Univ. of Washington unveils plans for lab space dedicated to battery innovation
Entrepreneurs and academics worldwide are trying to figure out how far innovation can stretch the power and performance of batteries.
Since 2017, the Washington Clean Energy Testbeds at the University of Washington have provided a space, tools and expertise to support that work for startups and university staff and students. Today the facility’s leaders are unveiling plans for an open-access lab that will allow researchers to validate their new technologies by incorporating them into custom-made pouch cell batteries.
“A battery is a chemical system that is highly engineered so that all the parts work together,” said Dan Schwartz, founding director of the UW’s Clean Energy Institute, which includes the testbeds. “And the nation is really under-invested in that kind of engineering work.”
Here’s the challenge. Researchers often tackle one component of a battery’s system for optimization, such as the chemistry of an anode. But they need to demonstrate how their solution performs with the rest of the ingredients if they want to prove its benefits.
The new lab will provide that missing piece in the engineering infrastructure.
The facility will have a dry room and equipment for creating electrode slurries, coating electrodes, and layering the battery components. The batteries will be fabricated in plastic-lined aluminum pouches that bear a resemblance to a Pop Tart package.
While useful for experiments, the pouch cell batteries also have commercial applications in electric vehicles and consumer electronics. Schwartz said there’s growing demand for the pouch cell batteries from heavy trucking and aviation.
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