The 3rd Battery Sustainability Workshop (2024)

The 3rd Battery Sustainability Conference is set to be held at MIT on December 5-6, 2024! 

Please pre-register here to attend the conference. Full registration details will be available soon!

Keynote Speakers

Enhancing Grid-Scale Battery Sustainability by Software Engineering and Recycling 

Dr. Ju Li, Tokyo Electric Power Company Professor of Nuclear Engineering and Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, MIT

Grid-scale battery storage is finally economical, with the cost of LiFePO4//graphite cells approaching 50 USD/kWh in 2024. I will introduce recent efforts in predicting the residual useful life of batteries by deep neural network [Applied Energy 306 (2022) 118134], and for uncertain operation conditions [Energy Storage Materials 50 (2022) 139].  I will also introduce recent advances in the direct recycling of LiFePO4 cathode black mass, which is deemed to be a key technology for enabling deep penetration of battery storage at global scale [“Key Challenges for Grid-Scale Lithium-Ion Battery Energy Storage,” Advanced Energy Materials 12 (2022) 2202197].


All Solid-state Batteries - Status Update

Dr. Y. Shirley Meng, Professor of Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago, and Chief Scientist of the Argonne Collaborative Center for Energy Storage Science, Argonne National Laboratory

Compared with their liquid-electrolyte analogues, Solid state electrolytes SSEs have drawn increased attention as they promote battery safety, exhibit a wide operational temperature window, and improve energy density by enabling Li metal as anode materials for next-generation lithium-ion batteries. Despite suitable mechanical properties to prevent Li dendrite penetration, relatively wide electrochemical stability windows, comparable ionic conductivities, and intrinsic safety, most SSEs are found to be thermodynamically unstable against Li metal, where SSE decomposition produces a complex interphase, analogous to the SEI formed in liquid electrolyte systems. An ideal passivation layer should consist of ionically conductive but electronically insulating components to prevent the SSE from being further reduced. The past four decades have witnessed intensive research efforts on the chemistry, structure, and morphology of the solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) in Li-metal and Li-ion batteries (LIBs) using liquid or polymer electrolytes, since the SEI is considered to predominantly influence the performance, safety and cycle life of batteries. All-solid-state batteries (ASSBs) have been promoted as a highly promising energy storage technology due to the prospects of improved safety and a wider operating temperature range compared to their conventional liquid electrolyte-based counterparts. While solid electrolytes with ionic conductivities comparable to liquid electrolytes have been discovered, fabricating solid-state full cells with high areal capacities that can cycle at reasonable current densities remains a principal challenge. Silicon anode offers a possibility to overcome the challenges that lithium metal anode faces. In this talk, we will highlight solutions to these existing challenges and several directions for future work are proposed 

Invited Speakers

Kang Xu, Chief Scientist, SES.ai

Yakov Kutsovsky, Co-founder and CSO, Group1

Michael Wang, R&D Director, Lithios

Peter Attia, Co-founder and CTO, Glimpse

Robert Barsotti, Battery R&D Director, Arkema

Olha Mashtalir, Battery Materials R&D Manager, Cabot

Sungbin Park, Department Leader, LG Energy Solution

Kannan Tinnium, Technology Director, Schneider Electric

Carine Steinway, Technology Development Manager, DOE Vehicle Technologies Office