Cheaper, lighter, and denser: the trifecta defines a super battery. Nobody has devised an ideal cell fairly but, however one stealthy startup thinks it has discovered a brand new materials that solves at the very least two of these challenges.
Daqus Energy has been quietly working for the previous couple years, refining a compound referred to as TAQ that guarantees to be cheaper and lighter than competing battery supplies.
“We’ve not seen a metric at which TAQ does poorly in contrast with the incumbents,” Harish Banda, co-founder and CEO of Daqus, advised TechCrunch. The corporate was spun out of MIT, the place analysis into the fabric was funded partly by a partnership with Lamborghini.
There are a number of caveats, which Banda freely gives: The corporate continues to be scaling manufacturing of TAQ, and it has solely simply begun engaged on the kind of cells that would drop into an EV. Plus, many promising battery supplies have died on the trail to commercialization.
However 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 traders.
Daqus’s materials replaces the cathode in a lithium-ion battery. In a typical cell, the cathode is manufactured from nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) or iron-phosphate (higher referred to as LFP). NMC cells are costlier, however supply better power density and longer vary in electrical autos. 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. Drawback 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 fabric Daqus has found, bis-tetraaminobenzoquinone or TAQ for brief, isn’t made utilizing costly essential minerals like nickel or cobalt. As a substitute, it’s made totally 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’re completely filth low-cost,” Banda stated, noting that the corporate buys small batches at $1 per kilogram. “So you’ll be able to solely think about what meaning 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 will be deposited utilizing present gear. However there’s one other alternative to chop prices: present anode manufacturing gear may also work with TAQ. That may enable 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 available on the market. “If any person is saying that LFP batteries are at $50 per kilowatt hour, we’d be cheaper than that for positive,” Banda stated. “Precisely how a lot must be found out.”
Daqus has been producing coin cells in its lab area in Massachusetts, and its inner checks have proven TAQ to be sturdy. TAQ-based batteries will be charged and discharged 2,000 occasions and preserve at the very least 80% of its authentic capability, and so they’re steady at excessive temperatures. These 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. Nonetheless, he factors out that as a result of the fabric is lighter, EVs designed round it may be made lighter and would wish fewer batteries total. That would give TAQ-powered EVs sufficient vary to compete with NMC whereas being cheaper and lighter.
Sports activities automobiles may 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 nicely on a race observe? That’s confirmed to be more durable. A light-weight, fast-charging battery pack may go a good distance towards making electrical sports activities automobiles really feel particular.
“A number of automobile corporations on the earth are attempting to make electrical automobiles,” Banda stated. “What’s the distinction between a Rolls Royce versus a Tesla? Certain you have got higher seats, however when it comes to the core of the automobile, it was once the engine. Now, it appears to be the battery.”