Cheaper, lighter, and denser: the trifecta defines a perfect battery. Nobody has devised an ideal cell fairly but, however one stealthy startup thinks it has discovered a brand new materials that solves a minimum of two of these challenges.
Daqus Energy has been quietly working for the previous couple years, refining a compound referred to as TAQ that guarantees to be cheaper and lighter than competing battery supplies.
“We now have not seen a metric at which TAQ does poorly in contrast with the incumbents,” Harish Banda, co-founder and CEO of Daqus, informed TechCrunch. The corporate was spun out of MIT, the place analysis into the fabric was funded partly by way of a partnership with Lamborghini.
There are a couple of caveats, which Banda freely gives: The corporate remains to be scaling manufacturing of TAQ, and it has solely simply begun engaged on the kind of cells that would drop into an EV. Plus, many promising battery materials have died on the trail to commercialization.
However the upside is powerful sufficient that Daqus is rising from stealth with a $6 million seed spherical led by Morningside with participation from unnamed particular person traders.
Daqus’s materials replaces the cathode in a lithium-ion battery. In a typical cell, the cathode is fabricated from nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) or iron-phosphate (higher referred to as LFP). NMC cells are costlier, however provide larger vitality density and longer vary in electrical automobiles. LFP cells are cheaper however heavier.
U.S. and European automakers have favored NMC for his or her EVs, however they’ve begun to change to LFP to chop prices. Drawback is, the overwhelming majority of LFP cathode supplies are made in China, making them a nonstarter for U.S.-made EVs that need to qualify for tax credit.
The fabric Daqus has found, bis-tetraaminobenzoquinone or TAQ for brief, isn’t made utilizing costly essential minerals like nickel or cobalt. As an alternative, it’s made completely of extensively out there carbon-based compounds.
For step one within the manufacturing course of, the 2 molecules the corporate makes use of are already used to make dyes and fertilizers. “They’re completely dust low cost,” Banda mentioned, noting that the corporate buys small batches at $1 per kilogram. “So you may solely think about what meaning whenever you purchase a ton of it.”
What’s extra, the method used to synthesize a TAQ cathode makes use of vastly much less vitality. Making the stuff solely requires heating it to 120 levels C, some 700 to 800 levels C decrease than LFP or NMC cathodes, Banda mentioned.
On the manufacturing line, TAQ may be deposited utilizing present gear. However there’s one other alternative to chop prices: present anode manufacturing gear may also work with TAQ. That may permit battery makers to make use of water as a solvent as a substitute of NMP, a poisonous solvent that must be captured and recycled.
Altogether, TAQ’s qualities have left Banda feeling assured that the fabric can undercut the most cost effective lithium-ion batteries in the marketplace. “If someone is saying that LFP batteries are at $50 per kilowatt hour, we’d be cheaper than that for certain,” Banda mentioned. “Precisely how a lot must be found out.”
Daqus has been producing coin cells in its lab house in Massachusetts, and its inner exams have proven TAQ to be sturdy. TAQ-based batteries may be charged and discharged 2,000 instances and keep a minimum of 80% of its authentic capability, they usually’re secure at excessive temperatures. These small batteries additionally cost at a fee that, when extrapolated to EVs, would allow six minute quick charging.
If there’s a caveat, it’s that TAQ cathodes take up more room than NMC, although they’re aggressive with LFP. Nonetheless, he factors out that as a result of the fabric is lighter, EVs designed round it is also made lighter and would wish fewer batteries total. That might give TAQ-powered EVs sufficient vary to compete with NMC whereas being cheaper and lighter.
Sports activities automobiles may understand the advantages sooner. Weight has been one of many largest penalties of electrification: It’s extremely simple to make an EV that’s lightning fast in a straight line, however making one which handles effectively on a race monitor? That’s confirmed to be more durable. A light-weight, fast-charging battery pack might go a great distance towards making electrical sports activities automobiles really feel particular.
“Plenty of automobile firms on the earth are attempting to make electrical automobiles,” Banda mentioned. “What’s the distinction between a Rolls Royce versus a Tesla? Positive you’ve got higher seats, however by way of the core of the automobile, it was the engine. Now, it appears to be the battery.”
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