Battery System Technology Emerges in Endless Stream
Author: Wang Lingfang
Editor: Qiu Kaijun
The battery system technology emerges in endless stream.
On December 15th, at the third Battery Day, Honeycomb Energy released a brand new battery system – Dragon Scale Armor Battery – through optimizing the structure and improving the ratio of cell space occupancy. The lithium iron phosphate passenger car’s driving range can be increased to 800 kilometers, high manganese iron nickel battery can achieve 900 kilometers, and ternary battery can reach 1000 kilometers.
In addition to the Dragon Scale Armor Battery Pack, Honeycomb Energy also released high manganese iron nickel battery with higher density than iron lithium and lower cost than ternary, suitable for high energy density battery’s nano-web silicone anode, etc.
Furthermore, Honeycomb Energy named its third generation stacked film technology “Fei Die”.
The complete ecological chain of Honeycomb Energy’s honeycomb ecosystem has been formed, covering the entire route from mineral resources to battery recycling, following the principle of changing wherever the bottleneck lies. Innovation of Honeycomb Energy, including product, technology, cooperation mode innovation and other aspects, has solved the problems from the very root and set no limits to themselves, which is a distinctive feature of Honeycomb Energy.
There are many contents in the Battery Day of Honeycomb Energy, and we pick out the highlights to talk about. In addition, we should also notice that Honeycomb Energy is the only one in China that makes such a big commitment to Battery Day. What is the logic behind this?
What is Dragon Scale Armor Battery
As a company specializing in vehicle-standard batteries, vehicle power batteries are the most important products.
In Yang Hongxin, the chairman and CEO of Honeycomb Energy’s view, the safety of vehicle batteries is the most important, followed by a rapid charging requirement.
The current driving range is sufficient, but the increase of energy density brings the reduction of cost, which is the relentless pursuit of car manufacturers and consumers and also the goal of battery companies.
Dragon Scale Armor Battery is designed around these several demand points.
(1) Thermal and electrical separation improves safety
In terms of safety, Dragon Scale Armor Battery adopts the design idea of thermal and electrical separation, which separates the electric connection area from the thermal runaway area.
Innovative cell structure, blast-proof valve design at the bottom, and shortened exhaust channel distance. The gas produced after the cell’s thermal runaway is discharged at the shortest distance, which makes the high-pressure gas generated inside during thermal runaway quickly, directionally, and controllably released.
The bottom pressure relief valve is completely physically isolated from the two side electrodes to prevent a short circuit of a single cell from causing internal high-voltage arc of the entire battery pack, and thus reducing the probability of ignition failure.“`
Always, companies focus on preventing “hot” because controlling the heat basically meets the requirement of not catching fire within “5 minutes” stipulated in the GB standard.
However, in reality, the thermal runaway of battery cells not only causes fires or explosions, but also forms more complex short circuits inside the battery pack, which triggers secondary hazards when conductive materials are ejected.
Therefore, achieving true non-combustibility, thermal and electrical separation is a development trend. Honeycomb Energy is obviously one of the companies that recognized this relatively early and solved this problem with technology.
(2) High Integration Boosts Endurance
Endurance is also an important indicator that consumers value. In fact, what consumers need are vehicles that are not only cheap and have high endurance.
Only by understanding this can we understand why the Dragon Scale Armor Battery of Honeycomb Energy is based on Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries.
Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries are cheap, but to achieve high endurance, they also need improvements. At the battery system level, the grouping efficiency of the Dragon Scale Armor Battery reached a record 76%.
Firstly, by integrating the bottom thermal runaway venting area with the water cooling plate design, not only can the top be completely flat, but also the height of the battery cells can be increased by 8-10mm without increasing the overall height of the battery pack, increasing the energy and volume utilization of the battery pack.
Secondly, due to bottom venting, the Dragon Scale Armor Battery eliminated the central exhaust channel design, further freeing up space for the battery cells.
Thirdly, by using high-elastic steel and elastic support at the bottom, a tight connection between the bottom and the protective space was achieved, further improving the volume utilization.
(3) Strong Heat Transfer Capability
The Dragon Scale Armor Battery uses top and bottom large surface water cooling plates, and the battery pack cover is integrated with the water cooling plates, and a bottom water cooling plate is added.
According to Yang Hongxin, under 2.2C fast charging and 4C fast charging, the Dragon Scale Armor Battery almost has no temperature abnormality area after using the double-sided flat water cooling plate. In real-world tests, the temperature consistency of the battery cells under 800V super fast charging is very good, and the heat transfer capability is improved by 70%.
“`
（4）Significant cost reduction
By improving integration, compared to the honeycomb first-generation matrix battery pack, the structural components of the Dragon Scale Armor battery are reduced by 20\%, and the overall weight of the battery pack is reduced by 10-20kg.
（5）High compatibility
By adjusting the thickness and length of the short knife cells, the Dragon Scale Armor battery can be compatible with A00 to C class cars. Yang Hongxin explained that the Dragon Scale Armor battery can cover all sizes of cells from 300mm-600mm. The CTC, CTB, and CTV that various companies are pushing can be perfectly combined with the Dragon Scale Armor design plan.
The Dragon Scale Armor battery has been confirmed to be installed in two heavy-duty vehicle models, an SUV and a coupe, and will be mass-produced and launched in the second half of 2023.
Continuing improvement of technology and products
（1）There is still room for improvement in production technology
Regarding production technology, Honeycomb Energy has named its third-generation stacking technology “Feisti”.
The efficiency of Honeycomb Energy’s first generation stacking technology is 0.6 seconds/piece, and the second generation is 0.45/piece. The efficiency of the third-generation “Feisti” technology is striving to catch up with the winding process and has reached an efficiency of 0.125 seconds/piece.
Compared with the last generation stacking machine of Honeycomb Energy, the third-generation “Feisti” technology has reduced the floor space of the stacking machine by more than 45\% and improved the efficiency by more than 200\%. The third-generation “Feisti” technology also integrates polar film unwinding, cutting, stacking CCD online monitoring, hot pressing functions, shortening the transfer of polar film rolls to stacking, reducing the processing precision difference between polar film cutting and stacking, and significantly improving the yield and product safety of the battery.
As the battery industry continues to develop, Yang Hongxin announced the public authorization of “Feisti”.
In Yang Hongxin’s view, the characteristic of the stacking process is that it can make the battery thinner, and the safety and thermal management of the battery are significantly improved after the battery is made thinner, which both achieves differentiation with leading enterprises and makes progress in safety.
Yang Hongxin explained that this time, Honeycomb Energy dared to open up the authorization of “Feisti” technology because they have reserved the fourth generation stacking technology, which has doubled its efficiency and will use more advanced technology.
According to Yang Hongxin, they will use more advanced laser technology and logistics technology in their fourth-generation technology. If everything goes smoothly, the fourth-generation stacking machine is expected to be launched by the end of next year.In Yang Hongxin’s view, there are still many areas for improvement in stacked battery technology, such as eliminating the intermediate tank in the electrode segment, having no slurry with dry-coating process, and almost no need for drying oven. The stacking process can also be further optimized to improve efficiency, and assembly can be improved through machine effects such as magnetic levitation to improve logistics efficiency and series connection to reduce costs.
“I think China is doing well in high-power and high-speed lasers, but it still needs to work hard on magnetic levitation logistics. We are also working with some companies to jointly develop magnetic levitation logistics,” Yang Hongxin said.
In terms of process flow, Honeycomb Energy has many clear directions for improvement.
(2) High-Mn Fe-Ni and Nano-Web Silicon Anodes to Reduce Costs and Improve Performance
Honeycomb Energy has also released technology related to high-Mn Fe-Ni and nano-web silicon anodes.
The previously mentioned high-Mn Fe-Ni battery is a new product plan proposed by Honeycomb Energy for lithium iron phosphate batteries’ energy density ceiling. Since it does not contain cobalt, the cost of high-Mn Fe-Ni battery can be controlled, while its energy density is higher than lithium iron phosphate.
Compared with the lithium iron phosphate battery pack, the Honeycomb Energy high-Mn Fe-Ni battery pack can increase the cruising range by 100 kilometers and improve low-temperature performance by 2 times; compared with the same volume density of the ternary battery pack, the overall cost can be reduced by 9.5%.
Honeycomb Energy expects the weight energy density of the high-Mn Fe-Ni battery pack to be 220Wh/kg and the volume energy density to be 503 Wh/L, with a production time estimated for 2024.
Nano-web silicon anode is a negative electrode technology proposed by Honeycomb Energy for high-energy-density batteries. Honeycomb Energy has independently developed the technologies of web-building-bundle silicon, silicon-carbon fusion, and double-layer coating, which can improve its cycle life by 10% compared with imported products of the same kind.
This anode material is characterized by high capacity, high initial efficiency, low expansion, low gas production, long service life, and support for 4C fast charging.Nanoweb silicon negative electrode matched with high nickel positive electrode is expected to achieve energy density ≥ 300Wh/kg in large cylindrical cells, and will be the first to be applied in the Honeycomb Energy’s battery production. By 2025, Honeycomb Energy will produce 5GWh of high energy density cells with Nanoweb silicon negative electrode.
Developing the Second Curve for Energy Storage
The development of energy storage is no longer an extension of the development of power batteries in the past, but a new growth curve.
In the view of Yang Hongxin, the competition in the power battery market will be very fierce after next year: around 2026, overseas power battery manufacturers will start mass production, and the competition in the market will inevitably enter a white-hot stage. Honeycomb Energy must capture the second growth curve to explore, and energy storage will be a huge race in the future.
Yang Hongxin admitted that the layout in the energy storage field was a bit late, but after they realized the potential, they made strategic adjustments and entered this field.
They have three main entry points: power side, which is the basic plate with stable demand, and the dual-carbon strategy makes photovoltaic power generation and energy storage a perfect alliance; industrial energy storage, which is rapidly developing, and the electricity market reform has made the business model closed-loop with the large valley difference; residential energy storage, which has brought great business opportunities for residential energy storage due to energy crisis and rising electricity prices in Europe and the United States.
Based on their target, Honeycomb Energy will have a global market share of more than 10% and enter the global TOP 5 by 2025. Yang Hongxin hopes to fully leverage China’s advantages in lithium iron phosphate resources, Honeycomb’s advantages in short knives, and China’s huge strategic advantages in photovoltaic, wind power, and new energy.
Specifically, Honeycomb Energy uses the L500 short knife battery to directly layout the next-generation 325 Ah battery, which increases the energy density by 10% compared to the 280 Ah battery, reduces the number of parts by 15%, reduces the cost by 10%, and reduces the footprint by 18%. The double-sided liquid cooling greatly improves the safety of the system design. The special isolation cabin design mode is adopted in the system design, and the dragon scale armor design concept is used for energy storage.
The competitiveness of industrial energy storage lies in energy aggregation services. Honeycomb Energy gradually transformed from a battery provider to an energy service operator, and an electricity trading company through cooperation.
At the level of residential energy storage, Honeycomb Energy adopts the route of square + soft pack, which is more cost-effective and efficient, and uses its self-developed high energy density battery to improve the energy density and cost of residential energy storage.
The difference between batteries and petroleum is that petroleum is non-renewable, while batteries can be fully recycled. From early supply security to later upstream and downstream collaboration, Hunan Hive Energy (HHE) has achieved the integration and cooperation of the entire ecological chain from mineral resources to battery materials (Lepidico), battery equipment (Octopus Doctor-Smart Manufacturing), energy storage business (Hive Intelligence Storage), energy services, battery recycling (Teng Qingqing), and incubation of zero-carbon industrial parks (Dazu Zero-carbon Industrial Park).
Technology + Manufacturing: Competing in the TWh Era
At this year’s Battery Day event, Yang Hongxin further expounded on the competitive strategies of the battery industry at different stages of development: ten years ago, battery companies relied on product technology to win; five years ago, they relied on differentiation positioning to win; but with the advent of the TWh era, the key to victory is technology + manufacturing.
The car-level factory and the “Leader 600” strategy will bring Hive Energy a large-scale, efficient, and high-quality delivery represented by manufacturing, which is one of the magic weapons for competition in the TWh era.
Another key factor is technology.
HHE currently invests heavily in scientific and technological innovation and intelligent manufacturing to maintain its advantages in long-term competition.
Currently, in terms of installed capacity, HHE’s power battery installed capacity ranks tenth globally in 2021 and the first half of 2022; during the same period, the power battery installed capacity ranks sixth domestically.
However, on the patent rankings, in terms of scientific and technological strength and achievements, HHE’s rank is higher than its installed capacity and can be regarded as leading the industry. Based on these patents and achievements, HHE has dug a wide and deep moat for itself.
From material systems, to process manufacturing, to monitoring and warning, to recycling and reuse, HHE has original research layouts for every link, and each link has multiple solutions to meet different needs.
This is the fundamental logic of HHE – only with original, systematic, and diverse product solutions can they “receive all” when the power battery and energy storage battery markets explode, and grab a sufficient market share.
HHE’s grand Battery Day event reflects their corporate values of innovation and pride in innovation. Investing a large amount of money in Battery Day every year can also tell the company’s internal staff and the industry that HHE takes scientific research and innovation seriously.Buying bones with gold, a good horse will inevitably come in abundance. This is why Hive Energy is going all out to hold “Battery Day”.
——END——
This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.