Lithium–titanate battery

Lithium–titanate battery
The lithium-titanate battery is a type of rechargeable battery which has the advantage of being faster to charge than other lithium-ion batteries.
Current usage
Titanate batteries are used in certain Japanese-only versions of Mitsubishi's i-MiEV[2] electric vehicle, and Honda uses them in its EV-neo electric bike and Fit EV.[3][4] They are also used in the Tosa concept electric bus.[5] Due to their high level of safety, lithium-titanate batteries are used in mobile medical devices[6]
Chemistry
A lithium-titanate battery is a modified lithium-ion battery that uses lithium-titanate nanocrystals, instead of carbon, on the surface of its anode. This gives the anode a surface area of about 100 square meters per gram, compared with 3 square meters per gram for carbon, allowing electrons to enter and leave the anode quickly. This makes fast recharging possible and provides high currents when needed.[7] Lithium-titanate cells also last for 3000 to 7000 charge cycles, far longer than other battery chemistries[8], although other source states it lasts a little more than 1000 cycles before reaching 80% capacity.[9]
A disadvantage of lithium-titanate batteries is that they have a lower inherent voltage (2.4 V), which leads to a lower specific energy (about 30–110 Wh/kg[1]) than conventional lithium-ion battery technologies, which have an inherent voltage of 3.7 V[10], although some lithium-titanate batteries are reported to have an energy density of up to 177 Wh/L.[1]
Brands and uses
Altairnano
Altairnano produces lithium-titanate batteries under the "Nanosafe" line, mainly for battery electric vehicles. Vehicle manufacturers that have announced plans to use Altairnano batteries include Lightning Car Company, which plans to use them for the Lightning GT, an all-electric sports car;[11][12] Phoenix Motorcars, for use in its electric sport-utility vehicles;[13] and Proterra, in its all-electric EcoRide BE35 lightweight 35-foot bus.[14]
Leclanché
Leclanché is a Swiss battery manufacturer founded in 1909. In 2006, it acquired Bullith AG (Germany) to establish a Li-Ion manufacturing line in Germany. In 2014, their product, "TiBox", was launched in the market. The energy content of the TiBox is 3.2 kWh, with 20,000 cycles.[17]
Microvast
Microvast, based in Houston, Texas, makes a lithium-titanate battery that it calls "LpTO". In 2011, the world's first ultrafast charge bus fleet was launched in Chongqing, China. An 80 kW LpTO battery system was installed in 37 twelve-meter electric buses, which can be fully charged within 10 minutes with a 400 kW charger.[18]
As of 2014, a British bus OEM, Wrightbus, started to use Microvast LpTO batteries for 1,000 units of double-decker New Routemaster buses. An 18 kWh LpTO battery system is used to replace the initial Lithium Iron Phosphate battery due to that the LFP battery encountered performance failure.
As of 2015, the European ZeEUS (zero emission urban transport system) was launched. Its VDL bus uses a 62.5 kWh LpTO battery system from Microvast[19] for this demonstration project.
As of 2016, the world's largest automated port, PSA TUAS, started to use the Microvast LpTO for 22 electric AGVs as a first phase of a project for horizontal container transportation.[20]
Toshiba
SCiB batteries are used in the Schwinn Tailwind electric bike.[24] Toshiba has also demonstrated its use as a prototype laptop battery.[25] Toshiba SCiB batteries are used in a Japan-only version of Mitsubishi's i-MiEV and Minicab MiEV[2] electric vehicles, and Honda uses them in its EV-neo electric bike and Fit EV, which launched in the summer of 2012.[3][4]
Samsung
Seiko
Seiko uses lithium-titanate batteries in its Kinetic (automatic quartz) wristwatches. Earlier Kinetic watches used a capacitor to store energy, but the battery provides a larger capacity and a longer service life. The battery can be replaced easily by a technician when its capacity eventually deteriorates to an unacceptable level.[27]
YABO
YABO Power Technology released a lithium-titanate battery in 2012. The standard model YB-LITE2344 2.4V/15Ah battery cell has been used in electric vehicle and energy storage systems.[28]
See also
List of battery types
List of battery sizes
Comparison of battery types
Battery (electricity)
Electrochemical cell
Energy storage
Lithium iron phosphate battery