Bio-​sourced Al­ter­na­ti­ves for Lithium-​Silicon An­odes - BALSA

Pro­ject sum­ma­ry

The ra­tio­na­le of the BALSA pro­ject is a gro­wing con­cern over the raw ma­te­ri­als sup­ply re­qui­red to the pro­jec­ted ex­plo­si­ve growth in Li-​ion bat­te­ry pro­duc­tion, es­pe­cial­ly of cri­ti­cal me­tals like Co and Cu. One po­ten­ti­al so­lu­ti­on to this pro­blem is to de­ve­lop a bat­te­ry which is most­ly com­po­sed of bio-​sourced func­tio­nal ma­te­ri­als, the­re­by ad­dres­sing both the tech­no­lo­gi­cal and so­cie­tal needs for the Eu­ropean Green Deal and skil­led job crea­ti­on in rural, agri­cul­tu­ral re­gi­ons. The ob­jec­ti­ve of BALSA is to com­bi­ne a me­so­po­rous, surface-​passivated Si and car­bon na­no­fib­re com­po­si­te anode with a quasi-​solid-state elec­tro­ly­te with re­du­ced cop­per weight and car­bon foot­print. Once pre­li­th­ia­ted and as­sem­bled, the BALSA bat­te­ry would find po­ten­ti­al ap­p­li­ca­ti­ons in electric vehi­cles or other con­su­mer elec­tro­nics. The suc­cess of BALSA would im­pact ad­vo­ca­cy for grea­ter use of bio-​sourced ma­te­ri­als in other tech­no­lo­gies and crea­te new eco­no­mic op­por­tu­nities as an ex­ploi­ta­ble be­ne­fit to the in­dus­try.