Prospects for Advanced Storage Battery Technologies

Abstract

Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) is responsible for the development of advanced storage battery technologies for the Energy Storage Division of the United States Department of Energy (DOE). This activity is designated as the Exploratory Technology Development and Testing (ETD) Project. In its ETD Lead Center capacity, SNL manages external development contracts and performs in-house applied research and battery testing. SNL's responsibility is to fill the gap between the basic research activities of Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory's Technology Base Research Project, also funded by DOE, and the product engineering capabilities of industry. The objective of the ETD project is to develop and evaluate high-performance, long-life, economical' and reliable rechargeable batteries for future mobile and stationary energy storage applications. Advanced battery systems of interest to the ETD Project are sealed lead-acid, zinc/bromine, zinc/chlonrne, zinc/femrcyanide, iron/chromium Redox, nickel/hydrogen, sodium/sulfur, and lithium/metal sulfide. The overall goal of the ETD program is to develop advanced electrochemical energy storage and conversion systems that will facilitate the use of more abundant energy sources and increase the efficiency of energy use in the US. Advanced battery storage systems can play an important role in the substitution of coal and nuclear energy for oil and natural gas supplies. Advanced battery system applications fall into two general categories: mobile and stationary energy storage. Mobile applications include electric vehicles (EV), such as passenger cars, vans, buses, forklifts, industrial transports, rail engines, and hybrid vehicles. The most stnrngent battery requirements are for the mobile applications, which demand high-specific energy and power, high-energy density, long cycle lives, random depth-of-discharge cycling capability, and tolerance to vehicle environments. The stationary applications encompass