Industries and applications

Our company employs SE™ Technology Platform that enable us to develop superior binderless electrodes that pack more active materials into the same space, thereby increasing capacity/energy/power output per weight and per volume respectively. Unlike conventional batteries, batteries powered by our innovative binderless electrodes have higher stable capacity that is reversible, and can simultaneously support higher charge/discharge rate, and longer cycle life. Furthermore, our innovation allows battery designers to support very high depth of discharge (DOD) (over 90% DOD), without significantly affecting the battery cycle life. 

The combination of higher DOD enabled by our binderless electrode, higher reversible capacity (with charge/discharge efficiency of approximately 100%), would enable battery manufacturers to deliver more useful energy for the same form factor, and a more durable battery. With 10X charge/discharge rate advantage, 10X cycle life advantage, and much improved safety, SmartEnergi’s binderless electrodes provide both new and existing battery manufacturers with the flexibility to develop better-quality batteries for a variety of applications and industries, including batteries for consumer electronics, automobiles, aerospace and defense, renewable energy, Grid, and building industries.

CONSUMER ELECTRONICS

 
ENERGY STORAGE CHALLENGES FOR WEARABLE ELECTRONICS Current batteries for wearable electronics have poor battery life and are rigid, and thus limiting both form/shape and function of products and design flexibilities.

OUR SOLUTION Our superior binderless electrodes can be thin, lightweight, flexible, high capacity, and fast charging, and can be integrated into high performance bendable batteries for a variety of wearable electronics. These flexible batteries would also offer designers more flexibility in the shape and form of their wearable electronics.

ENERGY STORAGE CHALLENGES FOR SMART PHONES/TABLETS/LAPTOPS/OTHER PORTABLE ELECTRONICSThe primary challenge of batteries for portable electronics is short battery life, longer recharging time, excessive heat generation, and user frustrations stemming from the need for frequent recharging of the device.

OUR SOLUTIONSmartEnergi’s binderless electrodes can be integrated into high performance batteries for portable electronics such as smart phones, tablets, laptop, etc, and enable 2 to 3 times more useful energy compared to conventional lithium ion batteries with the same form factor, at least 3 times faster charging, and over 3 times cycle life advantage. Approximately 100% charge/discharge efficiency means less wasted energy, which invariable turns into heat causing fire and device explosion. Finally, the conductive additive we use in our electrodes ensures better thermal conductivity to improve heat dissipation and fire retardation. Therefore, batteries built with our binderless electrodes will generate significantly less heat, ensure better heat dissipation, and retard fire, and thereby contributing to a low cost thermal management system.

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Automotive

ENERGY STORAGE CHALLENGES FOR ELECTRIC AND HYBRID VEHICLESCurrent electric vehicle batteries are expensive, charge/recharge slowly, and offer relatively short range for the electric vehicles, consequently creating both range and recharge anxiety for consumers. Current Li-ion batteries that optimize for power, generally do so at the expense of energy, and vice versa.

Also, attempts at optimizing energy and power generally sacrifice cycle life, and tend to increase cell and the overall cost of the battery. Vehicle manufacturers who use batteries optimized for the highest capacity often consider incorporating supercapacitors for high power functions, and as a consequence, increase the cost of the vehicle.

Finally, safety concerns require special attention to be paid to thermal management issues to prevent overheating and/or retard any fires that break out. All these factors contribute to the high cost of electric vehicle batteries.

Aerospace and Defense

ENERGY STORAGE CHALLENGES FOR MILITARY AND CIVILIAN AIRPLANES

Manufacturers of both civilian and military aircrafts are beginning to incorporate energy storage systems as auxiliary power in order to improve the overall fuel efficiency of aircrafts. These energy storage systems can enable the jet engines to be switched off when on the ground and have the airplanes effectively operate in electric vehicle mode. The jet engines can be switched back on immediately before takeoff, thereby saving lots of fuel that would have been wasted while queueing for takeoff. Energy storage systems in military aircraft presents additional benefits of allowing the pilots to dock the planes silently without the vulnerability of waiting for ground support.

However, high energy and high power requirements, as well as weight restrictions require batteries with high energy density, high specific energy, and high power density. Unfortunately, most conventional battery technologies tend to optimize energy density at the expense of power density or vice versa. Additionally, whether the battery is optimized for power or energy, it faces additional challenges due to the limitations of current electrode material and electrode manufacturing methods. Finally, safety concerns require special attention to be paid to thermal management issues to prevent overheating or retard any fires that may break out.

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OUR SOLUTION

SmarttEnergi’s innovative high capacity, high energy density and high power density binderless electrodes can be used to develop superior energy storage systems for aircrafts that would have 2 to 3 times more useful energy as conventional Li-ion batteries of the same form factor, and be charged up to 10 times faster (can be fully charged in 60 minutes at C rate, and in 6 minutes at 10C without negatively impacting capacity or the cycle life). With smart electrodes that deliver 10 times charge/discharge rate advantage, energy storage systems powered by SmartEnergi electrodes can quickly store energy from the aircraft’s energy harvesting technologies to improve the system’s available useful energy, and improve the overall fuel efficiency of the aircraft.

Additionally, our smart enclosures/housings/packaging, developed from carbon nanotubes reinforced plastics and other materials and engineered to retard fires, can be used for the battery cells, battery modules, and battery packs in order to significantly improve thermal management of these aircraft energy storage systems, and to retard any fires that might arise.

Other military hybrid electric transportation systems that could significantly improve fuel efficiency by using similar energy storage solutions include: unmanned vehicles (aerial and underwater); trucks; ships and submarines; and combat vehicles.

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 ENERGY STORAGE CHALLENGES OF THE DISMOUNTED SOLDIER

A typical dismounted soldier on a military mission must carry very heavy load consisting of batteries and rechargers to power systems that drives radios, night- vision devices, global positioning systems and other combat gear. The relatively low energy density and specific energy of current Lithium ion batteries means that batteries the troops carry are heavier than they could be, potentially hindering soldier mobility. Second, the inability to charge batteries quickly could jeopardize mission readiness. Third, and perhaps more significantly, the combination of shorter calendar life of current batteries, lower useful energy, and shorter cycle life could increase the need for battery resupply missions. These resupply missions dramatically increases the life cycle costs of these batteries, especially if the resupply missions go through war zones, which can increase logistics costs (force protection, expensive liquid fuel to power convoys, etc.).

Lighter, more efficient batteries with potential for use in wearable devices present a great opportunity to address the needs of a dismounted soldier.

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OUR SOLUTION
SmartEnergi’s binderless electrodes can be thin, lightweight, flexible, high capacity, high power, and fast charging, and can be integrated into high performance portable and bendable batteries for a variety of wearable electronics for the dismounted soldier. The ability of these superior electrodes to support high charge/discharge rates would also enable solution providers to support more efficient energy harvesting to increase the useful energy available to the dismounted soldier.

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RESIDENTIAL & COMMERCIAL
BUILDINGS & OFF-GRID

ENERGY STORAGE CHALLENGES FOR RESIDENTIAL & COMMERCIAL BUILDINGS & OFF-GRID
Energy storage solutions are increasingly being used as backup energy/power bank for renewable energy deployments in residential, commercial, government buildings, and off-grid applications (Telecom, etc). In some commercial/government deployments, energy storage can be used to avoid expensive peak demand charges from the local utility or to improve the efficiency of diesel fired power in local microgrids. Also, as the cost of diesel power used in off-grid power generation rises, lower cost energy storage solutions are becoming more attractive as backup for renewable energy deployments.

In many of these residential and commercial deployments, the portability of Li-ion based energy storage solutions and their silent operation makes them attractive. However, the relatively high cost of Li-ion battery based storage solutions has slowed the pace of deployment. Improvements in both energy density and power density could reduce the cost of the storage solutions, which could lead to an increase in energy storage penetration in residential, commercial, and government buildings, and off-grid storage applications.

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OUR SOLUTION
SmartEnergi’s smart high capacity, high energy density and high power density binderless electrodes can be used to develop superior batteries for stationary energy storage applications with 2 to 3 times higher useful energy for the same form factor, 10 times charge/discharge rate advantage, and 10 times longer cycle life. As a result of superior performance and lower cost, we expect SmartEnergi enabled stationary energy storage products to see significant use in buildings.

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Electric Grid

Energy Storage Challenges for The Electric Grid

In spite of the relatively high cost of Li-ion based batteries for stationary energy storage applications compared to other energy storage solutions, Li-ion batteries have proven to be competitive in certain grid applications, such as frequency regulation, where the relatively fast response of the batteries to grid frequency and voltage changes has proven to be a selling point. The high cost is due to the relatively low energy and power densities of these batteries, which require relatively large number of cells to achieve needed capacity. Other factors that affect the lifecycle cost is the relatively short cycle life of conventional Li-ion batteries. Improvements in both energy density and power density, as well as the durability of the batteries would reduce the life cycle cost of Li-ion- based storage solutions, which could lead to an increase in the use of these batteries in the grid.

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