Cleantech to Market

High-Energy, November 30, 2012

Low-Weight Blake Briddell
Helmut Drews
Noah Bronstein
Nick Young
Chris Zach
Lithium Sulfur Batteries
Principal Investigator: Yuegang Zhang, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Battery chemistry breakthroughs over time

900

800
Lead-Acid
Specific Energy (Wh/kg)

700
NiCd
600
NiMH
500 Li-ion

400 Li-S

300

200

100

0
1850 1870 1890 1910 1930 1950 1970 1990 2010 2030 2050

Year
What is a lithium-sulfur battery?

Today’s
Metal
lithium-ion (Li-ion) Graphite Liquid
Oxide
Anode Electrolyte
battery Cathode

New
Lithium
lithium-sulfur (Li-S) Metal
Liquid Sulfur
Electrolyte Cathode
battery Anode
Battery performance comparison

1000 1000 2000 -60 +60

Wh/kg Wh/L cycles °C °C
100%

80%
Percent of Goal

?
60%
Li-ion
Li-S
40%

20%

0%
Specific Energy Energy Density Lifetime Low Temp High Temp
(Wh/kg) (Wh/L) (Cycles) (°C) (°C)

Cycle life must be extended to facilitates commercialization of Li-S technology

Cathode innovation enables Li-S battery

Graphene Oxide-Sulfur (GO-S) Benefits of

Cathode Innovation GO-S Cathodes

• High discharge rate

• Excellent energy
capacity

• Promising cycle life

TRL 1:
X GO-S Technology Readiness Level TRL 9:
Scientific Principle Current Status: 3 Successful Product
 Battery markets are large and continue to grow
Target Markets
12 US Market ($13.1B)
High

10 Defense
Medical
Willingness to Pay

8
Consumer Electronics
6

4 Early Adopters
Size of Market

2 Automotive High Growth

Low

0
1 Low 2 3 4 5Tolerance for6Change 7 8 High 9
Key criteria to evaluate potential markets of entry:
• Willingness to Pay (WTP) • Market Size
Short Term Long Term
• Tolerance for change • Growth Potential

Priority markets: defense, consumer electronics, and automotive

Sources: BISWorld – Battery Manufacturing Report , 2012. Frost – Sullivan – Military, Aerospace Battery Market 2010
Applications require different criteria performances
1 Applications 2 Application Needs vs. LiS Performance
 Storage Weight Volume Cycles Cost
Defense

 Manpack power
 UAVs 20 $1-2/
300 Wh
… Manpack lbs
power
 Tablet ½ of
Cons. Elec

 Cellphone device
 Power tools Tablet
 …..
400
 Battery EVs Power tool
Vehicles

 Range-extended
EVs 1000 $0.5/
 Hybrid EVs Battery Wh
 ….. EVs
 Pace Maker 7 year life
Medical

 Defibrillator
Pacemaker
 Pulse Oximeters
 …..
 Key markets and critical metrics
Defense Consumer Elect. Automotive

 Smaller, $1B  $4B (US market)  $2.8B (US market) – high

Size

growth

 UAVs and other robotics  Power Tools  Starter battery

Apps

 Portable electronics  Cellphones and laptops  Rechargeable batteries - EV

 Temperature range (-40°C)  Form factor  400 Wh / kg, 1000 cycles

Needs

 Shelf life (85% - 60 months)  Safety  Performance life of 10 years

 300 cycles  400 cycles  Range of C/2 – 2C discharge

• Short cycle life • Cost, cost, cost

• Research grants
• Low battery-to- • Slow dev cycle
• Application fit
device cost ratio • Large market

Sources: IBISWorld – Battery Manufacturing Report 2012, CCC – Battery Cost report 2012, BCG batteries for electric cars
Li-S manufacturing can leverage existing capital

Li-S battery manufacturing can use existing, excess battery

manufacturing facilities with minimal modifications
Lux Research. Kevin See, Aaron Wirshba, and Michael Holman, Using Partnerships to Stay Afloat in the Electric Vehicle Storm. 2011.
Li-ion prices are dropping

Reduction in price from

 Performance
 Scale
 Margins
Sources: Bloomberg; McKinsey
Li-S material inputs are competitive with Li-Ion

Lithium Ion Lithium Sulfur

Panasonic 18650

$420 / kWh Ionic liquid Standard

electrolyte electrolyte
scaling & separator
Scaling
$300 / kWh Margins
Performance Separator
scaling

$150 / kWh
$120 US Advanced
Battery
$65 Consortium Goal
$100 / kWh

2012 2020 100 100,000 100,000

Year Electric Vehicles per year
Sources: Industry interviews; Zhang group; McKinsey; Alibaba; Bloomberg New Energy Finance; Argonne National Lab
 The Li-ion industry is highly concentrated
Production volume Production volume
By Country By Manufacturer

South BYD
Sony 8% Panasonic
Korea
8% Sanyo
17%
24%
China LG Chem
14% Japan
57% 16%
RoW Samsung
Other 23%
10%
21%
U.S.
2%

Top 3 countries = Top 5 manufacturers =

88% market shares 80% market share
Sources: CCGC 2010; Credit Suisse 2012
Key trends in the advanced battery industry

1. Vertical integration
- Manufacturers moving further upstream into components/materials
2. Margin compression
- Component EBIT margins expected to be cut in half from today’s 20-40%
3. Production outsourcing
- Relocating to countries with low labor costs (especially China)
4. Reduced VC appetite
- History of failed battery start-ups (A123, Ener1, Imara, etc.)
5. Consolidation
- Expect to see a continued shake-out with only the low-cost producers surviving

Challenging industry for small players

Partnerships with incumbents is critical
Finding the optimal risk/reward balance

Business Model Examples Strengths Weaknesses

Argonne NL  Very capital efficient ✕ Minimal upside

IP licensor
LBNL  Minimal risk ✕ Investors unlikely to fund

Component Dow  Ability to specialize ✕ Low margin

supplier Celgard  Capital efficient ✕ Long sales cycle

Cell Panasonic  High margin ✕ High capex

manufacturer A123  Largest market ✕ Huge incumbents

Recommendation

Develop complete cell – exit prior to scaling manufacturing

Finance with grants, NRE, and corporate venture investment
Recommended pathway to market
1000+ cycles
Cost competitive

Automotive
Technology Development

Safety Consumer
Electronics

Defense
400 Wh/kg
300+ cycles

Laboratory

Production: Test cells Prototypes Pilot Scale Full Scale

Funding: DOE, DOD Strategic Acquisition

Timing
Recommendations for research next steps

Extended cycle testing

Ionic liquids required?

Partnerships
Li-ion battery manufacturer
Defense battery integrator

Focus on grant funding for applied R&D

DARPA, ARPA-e, SOCOM, etc.
Appendix
 Theoretical Energy Capacity, Li-ion vs. Li-S

3000

Li-ion Li-S

2000

Wh/kg
or
Wh/L
1000

0
Specific Energy (Wh/kg) Energy Density (Wh/L)
Source: P. Bruce, et al. Nature Materials 2011.
Li-S Battery Companies

Sion Oxis PolyPlus Vorbeck

 Protected Li anode  Solid polymer  Protected Li anode  Graphene oxide-

Design

electrolyte  Aqueous chemistry based electrodes

 Demonstrated UAV  Electric scooters,  Proposed for  Anode material sold

Status

 Proposed for EV, bikes, boats in military and consumer as conductive ink
military mobile apps development apps  Proposed for EVs
 Proposed for EVs

 $50M – BASF  $24M – Sasol  $4.5M – ARPA-E  $1.5M – ARPA-E

Funding

 $5M – ARPA-E  British Ministry of  British Ministry of  $5.1M – VC

Defense (DSTL) Defense (DSTL)
 Polysulfide Shuttle

Source: P. Bruce, et al. Nature Materials 2011.

GO-S Cathode Full Cell Performance

The Problem Our Solution

Soluble polysulfides lead to rapid Graphene oxide-sulfur (GO-S)
performance degradation. nanocomposite cathode retains
capacity.

This invention overcomes one critical challenge for Li-S batteries.

However, other breakthroughs are still required for commercialization.
Source: Wang, J. Z. et al. J. Power Sources 2011. L. Ji, et al. Journal of the American Chemical Society 2011.
Li-S Performance Improvement

Previous
This work
(Initial)

EV Battery Goal

Li-ion Cell

Source: Prof. Elton Cairns, Min-Kyu Song

Practical vs. Theoretical Energy Capacity

Source: Rudiger Schmidt (BASF)

IP situation
• A PCT application was filed on 09/28/2012.
• National phase decisions (i.e. decision on which
countries to file) will be made by 3/27/2014
based on the interest of potential licensees.
• If there isn't any interest of licensing the
technology by then, it's likely LBNL will file in the
US only.