Following the electric car, the concept of electric aircraft has also entered people's vision. So what kind of batteries do planes need?
According to Japanese media on November 16, Japanese battery company GS YUASA (GS YUASA) and Kansai University have jointly developed a lightweight lithium-sulfur battery with high energy density, whose mass energy density can reach nearly twice that of existing lithium batteries.
Relevant data show that high energy density lithium sulfur battery is a kind of battery with sulfur as positive active substance. In theory, lithium-sulfur batteries can have eight times the capacity of conventional lithium-ion batteries at the same size, but they have problems such as low conductivity and easy solubility of intermediates in electrolytes.
The lithium-sulfur battery has a capacity of 8 ampere-hours (ampere-hours). Due to the use of microporous carbon particles, it not only improves the conductivity, but also makes the intermediate not easily soluble in the electrolyte, overcoming the problem of daily use. The lithium-sulfur battery has a mass energy density of more than 370 watt-hours per kilogram, compared with about 200 to 300 watt-hours per kilogram for lithium-ion batteries commonly used in pure electric vehicles. By 2023, Yuasa hopes to increase the mass energy density of its lithium-sulphur batteries to 500 watt-hours per kilogram.
The research is part of Japan's Integrated New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Agency (NEDO) electric aircraft project, which aims to develop a lightweight, high-capacity battery that can be installed on an electric aircraft. With the goal of achieving an energy density of 1,000 watt-hours per kilogram by 2030, research on key technologies is being pursued.
"We hope to bring high-energy density lithium-sulfur batteries to the world, and this battery material will be very useful in the future. The development of electric aircraft will definitely be faster and faster in the future." Yuasa Said.
According to SDReports' electric Aircraft Market forecast 2030 report, the global electric aircraft market will reach $7.9 billion in 2021 and $27.7 billion in 2030, with a cagR of 14.8%, due to accelerated deployment of urban air traffic aircraft and successful use of electric aircraft in multi-mission scenarios.
Yuasa Corporation was founded in 1918, and in April 2004, it merged with Nippon Battery and changed its name to Jasyuasa Corporation (Group company). It is a leading company in the battery industry in Asia. In recent years, great efforts have been made to develop and manufacture batteries and power supplies for special purposes, providing high-performance and high-quality batteries in Marine, land, aviation and other special environments. In 2015, Jasyuasa acquired Panasonic's lead battery business for 30 billion yen (1.566 billion yuan) to acquire the production and sales of lead batteries for automobiles, pure electric vehicles and industrial applications.
In 2016, the International Space Station was equipped with high-performance lithium-ion batteries developed and manufactured by Yuasa for aerospace. The lithium-ion battery developed by Gerstonwater has three times the energy density of current batteries, so it takes only 24 cells to achieve the current capacity of 48.
In 2017, JUTasa announced the construction of a new automotive lead-acid battery plant in Tianjin, China, which will double its annual production capacity to 8 million, with an investment of 17.5 billion yen. The plant covers an area of 180,000 square meters.