Document co-authored by CSE with Department of Science & Technology part of white paper; it envisages focused cell & battery development programme to build competence, capability & capacity for scaling up India’s EV transition
The white paper being launched by Union Minister of State for the Ministry of Science and Technology, Jitendra Singh. Photo: Anumita Roychowdhury/ CSE The Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, released a whitepaper titled Evolution: Catalysing Technology-Led Ecosystem for e-Mobility: Contexts, Challenges, and Imperatives, on the occasion of National Science Day (February 28) at Vigyan Bhawan in the national capital.
The white paper was launched by Union Minister of State for the Ministry of Science and Technology, Jitendra Singh. He was joined by VK Saraswat, member, Niti Aayog; AK Sood, principle scientific advisor, Government of India and other experts in the field of science and technology.
The document is a composite summary of three papers. These were authored independently along with DST and domain experts. They dealt with three critical areas:
This is an effort to build a roadmap for strengthening local research and development (R&D) capability in all these sub-sectors. The ultimate aim is to support local development of advanced and next generation technologies to propel India’s electric vehicle (EV) revolution.
CSE anchored and co-authored the paper on Tropical EV battery along with DST. The paper has envisaged a focused cell and battery development programme to build competence and capability as well as capacity aimed at addressing key technical barriers to scale up the EV programme. This identifies a roadmap on the critical aspects of battery technology development and its manufacturing ecosystem and charging systems.
One of the key aspects of the newly released white paper is the innovation roadmap to support local development of EV technologies and battery cells to make the transition high quality, cost effective, and build local value chain to maximise economic gains.
This year-long exercise is based on extensive consultations with leading industry experts, and technical and R&D bodies, to identify and outline the pathways. This has enabled collective assessment of the potential for a national battery development programme that can facilitate large-scale cell production and commercialisation of mature cell technologies, development of new cell chemistries to minimise import dependence, localise value chain, strengthen material security through circularity, and enable technology development to reach the higher levels of technology readiness for commercialisation.
Battery performance metrics: The critical battery performance metrics are energy and power (and the trade-off between the two), cycle life, thermal stability, raw material availability, and the cost. This report provides a discussion on these metrics, their relative importance and interdependence, on the Indian context.
Battery cell technology and materials: As for battery technology, the focus is divided into two large areas based on the Technology Readiness Levels (TRL). This refers to the development stage at which a certain technology is at and how far it is from mass production.
TRL 1-3 is concept development at laboratory scale, TRL 4-6 is scale up to prototype demonstrating proof of concept, design validation, and manufacturability, and TRL 7-9 is full-scale commercial production.
A two-pronged development strategy is therefore in focus:
1. A short-to-medium term strategy to enable quick vehicle electrification aimed at technologies with high TRL levels, especially in the low cost and low load two- and three-wheeler segments, with further extension to four-wheelers. These include already existing technologies such as nickel, manganese, cobalt and lithium, iron phosphate cathode chemistries.
2. A long-term strategy focused on technologies that are promising but not yet mature for large-scale production. The candidates discussed in depth are Sodium Ion Batteries (SIB), solid state batteries (SSB), as well as Lithium-Sulphur, and Lithium metal chemistries. In SIB, lithium is replaced by sodium, which is significantly more abundant and cheaper. However, it is a heavier element, resulting in low energy density batteries. SSBs enjoy superior thermal stability and energy density but cycle life, cell resistance, and manufacturability are challenges.
The technology development programme needs to focus on indigenous manufacturing of cell raw materials such as cathode and anode active materials, current collectors, electrolyte, etc.
Other key recommendations in the paper are:
1. The promising technologies will need to be taken through scale up studies (TRL 4-6) to determine their commercial viability, in two phases. The first phase will require R&D cell fabrication centres where small multi-layer cells are fabricated. The second scale up phase will involve establishing Prototype Cell Fabrication Centre which would mimic a commercial manufacturing process but at a lower throughput.
2. Indigenous cell manufacturing should target frugal innovation to simplify processes, increase throughput and lower costs. Other focus areas may include development of dry coating technology, advanced welding techniques, special integrated machines for punching and stacking, and building of low-cost clean and dry rooms.
3. For all candidate cells, the R&D and Prototype Fabrication Centres described above generate a wealth of test data which can be used to establish physics-based cell models and cell failure diagnosis.
4. The areas to be considered in Battery Thermal Management System may include (a) engineering the battery pack for better heat dissipation during charging and discharging at various rates and (b) use temperature data from cell characterisation for building models to aid with robust pack design and thermal management.
5. As mentioned above, test data and pack thermal models can be used to select technology options such as pack potting materials or cooling system, to mitigate thermal runaway. A Safety Lab needs to be part of the Prototype Cell Fabrication and Test Centre with specialised equipment for studying thermal runaway.
6. When the EV volumes increase, managing the spent batteries will become a major concern. It is critical that India develops a strong recycling capability to recover costly and scarce metals as well as address battery disposal.
7. A mechanism has to be created to accelerate the connection between academic research and industry, in order to fast track development, adoption and deployment of new technologies in the market. The proposal is to set up a multi-stakeholder ecosystem of Innovation Clusters to incubate, demonstrate and leapfrog technology interventions.
8. Prioritise technology that have passed TRL 3 with credible likelihood of implementation within the next 5 years and provide scale-up results that enable rapid progression towards commercial production. Examples include cell chemistries with LFP, LFMP, and NMC on the cathode side and graphite and silicon-graphite blends on the anode.
9. Focus on technologies that are still at TRL 3 or below with a clear advantage for the Indian EV industry. Examples include SIB and SSB, along with Metal-Ion cell technology.
This peer-reviewed consensus document recommends that considering the nature of projects that may emerge which are interdisciplinary in nature, there is a need to develop a consortium approach wherein expertise from different fields may be pooled in to address the identified scientific problems.
This initiative has outlined the critical pathways for the R&D ecosystem and a strategy for aligned action by diverse technical bodies, research laboratories, and industry partners. This can enable a R&D consortium for knowledge, skills and resource mobilisation to support cell component development and commercialisation for a matured market.
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