Cheaper, lighter, and denser: the trifecta defines a really perfect battery. No one has devised an ideal cell fairly but, however one stealthy startup thinks it has discovered a brand new materials that solves not less than two of these challenges.
Daqus Energy has been quietly working for the previous couple years, refining a compound often known as TAQ that guarantees to be cheaper and lighter than competing battery supplies.
“We haven’t seen a metric at which TAQ does poorly in contrast with the incumbents,” Harish Banda, co-founder and CEO of Daqus, advised TechCrunch. The firm was spun out of MIT, the place analysis into the fabric was funded partly by means of a partnership with Lamborghini.
There are a couple of caveats, which Banda freely presents: The firm continues to be scaling manufacturing of TAQ, and it has solely simply begun engaged on the kind of cells that might drop into an EV. Plus, many promising battery supplies have died on the trail to commercialization.
But the upside is powerful sufficient that Daqus is rising from stealth with a $6 million seed spherical led by Morningside with participation from unnamed particular person buyers.
Daqus’s materials replaces the cathode in a lithium-ion battery. In a typical cell, the cathode is fabricated from nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) or iron-phosphate (higher often known as LFP). NMC cells are costlier, however provide higher power density and longer vary in electrical automobiles. LFP cells are cheaper however heavier.
U.S. and European automakers have favored NMC for his or her EVs, however they’ve begun to modify to LFP to chop prices. Problem is, the overwhelming majority of LFP cathode supplies are made in China, making them a nonstarter for U.S.-made EVs that wish to qualify for tax credit.
The materials Daqus has found, bis-tetraaminobenzoquinone or TAQ for brief, isn’t made utilizing costly important minerals like nickel or cobalt. Instead, it’s made completely of extensively obtainable carbon-based compounds.
For step one within the manufacturing course of, the 2 molecules the corporate makes use of are already used to make dyes and fertilizers. “They are completely grime low-cost,” Banda stated, noting that the corporate buys small batches at $1 per kilogram. “So you possibly can solely think about what which means whenever you purchase a ton of it.”
What’s extra, the method used to synthesize a TAQ cathode makes use of vastly much less power. Making the stuff solely requires heating it to 120 levels C, some 700 to 800 levels C decrease than LFP or NMC cathodes, Banda stated.
On the manufacturing line, TAQ could be deposited utilizing current gear. But there’s one other alternative to chop prices: current anode manufacturing gear may also work with TAQ. That would permit battery makers to make use of water as a solvent as an alternative of NMP, a poisonous solvent that must be captured and recycled.
Altogether, TAQ’s qualities have left Banda feeling assured that the fabric can undercut the most affordable lithium-ion batteries in the marketplace. “If any individual is saying that LFP batteries are at $50 per kilowatt hour, we’d be cheaper than that for positive,” Banda stated. “Exactly how a lot must be found out.”
Daqus has been producing coin cells in its lab area in Massachusetts, and its inside checks have proven TAQ to be sturdy. TAQ-based batteries could be charged and discharged 2,000 instances and preserve not less than 80% of its unique capability, they usually’re steady at excessive temperatures. Those small batteries additionally cost at a price that, when extrapolated to EVs, would allow six minute quick charging.
If there’s a caveat, it’s that TAQ cathodes take up more room than NMC, although they’re aggressive with LFP. Still, he factors out that as a result of the fabric is lighter, EVs designed round it is also made lighter and would wish fewer batteries total. That may give TAQ-powered EVs sufficient vary to compete with NMC whereas being cheaper and lighter.
Sports automobiles would possibly understand the advantages sooner. Weight has been one of many greatest penalties of electrification: It’s extremely straightforward to make an EV that’s lightning fast in a straight line, however making one which handles properly on a race monitor? That’s confirmed to be tougher. A light-weight, fast-charging battery pack may go a good distance towards making electrical sports activities automobiles really feel particular.
“Lots of automobile firms on the planet are attempting to make electrical automobiles,” Banda stated. “What’s the distinction between a Rolls Royce versus a Tesla? Sure you’ve got higher seats, however when it comes to the core of the automobile, it was the engine. Now, it appears to be the battery.”
