equipment is used to make this ultra thin strips of material under the watchful eye of chief engineer over who would. then the sheet is placed in a polymer pownce. the final step of the process involves adding a few drops of liquid electrolyte to fill the remaining space in the battery. straight. from the cells reading out. lithium ion batteries have a very simple structure a cathode positive electrode and an anode or negative electrode. to prevent a short circuit the 2 electrodes are separated. when the battery is charging electrons flow from the positive side to the negative. the battery cell is enclosed in a polymer pound. the pouches then filled with an electrolyte solution. as

the battery charges positive lithium move through the electrolyte solution to the negative side and stay in the end graphite layer. this process continues until the layer is full of. electrons also travel to the other side by a separate external circuit. when the battery is being used the process has reversed. the i know it releases electrons through the external circuits and they flow to the cathode this creates the electricity that allows the battery to power a device at the same time the positive lithium ion return to the cathode. lithium ion batteries have a number of advantages yes. they can power an electric car for several 100 kilometers. recharge. quickly so you no longer have to leave them overnight. but

they're also relatively inexpensive when you factor in the cost of operation and the resale value and they're also comparatively safe those are the main reasons that these batteries have become so popular. most inventor is certain that lithium ion technology will continue to lead the way for the next 5 to 10 years. a key component of these batteries is the catheter and. this is what it looks like under an electronic microscope the cathode consists of metal oxides. 80 percent nickel 3 percent manganese and 2 percent cobalt. about 70 percent of the world's cobalt comes from the democratic republic of the congo. 10 to 20 percent of congo's cobalt is mind at the legal sites like this one. it's hard and dangerous

work. broca's often from china by the cobalt or. most of congo's cobalt is extracted at surface mines several of the country's largest cobalt mines are controlled by china. local residents don't benefit much from the sale of the cobalt that's mine near their homes. other valuable raw materials are used in cathode production for example lithium makes up about 2 percent of the total. much of the world's lithium comes from south america. lithium salt is often found in underground reservoirs of brine the liquid is pumped to the surface and then stored in open basins weight evaporates. afterward the material is sent to

a processing facility where the lithium is extracted. critics claim that this process can cause serious environmental problems including contamination of drinking water in parts of argentina bolivia and chile. the 1st lithium ion batteries contained a cafe that was made exclusively of cobalt later versions replaced much of the cobalt with other materials including nickel and manganese the cobalt content has now been cut to about 10 percent. the battery industry has cut down on the use of expensive and environmentally harmful materials as part of the effort to reduce the carbon footprint of its products. are hard with guard.

for years asian manufacturers didn't pay a lot of attention to sustainability. yes that's changing because their customers. manufacturers in germany demand it a lot and so the asian companies have had to make adjustments on the other hand focused on sustainable technology from the very start and that gives us a big advantage as. the recycling of battery component parts has become more widespread in germany this startup facility is located in the state of lower saxony . we asked company c.e.o. christiane hunnish whether recycled batteries are as good as the original. first cell phones they usually are but we did have a battery die once and a baby monitor. the company has developed a highly sustainable method for recycling lithium ion batteries.

ready but remember this is where we extract the electricity from the battery we then feed that electricity into the facilities grid. right. once the battery has been fully discharged it'll be taken upon us. e.u. regulations say that at least 50 percent of the batteries contents must be recycled as most companies meet this targets by including casings and cables but critics say that's cheating. it's often difficult to get to the battery cell itself that will have to change in future designs. once the cells

are removed the sent off to be shredded. this process takes place in an atmosphere of nitrogen instead of oxygen to reduce the risk of combustion. here we see the graphite from the batteries. and the electrolytes and. the shredder is about the size of a shipping container batteries contain has it is materials and they are transported to the recycling center in large quantities but the real materials that come out of the shredding process all say. christiane honiss plans to build 17 of these machines in facilities throughout europe. on just hearts this will pay off in the long run because it's a sustainable way to dispose of old batteries on. the left of

the role materials are then sent to a sourcing plant christan hunnish plans to set up 6 of these facilities in europe. even harder you know this is where we sort out the heavier materials from those we use a magnet and an electro magnet to separate the aluminum and steel combined off or down to the right of the large decided the liner components are processed so that we can remove materials like lithium. nickel manganese and graphite because god on. those components end up in a bag like this some recycling companies incinerate this material to extract the metals that kristin hunnish plans to take a different approach social construct often we'd like to be able to turn it into material that can be used to manufacture new batteries but we must already have shared. a number of chemical processes can extract the role materials used in the

theme ion batteries. for example inorganic acids are used to isolate lithium graphite and other recyclable materials. some tests have reported a recovery rate of more than 90 percent. stand it recovery process is achieve a race of only about 25 percent. depending on the type of battery cell. until the chemical recovery process is pathetic to it most of the materials that can't be recycled will simply be incinerated. recycling can help extend the life of the battery but if scientists were able to develop a battery that lasts much longer. if you drive an electric car you're aware of the battery limitations and if the indicator is near 0

you hope that you can squeeze just a few more kilometers out of it. i mean this. is a professor at the technical university and he's an expert on renewable energy systems and with his team is working on a project that analyzes why some batteries last longer than others this. go to who knew about the lever for both. we take a look at all the various factors that can influence battery life so why do batteries age differently obviously does the way i drive my car or ride my bike the battery like that at the boat does temperature play a role in so much food does it take a look at these battery cells on. one of them is quite old and the other is fairly new no. we're trying to figure out how batteries age and what we can do to make them last longer and would you consider. design and his experts have developed

a kind of stress test that measures all aspects of the batteries performance. but you can get away from here could be people feel enough we use this equipment to create a profile of individual batteries for example how they're charged fast or slow their overall performance how a car battery responds to acceleration we can simulate all of these factors right here. and we also test the batteries in this climate controlled chamber. temperature is a key factor an increase of 10 degrees cuts battery life by half. we've speeded up the process because a good battery can last 1015 or even 20 years and we don't have that kind of time here the floyd. after which they did to chile analyze the results of the stress tests. you could maybe it's now we'll look at

the batteries contacts. of the sites our 2 batteries performed quite differently the image on the screen shows battery number one the weaker of the 2 i and we can definitely see some distortion balfour when. these are places where damage can occur. and also short circuits. could in fact i thought so this is what a new battery looks like only hardly any distortion it's odd and that's how it's supposed to hold this. so what cools those distortions in the 1st battery. to sell and his team will carry out a detailed examination. they cut open the battery so that they can study the cathode and the end. around so like this one is actually nothing more than a thin flat cell that's been rolled up. and

research assistant take samples from the batteries defective cool and from the exterior which is still in tucked. from these samples they build small test batteries cooled button cells that include a fresh supply of lithium. i think or you can the us you can see on the graph that there was a loss of lithium. and once we added a new supply of lithium to the body cell that area showed up as almost completely was the most so the. cathode in this case is still intact 5 the lithium was probably lost on the an outside and we can apply this knowledge to the design of future cells and you could say perhaps we can add more lithium to that of the end if you're behind. this kind of data will be critical to the future success of battery cell production in germany. and this

will help consumers get more out of the batteries that power their favorite devices . office some advice on how to use batteries properly. lithium ion batteries age the vast distances when they're fully charged. so you should limit the charging time as much as possible and you should never charge the batteries in cold temperatures too and for example don't charge your phone while you're walking around outside in winter the battery will get cold. don't start charging it until you get home so we can warm up before. and that's on the loose and you should recharge the battery as often as possible. not fully but often. so don't run the battery on your phone down to

000 crore you recharge it. so. it's like pulling on a rubber band you know if you pull just a little bit it'll last for a long time but if you pull that rubber band hard all the time it's eventually going to break. and avoid high temperatures to a 10 degree increase it will cut battery life in half you can believe. this is germany's 1st large scale battery production factory the vox logon take a factory. but everyone uses batteries for all kinds of think. you have to get used to charging them just like your charger watch one or 2 talking also that once you do that it'll be fine. it's a. hunk buma and thomas hoffman are in charge of the v.w. get that train which is located near the city of studs in the state of north rhine-westphalia. preliminary operations began in 2019.

the factory is a joint venture between v.w. and the swedish battery manufacturer north volt. but also is the 1st step in production you have a depot this is where we mix the pastry and old material on one side cathode on the other. the raw materials for the paste are supplied by the chemical industry and a lot of research has gone into its composition. materials make up 80 percent of the total production costs. that tree many factories in china. way ahead of their german counterparts but with factories like this one b.w. hopes to catch up both in terms of materials and manufacturing technology. and. work with them we run a lot of tests to help achieve optimum performance of market why not get in the

series production the size so we want to me expand our knowledge base to create the best possible condition is what we double but. some are good some of it's always good to learn development basics 1st and then move on to the big investments on. the cells that are made today by the giga factories were developed somewhere else in a small scale factory for these and we plan to do that development right here you know that's mostly up a bit. as production ramps up the factory is expected to manufacture 16 hours with the better east by the end of 2023. but that's not nearly enough to power the new v.w. electric cars that will be ready by then. so for the time being german automakers will have to rely on batteries that are made in asia but that will change in the years to come. a pilot program here has been

producing lithium ion battery cells since early 2019. with some of them this will remain the dominant technology over the medium term for the company. and. that new types of battery cells are on the way scientists at the fallen hope for institute for material and beam technology interest in are at the forefront of this research. modest to get off this and if you've got a ticket on your phone in the battery runs out non-stock. why usually i printed out your just to be on the science side this is the one. this is the spin of the lithium song for boxers all the way of the future. stephan cust and his team are developing my plate batteries that will work well with drones . lithium sulfur batteries have 2 big advantages over lithium ion cells.

the cathode layers don't use expensive and environmentally dangerous materials like nickel and cobalt. and they have a high energy density which means that they are more powerful. and the structure of lithium sulfur battery is quite different. the cathode is made of carbon and so the and no it contains lithium. when the batteries being used electrons split off from the entered and moved to the cathode. the lithium ion is move over there is well they react with the sulfur to make lithium so far this continues until the batteries empty. when the battery is charging the sulfide dissolves and the process runs in reverse.

the main advantage of these kinds of batteries is that the materials in the cathode also lightweight. stuff like carbon and sulfur. the carbon has to have a low density and it has to be so it can absorb the sulfur. so fur is a common element so it's inexpensive. fish to go see the one element to the key material in this battery. yeah. let's take a closer look. metallic lithium is highly reactive that's why we keep it isolated in this chamber this box or. the chamber is filled with argon gas which doesn't react with the lithium that's. exclaimed by lithium is extremely soft and can break into crumbs as you can see

here when times leads and it's also extremely reactive so the electrolyte decomposes quickly and it says that's. the fossil we're trying to find electrolyte material that's more durable so the battery can run more cycles. today's lithium self is sells off the high performance but they wear out quickly. but never stopped inhaling some call the lithium and the holy grail of electrochemistry. finish and if you've been working on lithium sulfur batteries for some time i was convinced that would have one on the market yes. defo know if a team has been working on this project for 10 years but commercial production still see in some way home. in any case these lightweight batteries are now being tested for use with.

scientists also trying to make lithium sell food that's really safe that. lithium self the cells are generally safe but accidents do happen that's why scientists are working to develop solid state batteries. does this and ca told montreal in the 1st group when they play cathode material moves through the solid state a lecture light and then attaches itself quite like there. only to the current collector . in a fix you can see that we're using a flexible cathode for this process. it's not brittle and all it's wood is highly efficient solid state electrolytes are still in the development stage but they have one take advantage over liquid electrolytes they can't catch fire. by

definition there are no flammable liquids in a solid state electrolyte. some of these are made of ceramic class materials which is porous enough to allow the migration of the lithium ion it's. solid state batteries could eventually play a major role in the production of electric vehicles. but what should we do with batteries that if outlived their usefulness one option is recycling as here in amsterdam. you are standing there in the cold trying to get your phone to open the door of your car to go but you can't because the battery is dead it's to call anybody so you have to hold the phone under your arm until it warms up. the. old combat trees are a key part of the energy storage system at the stadium home to the i.x.

to dam football club. this is a possibility has a backup power system that's run by $148.00 vehicle barriers. the size delay provided the electricity the lights that you see here. like b l e d's and the scoreboard and father brother. if the emergency system kicks in the only thing that people will notice is a brief flicker in the lights. it's a big improvement over the stadiums old diesel powered generators. solar panels on the stadium roof and wind power from local installations add to the electricity mix. the palace storage units are located in the basement. the batteries have only about 70 percent of their storage capacity left but that's

good enough for this project he doesn't but very likely some of these batteries have 150000 kilometers on that we took them out of the vehicles tested them and then put them in these cabinets and in the room temperature is a comfortable $25.00 degrees. we expect that they'll provide electricity for the stadium and the regional power grid for the next 10 years and that's where you know . the electricity that's generated must match the consumption exactly the batteries serve as buffett is. a man you just you can see here that we charge the batteries before yesterday's champions league match to provide a backup power supply after the game we discharge the batteries ran them down to 50 percent capacity right now they're supplying electricity for a dutch grid operators at the time that.

tries to get the most out of his best race but he doesn't want to overwork that. the amount of software that could. we develop software that compares the age of the battery and the amount of money that it can earn by generating electricity. at c income will keep charging and discharging a battery as long as it continues to produce revenue. to get the same is it but when it can no longer do that will replace it was it good for the. good it's nice to have. the batteries of electric cars in the stadium parking lot can also contribute power to the great. it's why those intellect all those pockets and i'm sure you could have 2000 electric cars connected to the system. and they'll not only charge but also discharge electricity and to the stadium grid. used by directional charging stations. and so the vehicle not only takes in electricity

when it's charging but it also sends power back into the grid when it's discharging . makes that much though to me as by far. the success of europe's energy transition will depend to a large extent on how well we are able to exploit the storage potential of electric vehicles. goes out also the big challenge right now is not the technology it. it's getting the politicians to create conditions that will allow germany to continue to lead the world in the production of renewable energy and in the manufacture of automobiles and at $6.50 we have to bring these 2 sectors together. and we need a regulatory framework that will allow us to do that. for the regulatory but it will shuffle if for example the government taxes both the charging and discharging of an electric car battery but not

a stationary battery or something wrong it's little things like that. we have to do better we have to be more innovative that's and we have to be in the sweet spot on. the. kick off. the result is good but things are going wrong behind the scenes guy in munich losing both bad but losing coach at the end of this event. coming back from behind to beat graham and dortmund fights its way back into the battle to qualify for the champions league. check up.

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