Australian aluminium-ion battery breakthrough

An Australian nanotechnology battery invention could wipe out the range and recharging shortcomings of electric cars and trucks within the next five years.

The breakthrough graphene aluminium-ion battery cells charge up to 70 times faster than lithium-ion cells, are more efficient, can discharge energy faster and have a longer lifespan. They’re also more sustainable and easier to recycle.

Brisbane-based Graphene Manufacturing Group (GMG) has co-developed a graphene aluminium-ion battery with cheap and abundant raw materials that could be built in Australia and could recharge automotive batteries in minutes rather than hours.

The breakthrough technology comes from a University of Queensland (UQ) research project and replaces expensive lithium with aluminium, which boosts the energy density of batteries enormously.

So quickly do the new graphene aluminium-ion batteries charge and discharge that they effectively bridge the gap between lithium-ion batteries and supercapacitors, GMG managing director Craig Nicol said.

The company is validating and developing coin cell batteries now and plans to put them into limited production later this year, with automotive cylinder and pouch cells following by 2024 or 2025 and solid-state versions in development.

It has used nanotechnology to insert aluminium atoms inside tiny perforations in graphene planes to deliver 7000 Watts per kilogram in energy density.

When the cell recharges, aluminium ions return to the negative electrode and can exchange three electrons per ion instead of lithium’s speed limit of just one.

It has also been done with a bare minimum of exotic metals.

“It’s basically aluminium foil, aluminium chloride [the precursor to aluminium that can be recycled) and the ionic liquid is urea,” Nicol said.

“It is the sort of manufacturing that can be done in the first world, and the recharging rates for the batteries would be limited only by the battery chargers and infrastructure.

“We are looking at pouch packs [as used in the automotive industry] in 18 months.”

Nicol is the first to admit that GMG almost lucked into the technology, thanks to its connection to UQ and the liberal distribution of its uniquely plasma-generated graphene to university research centres around the world.

The commercialisation of the technology is covered by a research agreement with scientists from UQ’s Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology.

“Our lead product scientist Dr Ashok Nanjundan was involved in the University of Queensland project in its nanotechnology research centre in its early days,” Nicol said.

“They found a way to make holes in graphene and a way to store aluminium atoms closer together in the holes. If we drill holes the atoms stick inside the graphene and it becomes a whole lot more dense, like a bowling ball on a mattress.

“The prior best energy density [from a graphene aluminium-ion battery] was from Stanford [University] and we are three times better.

“We will have coin cells in production later this year and are working up to pouch and cylindrical cells,” he confirmed.

So far, testing shows the technology to be remarkably resistant to heat and sub-zero temperatures, which could have enormous implications for heavy vehicle cooling systems that usually make up around 20 per cent of the weight of current lithium-ion battery packs.

Listed on the TSX Venture exchange in Canada, GMG hooked into the graphene aluminium-ion battery technology by supplying its graphene to university projects all over the country, including the University of Queensland.

The new battery cells are claimed to deliver far more energy density than current lithium-ion batteries, without the cooling, heating or rare-earth problems they face.

“So far there are no temperature problems. Twenty per cent of a battery pack is to do with cooling them. There is a very high chance that we won’t need that cooling or heating at all,” Nicol claimed.

“It does not overheat and it nicely operates below zero so far in testing.

“They don’t need circuits for cooling or heating, which currently accounts for about 80kg in a 100kWh pack.

“The cylindrical cells may not even be needed. We may just do pouches.”

The new cell technology, Nicol insisted, could be comfortably industrialised to fit inside current lithium-ion housings, heading off problems with car-industry architectures that tend to be used for up to 15 years.

“Ours will be the same shape and voltage as the current lithium-ion cells, or we can move to whatever shape is necessary,” Nicol confirmed.

“It’s a direct replacement that charges so fast it’s basically a super capacitor.

“It does not have a maximum theoretical amperage. Lithium-ion cells can’t do more than 1.5-2amps or you can blow up the battery, but our technology has no theoretical limit.”

The first step for GMG will be to launch the production coin cells, and to find a major supplier or OEM as a customer for them.

The risk for GMG is that the automotive industry seems to have tied itself to lithium-ion battery cells in the short term.

“They are all stuck on the lithium-ion train,” Nicol said. “We need people who can adopt a new paradigm.

“Ninety per cent of lithium production and purchasing is still through China and 10 per cent is through Chile. We have all the aluminium we need right here.”

GMG has been in loose contact with several companies but has not locked down a supply deal with a major manufacturer or manufacturing facility.

“We are not tied into big brands yet, but this could go into an Apple iPhone and charge it in less than a minute,” Nicol confirmed.

“We will bring the coin cell to market first. It recharges an iPhone in less than a minute, and it has four times the energy than with lithium.”

“It’s a lot less adverse effect on health, too. A kid can be killed by lithium if it’s ingested, but not with aluminium.”

GMG is not the first to develop an aluminium-ion battery cell, and probably won’t be the last, either.

Recent projects alone have included a collaboration between China’s Dalian University of Technology and the University of Nebraska, plus others from Cornell University, Clemson University, the University of Maryland, Stanford University, the Zhejiang University’s Department of Polymer Science and the European Alion industrial consortium.

The differences are highly technical, but the GMG cells use graphene made from its proprietary plasma process, rather than the traditional graphite sourcing, and the result is three times the energy density of the next-best cell, from Stanford University

Stanford’s natural graphite aluminium-ion technology delivers 68.7 Watt-hours per kilogram and 41.2 Watts per kilogram, while its graphite-foam bumps up to 3000W/kg.

The GMG-UQ battery heaves that forward to between 150 and 160Wh/kg and 7000W/kg.

Besides energy density, the new technology also has the geopolitical advantage of bypassing the Chinese and Chilean control of the global lithium market in favour of readily available aluminium.

Another benefit could be that where the price of the lithium metal has risen from $US1460 a tonne in 2005 to $US13,000 a tonne today, aluminium has moved from $US1730 to $US2078 today.

It’s also far easier to refine into the form needed for battery production and it also promises to be far, far simpler to recycle, with aluminium recycling plants already established around the world.

Another advantage is that the GMG graphene aluminium-ion cells do not use copper, which also costs around $US8470 a tonne as of May 10.

GMG’s preferred plan is to “run” with the technology as far as it can, with 10 gigaWatt to 50gW plants, before licencing it out to larger production facilities, with possible plant locations in Canada, Qatar or even Australia.

“Canada has much cheaper gas and electricity than Australia, by about 15 times,” Nicol said. “In Qatar, you could build it from scratch.

“We are literally taking the raw materials and making a battery in any country we want to choose.

“In Australia, Gladstone makes the most sense as the intersection of the raw materials and gas, but the gas price is a problem.”

It’s not the only Brisbane-based company pushing battery solutions onto the world, either.

PPK Group has a joint-venture with Deakin University to develop lithium-sulphur batteries and the Vecco Group has confirmed a deal with Shanghai Electric for a Brisbane manufacturing plant for vanadium batteries for commercial energy storage.