UW starts research centre for EV batteries
Electric vehicle battery tech still has a long way to go
A new research centre at the University of Waterloo is set to create the next generation of electric-vehicle batteries, that will charge faster, last longer, are less expensive and won't catch fire.
With $5 million grant from the Canada Foundation for Innovation, the Ontario Battery and Electrochemistry Research Centre will be led by two UW chemical engineers, Linda Nazar and Michael Pope.
“I think probably the most important thing is faster charging times,” said Pope.
They will experiment with sodium from sea water and sulphur from natural gas to replace lithiumion batteries.
“From the ocean we can get sodium really cheap, there is an abundance, it is more sustainable,” said Pope.
There is a ready supply of sulphur too.
“It is dirt-cheap, petroleum based, something that is removed from natural gas, and there are tonnes of it around,” said Pope.
Lithium mines are environmentally destructive. They need lots of water and energy to extract the mineral, leaving the surrounding ecosystems in desertlike conditions.
Sulphur and sodium are not only less expensive, but store more energy than lithium-ion batteries.
Solid state batteries are lighter, which is easier on roads and tires, and smaller too. There are fewer safety issues when compared to lithium-ion technology that sometimes catches fire.
“So there is a lot of new, interesting technology,” said Pope. “The chemistry is pretty much there for mass adoption, it is just a matter of making it less expensive, which will happen as we scale up.”
Pope's research is focused on integrating new materials into the production processes for batteries. Nazar is creating the new materials for solid state electrolyte batteries using sulphur cells.
After finishing her PhD in chemistry at the University of Toronto she did post-doc work at Exxon Corporate Research, which developed one of the first rechargeable batteries based on titanium-sulphide. She worked for Stan Whittingham there, who first developed lithium-ion batteries and won the 2019 Nobel Prize for that work.
“I was lucky, I guess,” said Nazar. “Or I had the foresight to get into this without realizing how important it would be.”
As of 2035 new gasoline-powered vehicles can't be sold in Canada, California and other jurisdictions.
Nazar said gasoline powered engines are only 25 per cent efficient — that is for every litre of gasoline, three-quarters is spewed out as waste in the form of exhaust and heat. While the EVs on the road today are 99 per cent efficient, the lithium-ion batteries are so heavy, expensive and prone to fires that better ones must be developed.
“We are not so much focused on improving today's lithium-ion batteries, but looking at the next generation of batteries that we will have to have,” said Nazar.
As one of only two EV battery research centres in the country, the UW centre will attract startups that want to move into this area to work on battery technology, she said.
The other centre is at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia. UW's is located in the heart of Canada's automotive sector.
It will also help train the next generation of researchers for work in EV battery gigafactories now being built in Windsor, St. Thomas and Quebec.
“There is an immense amount of money to be made here,” said Nazar, a Canada Research Chair in solid state energy materials.
The EV market is booming and it is not nearly as difficult to make an electric vehicle compared to cars with internal combustion engines.
“Canada stands to be a really important player in this business if we want to be,” said Nazar. “We just have to get our act together.”