Leclanché implements the innovative water-based production process; applied to all cell electrodes, it results in cost effective large format 30Ah LTO- and 43 Ah graphite-based cells, while minimizing environmental impact of manufacturing and ensuring very high cell performances and lifetime stability.

Some of the benefits of water-based binder electrodes are:

• No more usage of organic (toxic) solvents in the mixing and coating processes.

 

• Reduced manufacturing cost of aqueous vs. solvent processing. Elimination of expensive solvent recovery steps, reduction of capital cost for coating equipment and elimination of expensive inactive components.

 

• Simplification of machinery (no EX requirements). Machinery size reduction (water extraction is faster than NMP one, therefore the drying section for coating line is reduced).

 

• Fast drying speed and low drying temperature require less electric power and yield to higher production rate.

 

• No dry room required for cell assembly, only humidity control is required during electrolyte filling, etc.

 

The innovative high-quality manufactured electrodes lead to very high mechanical and electrochemical stability during cycling, e.g. Leclanché large-capacity LTO lithium-ion batteries allow for tenths of thousands full-DoD cycles to be reached, even in highly demanding conditions (see Fig.1). The lifetime estimation exceeds 20.000 cycles and is little affected by C-rate. 

Fig. 1: Lifetime characteristics at RT (21°C); influence of C-rate and lifetime estimation of 16 Ah cell