Lithium Sulfur batteries will be first commercialized by 2018 in electric bikes where energy density will be improved for eventual use in electric cars

OXIS Energy UK and Lithium Balance of Denmark have come together to build the first-ever prototype Lithium Sulfur E-scooter battery system primarily for the Chinese market. LiTHIUM BALANCE is a battery management expert who has supplied its BMS systems for Lithium-Ion based E-scooters for a decade.

The E-scooter itself will be manufactured in China. The volume of E-scooters in China is 30 million, of which 98% use lead acid with the remaining 2% using
Lithium-Ion. The current prototype battery has a capacity of 1.2kWh using 10Ah OXIS Long Life cells, weighs 60% less than the current lead acid battery and a significant increase in range.

The next stage is to build a 2nd prototype using an improved Long Life chemistry (up to 20Ah) which will increase battery capacity at a reduced weight. Crucially, production costs will be reduced to meet the demand of the Chinese market. The timescale for this second phase is 4th quarter of 2016.

According to the CEO of OXIS, Huw Hampson-Jones, “The development of the 1st Lithium Sulfur Escooter battery system will allow Chinese manufacturers to circumvent the use of unsafe, toxic and environmentally damaging battery systems such as lead acid and Lithium-Ion. It will allow Chinese consumers to travel longer distances with a significantly greater degree of safety and flexibility and with a battery system that’s 60% lighter – the latter being very important to Chinese commuters living in high rise city apartments.

In effect, the market of rechargeable lithium batteries will undergo a quantum leap forward in the adoption of state of the art renewable energy technology. This will contribute to cleaner air quality in the major urban areas of China.”

LiTHIUM BALANCE CEO, Lars Barkler added, “This project represents a technology breakthrough for LiTHIUM BALANCE. In cooperation with OXIS Energy we have implemented dedicated BMS algorithms that optimizes the performance of Lithium Sulfur batteries. This could not be achieved with an ordinary Lithium-Ion BMS.”

OXIS and LiTHIUM BALANCE are on track to have their battery systems in China by Spring of 2018

Battery systems using metallic Lithium are known to offer the highest specific energy.

Sulfur represents a natural cathode partner for metallic Li and, in contrast with conventional lithium-ion cells, the chemicals processes include dissolution from the anode surface during discharge and reverse lithium plating to the anode while charging. As a consequence, Lithium-Sulfur allows for a theoretical specific energy in excess of 2700Wh per kg, which is nearly 5 times higher than that of Li-ion.

OXIS’s next generation lithium technology platform offers the highest energy density among lithium chemistry:
325 Wh per kg already achieved at cell level
400 Wh per kg forecast in 2016
450 to 500 Wh per kg forecast in 2018

OXIS Li-S cells have achieved an excellent cycle life: cells can be cycled approximately 1500 times (80% Beginning-of-Life). In the next 2 years, they expect this to reach 2500 cycles before the capacity reduces to 80% BoL.

SOURCES – Oxis