Making Batteries More Efficiently

To make a standard lithium-ion battery electrode—used in most electric car batteries—manufacturers coat it in a slurry then evaporate the liquid using high temperatures, leaving behind a chemical coating. But the drying process takes a lot of time and energy, not to mention the solvents used to make the slurry are toxic. AM Batteries pioneered a manufacturing technique that instead sprays the coating directly onto electrodes, eliminating the need for heat, dry time, or solvents. "Our approach has the potential to reduce energy usage and CO2 emission by 40% in the battery manufacturing process," CEO Lie Shi said in a statement in December. The process has gained investment from Toyota and Porsche, among others, and AM Batteries opened its first Customer Success Center, where companies can experiment with the tech, in Massachusetts in July.