The 7th International Advanced Automotive Battery Conference (AABC) on May 16-18 in Long Beach, California, turned out to be the biggest (700 attendees we are told) and arguably the best conference yet. As we have grown to expect from AABC, the organization, facilities, staff, and refreshments were first class.

Large Lithium Battery Technology and Application Conference (LLIBTA-07)

The LLIBTA symposium was outstanding – two days packed with presentations, discussions and networking events, attracting the entire Li-ion battery industry, including material suppliers, cell producers and large battery users.

LLIBTA consisted of four sessions covering new materials, life, abuse, and applications. Each of the sessions provided an excellent overview of the area by leading experts in the field. To accommodate the large numbers of interesting papers, many of the presentations were kept to just ten minutes but augmented by a poster session where the presenter was available to answer questions on an individual basis. A highlight of the materials session was a joint talk by B. Deveney (Saft) and Thorsten Lahrs (Phostech) on Saft’s new high-power, LiFePO4 cell. This 10Ah cell could be discharged at 1500A and gave 700 100% DOD cycles at 60 degrees C before the capacity was reduced to 80%. In the life session, Michel Broussely (Saft) and Takefumi Inoue (GS Yuasa) presented empirical models predicting that lithium-ion batteries could meet aerospace requirements. Mark Isaacson (Lockheed Martin) gave an insightful talk on life testing of Saft 48Ah cells for aerospace applications. The cells seem ready for a 15-year mission.

In the abuse session, Cyrus Ashtiani (DaimlerChrysler) described a methodology for assessing the risks presented by batteries. Ahmad Pesaran (NREL) gave an original analysis of how thermal runaway propagates in battery packs. He explained that if cell-to-cell heat transfer is much greater than the ability of the pack to dissipate heat to the environment, then runaway will occur. Interestingly, the bus-bar configuration can be optimized to prevent thermal runaway. The applications session was chaired by Dr. Mo-HuaYang (Industrial Technology Research Institute, Taiwan) who delivered a comprehensive overview of LiFePO4 battery design and applications, from raw materials to finished packs. Further papers in the session included briefings by Tesla, EnerDel, Altairnano and others.

Large Ultracapacitor Technology and Applications Symposium (UCAP-07)

Held in parallel with LLIBTA, Session 1 discussed advances in UCAP materials and was chaired by longtime electrode specialist Dr. Dave Zuckerbrod from W.L. Gore, who highlighted the various cell designs and electrode-fabrication processes for UCAP. Several papers in Session 2 discussed recent progress with cell performance, where French BATSCAP (Bollore) seemed to be stepping up the capability of their UCAP and now be in a position to sample and compete for business in the Micro-2 hybrid business in Europe.

Session 3 was led by Dr. Ulrich Matthias from VW who kicked off the session by analyzing the status of UCAP devices that are being promoted for application in automotive and the challenges ahead. He concluded that:

1. UCAP displays some unique characteristics, like good calendar life and temperature independent charge/discharge power that make them attractive for automotive applications.

2. Low energy density limits the application to frequent charge and discharge of small amounts of energy, typical for micro-hybrids.

Open questions about safety and system requirements have to be answered and further cost reduction efforts are needed.

Advanced Automotive Battery and Ultracapacitor Conference (AABC-07)

The AABC conference consisted of five sessions on markets, NiMH and Li-ion for moderate and strong hybrids, plug-in hybrids, lead-acid batteries and ultracapacitors for micro and mild-hybrids, and pack design/integration for light and heavy-duty hybrids.

In the first session, Scott Miller (Synovate Motoresearch) presented market studies that showed consumers have an extremely positive attitude toward hybrids. Dr. Menahem Anderman (AABC) gave a controversial talk that dampened the enthusiasm for Li-ion in the short term by first predicting that Li-ion batteries would account for only 5% of the HEV battery market by 2010, and 30-35% by 2015, going on to question the whole viability of plug-in hybrids. Gerry Wolfe (BEST), in the lively Q&A session, accused Anderman of presenting an overly “gloomy” outlook. However, Anderman, who stated he predicts the future as he sees it, was later supported by comments from the key automakers including Ford and Toyota who agreed with his assessment “100%.” Hideo Takeshita (Institute of Information Technology) gave an entertaining talk covering the cost of Li-ion batteries for HEV. Takeshita identified materials cost as the key issue and questioned how low LiFePO4 pricing could go.

The second session had talks from GM, Ford, Toyota, Nissan, AESC, Sanyo, and A123Systems. Ted Miller (Ford) explained the hurdles Li-ion technology faces to enter the HEV market. Especially sobering was the requirement of $100-150 million investment for a volume production plant. Joe LoGrasso (GM) and Mark Verbrugge (GM) gave a joint two-part presentation. LoGrasso explained GM’s plans and what battery developers could do to accelerate the development process, and Verbrugge expounded GM’s approach for on-line determination of the state-of-charge, state-of-health, and state-of-power of Li-ion batteries. In contrast to the somewhat general talks by Ford and GM, Kazuhisa Meguro (Toyota) discussed the details of – and the continuous improvement applied to – the electronic components and devices that monitor and control the NiMH batteries used in Toyota’s vehicles.

The second half of the second session focused on battery technology. Ikuo Yonezu (Sanyo) explained enhancements in NiMH technology that provide improved low temperature performance and storage life at elevated temperature. Dr. Andy Chu (A123) tried to explain the difference between A123’s LiFePO4 and “conventional” LiFePO4, but the talk just raised more questions. NEC has formed a new venture with Nissan, the Automotive Energy Supply Corp. (AESC), which was explained by Nobuaki Yoshioka.

The third session opened with an overview by Tien Duong (U.S. Department of Energy) on the DOE’s activities to promote PHEVs. Then Tony Markel (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) gave a detailed analysis of PHEV performance using real-world drive cycles. This analysis showed that significant fuel savings were possible (>50%). This talk was nicely complemented by Aymeric Rousseau (Argonne National Laboratory) who showed how a hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) system could be used to validate various PHEV components, especially the battery. Dominique Portmann (DaimlerChrysler) and Loïc Gaillac (Saft) gave presentations on the performance of Saft batteries in the DaimlerChrysler PHEV van, the Sprinter. The liquid-cooled battery is performing well and cycle testing will be completed in January 2008. During the Q&A session the issues of battery warranty and PHEV cost versus benefits were debated.

Friday morning’s session covered lead-acid batteries and ultracapacitor solutions for micro and mild-hybrids and while many of us felt that the discussion and interest might cool down after the excitement of the previous three days, we were delighted to be proven wrong. BMW has now introduced a micro-1 (stop start) vehicle in all their A series gasoline manual transmission cars, to the excitement of the European VRLA battery community as their volume demand will tie up the whole European supply. Additional papers by ALABC, Firefly Energy, and Effpower showed improvement in VRLA technology that can make them tackle mild and potentially moderate hybrids as well. The last paper by Valeo stressed the enhancement to the micro-hybrid architecture possible with the incorporation of an ultracapacitor.

More than half of the attendees who stayed until Friday afternoon were not disappointed as session chair Tom Apalenek of BAE Systems informed the audience that BAE will introduce Li-ion batteries into their popular hybrid buses. Robert King of GE described their work on hybridization of heavy-duty vehicles and suggested that commercial announcements would be made soon.

Overall the industry is hot and AABC is a great venue to learn and to meet suppliers, customers and competitors and go home with new understandings, new contacts and new ideas. Proceedings of AABC and Symposia are available at www.advancedautobat.com or by calling (530) 692 0140. I am told that next year’s AABC and Symposia will be held in Tampa, Florida, May 12-16, 2008.