laboratory to batch processing. Crucially, this start-up company prevented bankruptcy and continued to supply funds throughout the process, which has exceeded expectations for many energy storage materials companies. Hitachi CEO RickFeldt said that a critical milestone is coming. The company is mainly responsible for the casting and assembly equipment required for the manufacturing process. Japanese manufacturer Kyocera (Kyocera) is building the first commercial plant using 24M's battery technology, which will start production in 2019. Feldt pointed out that the first commercial battery processing plant will have a processing capacity of 100MWh or 200MWh to prove that it is feasible to develop giga-scale batteries. Compared with the traditional lithium-ion battery processing and manufacturing, the capital investment of the new battery processing line is relatively less. Rich Chleboski, the chief financial officer of 24M, said that the battery can reduce inactive ingredients such as binders and separators, reduce battery material costs by 20%, and achieve long-term energy storage more effectively. 'We will be the industry leader in terms of processing costs.' Feldt said. As early as 2015, the leaders of 24M company stated that they hoped to reach a price point of US$100 per kilowatt-hour to effectively compete with important opponents. The company is still working hard to achieve this goal, but it has indicated that it is more cautious. Feldt said that according to the bill of materials, 24M's battery processing should be able to save 20% of the cost. However, gigafactories is larger than 24M's processing plant, and its economies of scale will reduce 24M's technical advantages until 24M reaches a larger processing scale. Kyocera's plant will process lithium iron phosphate batteries optimized for grid-scale energy storage systems. But 24M is also excited about the new technology roadmap for electric vehicle batteries, which may use its previously developed manufacturing process. The roadmap includes the densification of active materials, the addition of silicon anodes (easy to say, but difficult to do, but does not destroy cycle life) and dual electrolytes, where the anode and cathode use their own customized electrolyte materials, through the passage of only electrons. Separate by partitions. 'It greatly improves the performance of electric vehicle batteries.' Feldt said its technological advancement will bring higher energy density. The densification step should be commercially viable within about six months, and its silicon anode will also be commercialized. The commercialization of dual electrolytes will take longer to complete, and it may take about two years. An important challenge is to thin the separator from the standard thickness of 100 microns to 20 or 40 microns. Regarding these three projects, the company said that it has demonstrated technological advancements in basic science, and now it wants to design viable products. Feldt said: 'Although commercialization cannot be truly implemented at present, it is very certain to embark on the road to commercialization.' In addition, 24M believes that its energy storage system composed of lithium iron phosphate batteries is very suitable for replacing natural gas power plants. , Because compared with traditional batteries, its thicker electrodes have cost advantages, and its discharge continues for a longer time (such as 8 or 12 hours).