NASA Pioneers Soilid-State Battery for Air Transport

The decarbonization of our economy is the key to halting climate change. Transportation is one of our worst sources of pollution, and possibly the easiest to fix. Many countries around the world have pledged to make a changeover from fossil fuel powered vehicles to electric vehicles over the next decade. That task is simpler for small vehicles, where our current battery technology is suitable, but larger vehicles, such as industrial plant and aircraft, struggle to get the power they require from batteries. In the case of aircraft, the weight of the batteries negates a lot of their potential power delivery. Hydrogen is one solution that has been proposed for applications unsuitable for our current batteries, but that would require new, expensive infrastructure. Another solution would be to build better batteries. NASA has been working on that problem and its latest announcement claims good progress is being made.

Researchers at the organization are attempting to build a battery pack that is light, safe and has better performance than the Li-ion batteries that we use at the moment. The new research is based on solid-state batteries that do not use a liquid electrolyte, which can cause overheating, fire, and loss of charge over time. Solid-state batteries also can potentially hold more energy and perform better in stressful environments than standard Li-ion batteries. They do not catch fire when they malfunction and can still operate when damaged, making them ideal for use in aviation.

NASA’s Solid-state Architecture Batteries for Enhanced Rechargeability and Safety (SABERS) researchers have now reached the stage where they are partnered with several organizations, and also working with other project teams within NASA Aeronautics, to continue developing the battery. Batteries that are intended to be used in electric aircraft need to store a huge amount of energy while remaining lightweight. They must also be capable of discharging that energy at a rate that can power the aircrafts power hungry systems. To find a solution, the SABERS scientists have experimented with new materials. Over the past year, the team successfully increased their battery’s discharge rate by a factor of 10 – and then by another factor of 5.

The solid-state architecture allows changes to the construction and packaging of the battery to save weight and increase the energy it can store. Individual battery cells do not need to be housed inside their own steel casing like liquid batteries, meaning that all the cells in the battery can be stacked vertically in one casing. This technique has allowed the batteries to power objects at 500 watt-hours per kilogram, which is double that of an electric vehicle. Researchers have also tested the new battery under different pressures and temperatures, and it can operate in temperatures nearly twice as hot as lithium-ion batteries, and without as much cooling technology.

The new SABERS partners include Georgia Tech, Argonne National Laboratory, and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. For example, the collaboration with Georgia Tech is allowing researchers to utilize some different methodologies in their work and discover how they can improve their battery for practical use.