Monday, April 16, 2012

No. 487: Accelerating research efforts to develop the post lithium-ion automotive battery (April 16, 2012)

Technology
A university-industry-government project to develop the post lithium-ion automotive battery accelerates the research efforts. Kyoto University and such leading companies as Toyota and Panasonic collaborate to develop an automotive battery that lengthens the travel distance of an electric vehicle by 3-5 times. The project started in 2009 under the initiative of New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) to increase the capacity of a lithium-ion battery and develop the next-generation battery that transcends a lithium-ion battery with an investment of 21 billion yen.

The project has set up the base exclusive for the development inside the large-scale synchrotron radiation facilities in Hyogo Prefecture “SPring-8” (Super Photon ring-8) and increased the budget for this year 0.5 billion yen to 3.5 billion yen. And it will increase the number of full-time staff members from the current 50 to 150. The project team plans to realize a high-performance lithium-ion battery that allows for a travel distance of 300 km per charge by 2015. Concurrently, it will develop the metal-air battery that is the leading candidate for the next-generation battery to achieve a travel distance of 500 km per charge in 2030. Research members are eager to achieve research results that take 3-4 years for other countries to imitate. According to the NEDO, the world automotive battery market will increase from the current level of seven tens of billion yen to 2,700 billion yen in 2030.  

SPring-8 (Super Photon ring-8) in Hyogo Prefecture








 
Synchrotron Radiation Facilities

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