Gen 2 Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP) Battery, which surpasses Lithium Ion Battery’s charge and discharge functions, has come out in Korea’s medium to large-sized battery market that leads in Lithium Ion Battery. It is interesting to see if there will be any diversification of raw material and material in medium to large-sized battery market that depends on large businesses.
Battery finished product business called Topbattery (CEO No Hwan Jin) announced today that it has developed Gen 2 LFP secondary battery that has double the amount of output function. Its output function is a lot superior compared to previous Lithium Ion Battery and it can be used for long period of time as it is possible to charge and discharge at least 3,000 times.
Because LFP Battery uses iron phosphate for its anode material, it is better than Lithium Ion Battery that uses lithium, cobalt, and magnesium (NCM) in safety and life expectancy aspect and its battery price is 10 to 20% cheaper. However its temporal charge and discharge outputs were low and there was space limitation as its weight and volume were 20% bigger. It was usually used limitedly on golf carts, Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS), some Energy Storage System (ESS151), and etc.
Topbattery was able to overcome LFP Battery’s disadvantages by using its own battery material and manufacturing technologies. While it usually takes 30 minutes to charge a battery with same capacity, Topbattery’s LFP Battery can charge 95% of battery capacity using only fast charging (4C) for 15 minutes. 2 to 3 minutes are plenty to discharge (30C) more than 95%. Compared to previous Lithium Ion Battery, its charge and discharge functions were improved at least two times.
In Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO)’s ESS for frequency adjustment (FR) application Establishment Business where Korea’s Lithium Ion Batteries were used, more than twice of batteries compared to initial installation capacity were used. Batteries need to be discharged within 15 minutes because power plant’s electricity frequency in nuclear, coal, firepower, and etc. need to be adjusted in real time, but it took at least 30 minutes to discharge due to limitation in charge and discharge functions. Due to this limitation, many battery businesses had to use more than twice the amount of batteries to fill needed electricity power, which leads to double the cost.
Topbattery’s LFP Battery increases charging speed by coating its highly-conductive nano-carbon ink into cathode copper current-collector and it is designed to control negative reactions during rapid charging and discharging. It can be used for long time because it protects battery capacity to be reduced by breaking down electrolytes or heating active material during rapid charging process. Topbattery increased its efficiency by optimizing component ratio of mixture of electrodes, electrolytes, and etc.
Topbattery has unrivaled technology that increases binding strength of current-collector and electrode material by developing aluminum current-collector (C-Al) that is coated with nano-carbon.
This LFP Battery will replace previous lead storage batteries, and it is expected that it will be used to increase mileage or 12 to 48V car battery for Idle Stop & Go application that is currently being developed by secondary battery industry. This prediction is very likely because its voltage characteristic in extremely low temperature is excellent due to its efficient charging and discharging and similar charging and discharging voltage to lead storage battery that is widely used for car batteries.
“We had no choice to use additional batteries for ESS batteries for FR application because previous Lithium Ion Battery’s output was not enough. Through LEP battery, we are going to go after variety of markets such as ESS Battery for FR Application, micro hybrid cars, car batteries for ISG application, and others.” said President No Hwan Jin of Topbattery.
Topbattery, which is Korea’s only LFP Battery producer, is operating automatic production facility in Icheon that can produce 25 MWh annually.
Staff Reporter Park, Taejoon | gaius@etnews.com