Life Cycle Testing and Evaluation of Energy Storage Devices

Life Cycle Testing and Evaluation of

Energy Storage Devices

October 21, 2011

Summer Ferreira, Wes Baca, Tom Hund

and David Rose

Sandia National Laboratories

Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-program laboratory managed and operated by Sandia

Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation, for the U.S.

Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-AC04-

94AL85000.

Energy Storage Test Pad (ESTP) (April 2010)

SNL Energy Storage System Analysis Laboratory

Providing reliable, independent, third party testing and

verification of advanced energy technologies for cell to MW

systems

System Testing

• Temperature chambers for thermal control

• New Energy Storage Test Pad (ESTP) expands

testing capabilities to include megawatt (MW)

scale energy storage. This versatile facility is

capable of testing in several configurations for

many different applications.

Testing Capabilities Include:

Cell Testing

• Temperature chambers for thermal control

• 100+ cell and battery testing channels:

– 72 V 1000 A Bitrode (2 Channels)

– 60 V 200 A Arbin (2 Channels)





72 V 1000 A Bitrode (2 Parallel Channels)

SNL Battery Abuse Testing Laboratory

Battery testing, cell measurements, and materials development to

support the development of inherently safe lithium-ion chemistries

5 Wh failure

event

50 Wh failure event

• Safety and abuse tolerance evaluation

of energy storage devices from cells

to kWh batteries:

– Mechanical abuse

– Thermal abuse

– Electrical abuse

• Understanding degradation

mechanisms that lead to cell failure

• Provide experimental data to support

abuse and thermal modeling

• Cell prototyping facility for materials

development

Understanding abuse tolerance

FY 2011 testing activities

Sandia Battery Testing

Introduction FY-10

East Penn

UltraBattery®

Lead-Acid/Supercap

Furukawa UltraBattery®

Lead-Acid/Supercap

International Battery

Li-FePO4

GS Yuasa

granular silica

tubular gel

East Penn Ultrabattery®

Modules


Introduction FY-10

East Penn

UltraBattery®

Lead-Acid/Supercap


Lead-Acid/Supercap


Li-FePO4

GS Yuasa

granular silica

tubular gel

Furukawa Ultrabattery®

Modules

Altairnano Lithium-

titanate oxide cells

60 Ah and 11 Ah

East Penn Advanced

Battery Cells (D. Enos 4:00 pm Thur.)

RedFlow 10kWh Zn-Br

flow battery module (D. Rose 10:00 am Friday)

Cell Level Testing Module Level Testing


Li-FePO4 Cells

FY11 Testing of Ultrabattery® modules

• Both Ultrabattery® designs incorporate a

supercapacitor in parallel with the negative

electrode in a VRLA 12 cell, 1,000 Ah, 24V

battery module.

• Tested with both a ‘PV’

and ‘utility’ cycle.


Introduction FY-10

East Penn

UltraBattery®

Lead-Acid/Supercap


Lead-Acid/Supercap


Li-FePO4

GS Yuasa

granular silica

tubular gel


Introduction FY-10

East Penn

UltraBattery®

Lead-Acid/Supercap


Lead-Acid/Supercap


Li-FePO4

GS Yuasa

granular silica

tubular gel

East Penn

Furukawa

Cycling protocols employed in testing

VRLA Life cycle data S. Drouilhet, B.L. Johnson, 1997 NREL

Frequency Regulation

PV Output Shifting

0

20

40

60

80

100

-1.0

-0.5

0.0

0.5

1.0

0 10 20

DO

D

C R

ate

Time (Minutes)

Fast Utility Cycling

0

20

40

60

80

100

-1.0

-0.5

0.0

0.5

1.0

0 50

DO

D

C R

ate

Time (Hours)

Slow PV Cycling

0

20

40

60

80

100

-1.0

-0.5

0.0

0.5

1.0

0 50

DO

D

C R

ate

Time (Hours)

Fast Utility Cycling

354 Cycles

East Penn Ultrabattery® performs much longer than VRLA

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

110

120

130

0 5000 10000 15000

% I

nit

ial C

ap

acit

y

Cycle #

PSOC utility cycling

VRLA

Battery

10% DOD

cycle

* After Recovery

*

• Ultrabatteries® 1,000 AH, 0.4 C and 0.3 C 5% PSOC cycling

• VRLA 30 AH, 1C 10% PSOC cycling

• Temperature rise in Ultrabattery® modules required reducing current for further testing

80% Initial Capacity


40

50

60

70

80

90

100

110

120

130

0 5000 10000 15000

% I

nit

ial C

ap

acit

y

Cycle #




5% DOD cycle

VRLA

Battery

10% DOD

cycle

* After Recovery

*

East Penn Ultrabattery® shows

no capacity loss after more

than 13,000 cycles without

recovering the battery


operated at elevated

temperatures, leading to

thermally activated degradation.

Filled symbols (l) cycled at 400 A

Open symbos (☐) cycled at 300 A 40

50

60

70

80

90

100

110

120

130

0 5000 10000 15000

% I

nit

ial C

ap

acit

y

Cycle #


VRLA

Battery

10% DOD

cycle





40

50

60

70

80

90

100

110

120

130

0 200 400 600

% I

nit

ial C

ap

acit

y

Equivalent complete discharges






* After Recovery

*

East Penn Ultrabattery® shows

no capacity loss after more

than 13,000 cycles without

recovering the battery


operated at elevated

temperatures, leading to

thermally activated degradation.

Filled symbols (l) cycled at 400 A

Open symbos (☐) cycled at 300 A


5% DOD cycle


5% DOD cycle

VRLA Battery

10% DOD cycle


Elevated temperatures occurred in Furukawa Ultrabattery®

Furukawa Ultrabattery® operated at elevated

temperatures, leading to thermally activated

degradation.

1.5

1.6

1.7

1.8

1.9

2.0

6350 6550 6750 6950Dis

ch

arg

e C

ell V

olt

ag

e (

V)

Cycle #

Cell voltage during cycling

30

35

40

45

50

55

60

6350 6550 6750 6950C

ell T

(C

) Cycle #

Cell T during cycling

Ultrabatteries® also perform much longer in PV cycling than VRLA

60

65

70

75

80

85

90

95

100

105

0 100 200 300 400 500 600

% I

nit

ial C

ap

acit

y

Days Cycling

PV Hybrid Cycle-Life Test

VRLA Battery

30 Day Deficit Charge


60

65

70

75

80

85

90

95

100

105

0 100 200 300 400 500 600

% I

nit

ial C

ap

acit

y

Days Cycling


VRLA Battery


VRLA Battery



60

65

70

75

80

85

90

95

100

105

0 100 200 300 400 500 600

% I

nit

ial C

ap

acit

y

Days Cycling


Even at 40 day deficit charge, Ultrabatteries® have performance

far surpassing traditional VRLA batteries even with as low as a

7 day deficit charge (without recovery by taper charge).

.





VRLA Battery


VRLA Battery


Filled symbols (l) 10 hr taper charge

Open symbos (☐) 12 hr taper charge


Cell level testing underway

FY11 testing on battery cells

• International battery Li-ion FePO4 large

format prismatic cells (160 Ah, 3.2 V)

• Altairnano lithium-titanate oxide cells

(60 Ah and 11 Ah, 2.3 V)


Introduction FY-10

East Penn

UltraBattery®

Lead-Acid/Supercap


Lead-Acid/Supercap


Li-FePO4

GS Yuasa

granular silica

tubular gel

International battery cell capacity remains high after 15K+ cycles

11% capacity loss after 15,000+ cycles

International battery Li-ion

FePO4 large format

prismatic 160 Ah cells

. Two International Battery cells

currently operating under utility

cycle testing protocol: 10% SOC

cycles at 100 A current

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

200

0 5000 10000 15000 20000

Cap

ac

ity (

Ah

)

# Cycles

Capacity during cycling



Introduction FY-10

East Penn

UltraBattery®

Lead-Acid/Supercap


Lead-Acid/Supercap


Li-FePO4

GS Yuasa

granular silica

tubular gel

International battery cell performed well under aggressive abuse

Under overcharge abuse the cell vented and the case

deformed but remained intact without catastrophic failure

and thermal runaway did not occur.


Introduction FY-10

East Penn

UltraBattery®

Lead-Acid/Supercap


Lead-Acid/Supercap


Li-FePO4

GS Yuasa

granular silica

tubular gel

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

0

5

10

15

20

25

100.0% 140.0% 180.0%

Tem

pera

ture

(C

)

Vo

ltag

e (

V)

%SOC

Voltage(V)TC0

Characterization of Altairnano cells

1

10

100

1000

1 10 100 1000

Sp

ecif

ic P

ow

er

(W/K

g)

Specific Energy (Wh/Kg)

Initial Capacity 12.58 ± 0.06

Ah

3 Month Self-

Discharge

4.82 ± 0.03%

FY12 Planned Evaluation

Hybrid Pulse Power Tests

Utility PSOC Pulse Cycling

Abuse Testing

Extend testing to 60Ah cells

60 Ah cells pulse charge

and discharged testing

used to develop battery

impedance models for

power electronics (D. Fregosi Poster Session)

Simon P , Gogotsi Y Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A

2010;368:3457-3467

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

-50 0 50

Cap

ac

ity (

Ah

)

Temperature (C)

Capacity as a function of T

0.5C

1C

Summary/conclusions to date

• East Penn Ultrabattery® performs best in fast utility

cycling, completing over 13,000 5% cycles with no

loss in capacity.

• Furukawa Ultrabattery® performs best under deep

DOD slow PV cycling, even at 40 day deficit

charging.

• International Li-ion FePO4 cells have lost 11% of the

initial capacity after over 15,000 10% cycles.

• Altairnano Li-titanate oxide cells have had initial

characterization and will be cycled in FY12.

FY-12 testing activities

• Complete cycling of UltraBattery® modules and International Li-FePO4 Cells

Continue Utility Cycle Test; end condition of 20% capacity

loss or 365 days cycled

• Utility Cycle Altairnano Li-Titanate Oxide Cell

Utility Cycle Test end condition of 20% capacity loss or

1 yr is complete

• Bring flow battery testing online with:

– Red Flow Zn-Br modules

– CUNY Ni-Zn modules

– Thank you to Dr. Imre Gyuk for funding energy storage

testing

– Thank you to collaborating battery manufacturers

Summer Ferreira David Rose

[email protected] [email protected]

SNL Energy Storage System Analysis Laboratory

Contact Information

Acknowledgments

Providing reliable, independent, third party testing and verification

of advanced energy technologies for cell to MW systems

Documents

Life Cycle Testing and Evaluation of Energy Storage Devices