Fermata’s newest V2X bidirectional charger, the FE-20

Fermata Energy, a specialist in vehicle-to-everything (V2X) charging systems, has successfully deployed its FE-15 bidirectional charger on multiple commercial projects. Now the company has added a second commercial V2X-capable bidirectional charger to its lineup, the FE-20.

The FE-20 is a DC fast charger that can both charge and discharge the battery of a bidirectionally-enabled EV, creating opportunities for fleet owners to earn revenue, while supporting grid resilience.

The FE-20 is made exclusively for Fermata Energy by Heliox. It’s available in ADA-compliant pedestal and wall-mount versions. The power level is 20 kW for both charging and discharging. UL certification is pending.

“Companies are facing increasing pressure to electrify their fleets. Yet, at the same time they are looking for ways to manage costs,” said David Slutzky, CEO and founder of Fermata Energy. “V2X bidirectional charging actually allows them to both electrify their fleet and earn revenue while their EVs are parked. Fermata Energy has pioneered bidirectional charging and now, along with our proprietary cloud-based software platform, we are introducing our second commercial bidirectional charger—the FE-20.”

Fermata Energy is taking pre-orders for the FE-20 from fleet owners and operators for Q1 2023 delivery on its web site.

Researchers create electrode with high energy capacity from nanosheets

A team of researchers has fabricated thick electrodes from two-dimensional materials in order to design an electrode for faster charging and higher energy capacity in lithium-ion batteries.

“Two-dimensional materials are commonly believed [to be] a promising candidate for high-rate energy storage applications because it only needs to be several nanometers thick for rapid charge transport,” says research team member Guihua Yu. “However, for thick-electrode-design-based next-generation, high-energy batteries, the restacking of nanosheets as building blocks can cause significant bottlenecks in charge transport, leading to difficulty in achieving both high energy and fast charging.”

In an article published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers write: “Here, we develop a method of controlling nanosheet assembly via the combination of an external magnetic field and drying-based densification to prepare high-density, low-tortuosity electrodes. The vertically interconnected nanosheet network provides efficient pathways for mass transport, delivering both high areal and volumetric capacities far beyond those of commercial electrodes.”

According to the researchers, “This dense and thick electrode is capable of delivering a high volumetric capacity >1,600 mAh cm−3, with an areal capacity up to 32 mAh cm−2, which is among the best reported in the literature.”

The researchers also found that a horizontally arranged electrode built with the same materials reached its 50% energy level in 2 hours and 30 minutes compared to 30 minutes for a vertical electrode, according to UT News.

“Our electrode shows superior electrochemical performance partially due to the high mechanical strength, high electrical conductivity and facilitated lithium-ion transport thanks to the unique architecture we designed,” says research team leader Zhengyu Ju.

DOE requests information about non-functional public EV chargers

The DOE may get more replies than it bargained for to its recent Request for Information (DE-FOA-0002797, PDF) regarding “the prevalence of and solutions to electric vehicle no-charge events.”

As every frequent user of public charging knows, the uptime performance of public chargers can be abysmal—the doggone things seem to be out of order a good third of the time.

The DOE’s Vehicle Technologies Office (VTO) is interested in “no-charge events,” including “interoperability issues between EVs and [chargers] and other parts of the charging ecosystem.”

“The VTO is developing plans to implement the Vehicle Grid Integration (VGI) Research, Development, and Demonstration Program as directed by the Energy Act of 2020 and one of the barriers to VGI to be addressed is the issue of some EVs failing to charge satisfactorily when connected to electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE or chargers). These no-charge events either fail to start charging or fail to complete the charge without interruption.”

The purpose of the Request for Information is to solicit input from industry (EV manufacturers, EVSE manufacturers, charge network operators) and other stakeholders on “issues related to EVs failing to charge properly when connected to chargers.”

Alas, this is merely a Request for Information (RFI) and not a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA), so there’s no money involved. However, it’s possible that the agency will issue an FOA based on the input received from this RFI.

If you just have a list of complaints about non-working chargers, we’d advise you to hold your peace, lest the VTO become overwhelmed with responses within hours. However, if you’ve got some information about why public chargers so often fail to charge, or better yet, suggestions about how to alleviate the problem, you could do a great public service by responding to the RFI, and you might just earn yourself some FOA.

Li-Cycle opens battery recycling facility in Alabama

Battery recycler Li-Cycle has announced that its Alabama Spoke plant in Tuscaloosa has started commercial operations.

The Alabama Spoke uses Li-Cycle’s patented technology to recycle and directly process full EV battery packs without any dismantling through a submerged shredding process that produces no wastewater. Li-Cycle says its full pack processing capability improves efficiency, and can process the growing variety of EV battery architectures, including cell-to-pack formats that have limited options for dismantling.

The Alabama Spoke is strategically located to support the recycling needs of the company’s growing battery supply customer base in the southeastern US, where several battery and automotive manufacturers are establishing operations. This growth is expected to produce a significant amount of battery production scrap and end-of life batteries that will require recycling.

“This facility enhances our ability to support the recycling needs of our diverse and growing customer base in North America to ensure lithium-ion battery material is recycled in an environmentally friendly and safe manner,” said Ajay Kochhar, co-founder and CEO of Li-Cycle. “Li-Cycle is creating an essential domestic supply of recycled material to support EV production and assist automakers in meeting their domestic production content requirements.”

The Alabama Spoke has a total input processing capacity of 10,000 tons of lithium-ion battery materials per year, and has the flexibility to expand processing capacity in the future. It features the same design as Li-Cycle’s Arizona Spoke, which opened earlier this year and is currently operating near target throughput.

Together with its two other North American spokes—located in Kingston, Ontario and Rochester, New York—Li-Cycle now has a total input processing capacity of 30,000 tons per year, or the equivalent of batteries from approximately 60,000 EVs. By the end of 2023, the company expects to have a total of 65,000 tons per year of processing capacity across its Spoke network in North America and Europe.

The primary output product of Li-Cycle’s Spokes is black mass, consisting of valuable metals, including lithium, cobalt and nickel, which the company will convert into battery-grade materials at its first Hub facility, which is under construction in Rochester. Li-Cycle expects the Hub to be capable of processing 35,000 tons of black mass annually, with battery materials equivalent to approximately 225,000 EVs. Li-Cycle aims to begin commissioning the Rochester Hub in 2023.

MAHLE Powertrain to open EV test facility in Michigan

MAHLE Powertrain is planning to establish a new EV powertrain testing facility at its engineering center in Plymouth, Michigan.

The company is investing $4 million in the facility, which is designed for testing, developing and calibrating two- and four-wheel drive platforms.

“As well as full powertrain testing and calibration work, the facility will enable the development of powertrain systems, the calibration of transmissions, hybrid and battery-electric powertrain configurations, Real Driving Emissions (RDE) measurements and electric vehicle range determination,” says MAHLE.

The facility will include dynamometers for up to 7,000 Nm of instantaneous torque per wheel with an average torque response time of 0.5 ms, a 623 kW battery emulator with a future expansion capacity of more than 1 MW, a test cell for ADAS assessments and a testbed for US and EU emissions rules.

The facility will be able to accommodate a maximum wheelbase of 4.5 meters, and will be capable of testing at temperatures from -10° to 40° C.

“This investment underscores our determination to provide world-class services to our clients through the provision of state-of-the-art facilities and expertise,” says Managing Director of MAHLE Powertrain USA Hugh Blaxill. “The new facilities will extend our unique capabilities to cover client requirements both in the US and globally, and will prove an invaluable resource for light-duty and heavy-duty manufacturers alike. Crucially, this means we are able to conduct a significant amount of development and validation work without requiring a large number of prototype vehicles to be built by the manufacturer.”