Cost-efficient and sustainable lithium-free battery cell chemistry for mobile applications (LiFreBat)

Currently, battery cells based on lithium-ion are predominantly used in the field of electromobility, which have disadvantages in terms of operational reliability, raw material availability and, in particular, price. This fuels the search for sustainable, cost-effective and locally available alternatives that have the same performance characteristics. 
In the LiFreBat project, a reference cell will first be developed, which will then be electrically measured and tested for properties such as storage capacity and fast charging behavior. Due to the special nature of the cell chemistry, a corresponding heat input into the cell must be realized. To this end, a system is being designed that consists of a main vehicle battery and a small starter battery - based on lithium-ion, for example. The starter battery is to be used to preheat the main battery to the required operating temperature until it can go into stand-alone operation. Then, in turn, the starter battery is charged by the main battery for the next start.