Revolutionary Electric Vehicle Battery (REVB)
Lead Research Organisation:
Imperial College London
Department Name: Mechanical Engineering
Abstract
The Revolutionary Electric Vehicle Battery (REVB) project aims to develop a revolutionary Lithium Sulfur (Li-S) vehicle
battery and Battery Energy Management (BEM) system which will provide breakthrough improvements in energy density,
cost, range and safety of electric vehicle batteries and put the UK in a world leading position to exploit this.
The project intends to double the rate of improvement of the Oxis Li-S battery, by developing and embedding a model led
R&D culture within Oxis, using a deep understanding of the underlying science which will be developed with Imperial
College to inform product development at Oxis. It is a proven approach within other sectors (such as crash testing) within
the automotive industry, but rarely adopted by battery developers. The project will also develop a battery energy manager,
working with Lotus and Cranfield, in order to be able to push the chemistry to its limits and achieve 400Wh/kg cell energy
density with practical cycle life and performance metrics. The output of the project will offer a battery system for automotive applications that can not only store more energy than today's technology but can also harness significantly more of the that
energy, resulting in a compound improvement for next generation Electric Vehicles.
battery and Battery Energy Management (BEM) system which will provide breakthrough improvements in energy density,
cost, range and safety of electric vehicle batteries and put the UK in a world leading position to exploit this.
The project intends to double the rate of improvement of the Oxis Li-S battery, by developing and embedding a model led
R&D culture within Oxis, using a deep understanding of the underlying science which will be developed with Imperial
College to inform product development at Oxis. It is a proven approach within other sectors (such as crash testing) within
the automotive industry, but rarely adopted by battery developers. The project will also develop a battery energy manager,
working with Lotus and Cranfield, in order to be able to push the chemistry to its limits and achieve 400Wh/kg cell energy
density with practical cycle life and performance metrics. The output of the project will offer a battery system for automotive applications that can not only store more energy than today's technology but can also harness significantly more of the that
energy, resulting in a compound improvement for next generation Electric Vehicles.
Planned Impact
Lithium Sulfur technology differs significantly from conventional Lithium Ion battery chemistries which use lithium compound
cathodes and release electricity by the ions moving from the cathode directly to the anode, generating around 3.6V. Li-S
contrasts by using a pure lithium anode, a carbon/sulfur cathode and a complex electrolyte. Unusually the electrolyte is
where the majority of the electrochemical reactions take place, yielding a nominal cell voltage of 2.1V. Carbon is required in
the cathode because sulfur is naturally an electrical insulator, it can hold charge but carbon is needed to access it. Due to
the extremely low atomic weight of lithium and sulfur, the theoretical energy density of Li-S is five times higher than Li-ion at
2700Wh/kg. Li-S also has an added safety benefit that it internally creates an insulating passivation layer of lithium sulfide
when punctured, this behaviour can prevent thermal runaway at temperatures below 938C, at which point the insulating
layer melts.
cathodes and release electricity by the ions moving from the cathode directly to the anode, generating around 3.6V. Li-S
contrasts by using a pure lithium anode, a carbon/sulfur cathode and a complex electrolyte. Unusually the electrolyte is
where the majority of the electrochemical reactions take place, yielding a nominal cell voltage of 2.1V. Carbon is required in
the cathode because sulfur is naturally an electrical insulator, it can hold charge but carbon is needed to access it. Due to
the extremely low atomic weight of lithium and sulfur, the theoretical energy density of Li-S is five times higher than Li-ion at
2700Wh/kg. Li-S also has an added safety benefit that it internally creates an insulating passivation layer of lithium sulfide
when punctured, this behaviour can prevent thermal runaway at temperatures below 938C, at which point the insulating
layer melts.
Publications
Zhang T
(2017)
What Limits the Rate Capability of Li-S Batteries during Discharge: Charge Transfer or Mass Transfer?
in Journal of The Electrochemical Society
Zhang T
(2015)
Modeling the voltage loss mechanisms in lithium-sulfur cells: the importance of electrolyte resistance and precipitation kinetics.
in Physical chemistry chemical physics : PCCP
Zhang T
(2016)
Modelling transport-limited discharge capacity of lithium-sulfur cells
in Electrochimica Acta
| Description | We have created a new generation of lithium sulfur battery models, that are already being adopted by the scientific community. These models have given us unique insight into key behaviour of lithium sulfur batteries, including precipitation and dissolution, degradation mechanisms such as shuttle, the impact of thermal gradients and current inbalances, and have led to new operating conditions which can significantly extend the useable capacity and lifetime of the cells. |
| Exploitation Route | Oxis energy are using the results to further their cell development. |
| Sectors | Aerospace, Defence and Marine,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Energy,Transport |
| URL | http://www.imperial.ac.uk/electrochem-sci-eng |
| Description | Our findings have already been used by Oxis Energy in their cell development programme. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2014 |
| Sector | Manufacturing, including Industrial Biotechology |
| Impact Types | Economic |
| Description | FITG Imperial 20 |
| Amount | £135,540 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | FITG029 |
| Organisation | The Faraday Institution |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 10/2020 |
| End | 09/2024 |
| Description | IC PhD scholarship |
| Amount | £90,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Imperial College London |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 10/2014 |
| End | 09/2017 |
| Description | LiSTAR: Li-Sulphur Technology AcceleratoR |
| Amount | £7,755,737 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | FIRG014 |
| Organisation | The Faraday Institution |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 10/2019 |
| End | 09/2023 |
| Description | PhD studentship on lithium sulfur batteries |
| Amount | £90,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Beijing Institute of Aeronautical Materials |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | China |
| Start | 01/2020 |
| End | 06/2023 |
| Title | Systems and Methods for Determination of State of Health of Lithium Sulfur Rechargeable Batteries |
| Description | Approach to estimate the state of a lithium sulfur battery. |
| IP Reference | GB1506497.5 |
| Protection | Patent granted |
| Year Protection Granted | 2015 |
| Licensed | No |
| Impact | Oxis Energy Ltd are co-inventors and will use this patent in their portfolio for the commercialisation of lithium sulfur batteries. |
| Description | 229th ECS Meeting |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Dr Teng Zhang gave a presentation on our work on lithium sulfur batteries at a major international electrochemistry conference. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | 5th Workshop "Lithium-Sulfur-Batteries" |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Dr Gregory Offer gave an invited presentation on our work on lithium sulfur batteries. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | 67th Annual ISE Meeting |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Dr Monica Marinescu gave a presentation on our work on lithium sulfur batteries at a major international electrochemistry conference. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | AABC Europe 2017 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Presented at AABC Europe 2017 in Mainz, Germany, which is the largest conference bringing together the automotive and battery industries. This is not the typical scientific conference we present at, and is dominated by industry. I gave an overview of our groups work, including our work on lithium sulfur batteries. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Invited Lecture Dr Monica Marinescu at International Conference on Lithium-Sulfur Batteries, Aug 12-15, 2019 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | International conference on lithium sulfur batteries in Beijing |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | http://iclsb2019.meeting.so/msite/main/en |
| Description | Keynote Lecture (Gregory Offer) & Normal Lecture (Xiao Hua) at LiSM3 in Chicago 25-26th April 2018 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Major International Conference on Lithium Sulfur Batteries Gregory Offer gave a keynote lecture Xiao Hua gave a normal accepted lecture |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | http://www.lism3.org/ |
| Description | LiS workshop Dresden |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Dr Monica Marinescu gave presentation at International conference on lithium sulfur batteries. Significant interest in the open source models we published. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://www.iws.fraunhofer.de/en/events/archive_2017/lithium-sulfur-batteries_2017.html |
| Description | ModVal 14 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Dr Teng Zhang gave a presentation on our work on lithium sulfur batteries at an international conference. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Organised conference on lithium sulfur batteries |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Our group, and Oxis Energy, organised the first Lithium Sulfur, Materials, Mechanisms & Modelling LiSM3 conference, with invited speakers from around the world. I gave the opening presentation with Dr Mark Wild from Oxis Energy, and a number of members of the REVB team, Dr Sywlia Walus, Dr Daniel Auger, and Dr Teng Zhang, gave presentations on the work undertaken as a result of the REVB project. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | http://www.lism3.org/ |
| Description | UKES 2016 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Dr Monica Marinescu gave a presentation on our work on lithium sulfur batteries, at the UK Energy Storage conference 2016 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |