NSERC-DFG SUSTAIN: Carbon materials from oil sands-derived asphaltenes for next generation sodium-ion batteries - from mechanistic investigations to life cycle analysis

NSERC-DFG SUSTAIN：用于下一代钠离子电池的来自油砂衍生沥青质的碳材料 - 从机械研究到生命周期分析

• 批准号: 534334554
• 负责人: Professor Dr. Jan Philipp Hofmann
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Grants
• 资助国家: 德国
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/534334554?language=en
• 关键词: NSERC; DFG; SUSTAIN; Carbon; materials

Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are the currently established electrochemical energy storage devices in fields where high energy density is a strong requirement. It is expected that the current annual demand for lithium will increase by a factor of 18-20 until 2050, driven by the increasing demand for automotive lithium-based batteries. The limited availability of lithium and the environmental issues associated with its extraction are the main driving forces for research on alternative battery systems such as sodium-ion batteries (SIBs). The commercialization of SIBs is in progress, however, the SIB technology, which uses mainly soft- and hard carbons fabricated from expensive natural precursors as anode material, still suffers from lower specific gravimetric energies than graphite-based LIB systems. As one of the largest LIB producer world-wide, there is a special interest for the German economy to also take part in the commercialization of environmentally friendlier battery systems such as SIBs. One major aspect for the commercialization of a battery product, besides high specific capacity and stability, is its price. It is crucial to use starting materials with a low cost. A potential abundantly available and low-cost anode precursor are so-called asphaltenes. In Alberta, Canada, thousands of tons of asphaltenes are produced daily, as a byproduct of oil sands processing. Technically, they are defined as the crude fraction, which precipitates upon the addition of an excess of n-heptane, but are soluble in toluene. Asphaltenes are currently applied as paving materials, waterproof coatings on building foundations. However, their present applications do not generate the need even close to the amount generated. Therefore, asphaltenes are often simply combusted. Consequently, there is a big interest of Canadian researchers to upcycle such asphaltenes and to thereby extend their life-cycle. OILSANDSBATT will combine these two aims together into one collaborative work between German battery and Canadian material engineering experts. The idea behind the project is to generate a unique synergy between two research foci of Canada and Germany, namely the value-adding upgrade of the waste product asphaltenes and the development of electrode materials for future battery systems, respectively. OILSANDSBATT will focus on the development of next-generation SIBs, which will use oil sands-derived asphaltenes for the fabrication of anode materials. The main scientific objectives within the planned project are i) the establishment of asphaltenes-derived carbon fibers and carbon modified carbon fibers as anode materials in SIB, ii) to investigate underlying storage mechanisms to enable targeted optimization of the cells towards high energy density and lifetime, and iii) the estimation of the product’s CO2 emissions based on an LCA analysis, which will built on the data from the synthetically and electrochemically oriented work packages.

锂离子电池（LIB）是目前在高能量密度是强烈要求的领域中建立的电化学能量存储装置。预计到2050年，在汽车锂基电池需求不断增长的推动下，目前锂的年需求量将增长18-20倍。锂的有限可用性和与其提取相关的环境问题是研究替代电池系统（如钠离子电池（SIB））的主要驱动力。SIB的商业化正在进行中，然而，主要使用由昂贵的天然前体制造的软碳和硬碳作为阳极材料的SIB技术仍然遭受比基于石墨的LIB系统更低的比重能量。作为全球最大的锂离子电池生产国之一，德国经济也对参与环境友好型电池系统（如SIB）的商业化特别感兴趣。除了高比容量和稳定性之外，电池产品商业化的一个主要方面是其价格。使用低成本的起始材料至关重要。一种潜在的可大量获得且低成本的阳极前体是所谓的沥青质。在加拿大的阿尔伯塔，作为油砂加工的副产品，每天产生数千吨沥青质。在技术上，它们被定义为粗馏分，其在加入过量正庚烷时沉淀，但可溶于甲苯。沥青质目前被用作铺路材料、建筑物基础的防水涂料。然而，它们目前的应用并没有产生甚至接近所产生的数量的需求。因此，沥青质通常简单地燃烧。因此，加拿大研究人员对提高这种沥青质的循环利用并从而延长其生命周期有很大的兴趣。OILSANDSBATT将联合收割机这两个目标结合在一起，成为德国电池和加拿大材料工程专家之间的一个合作项目。该项目背后的想法是在加拿大和德国的两个研究重点之间产生独特的协同作用，即废物沥青质的增值升级和未来电池系统电极材料的开发。OILSANDSBATT将专注于下一代SIB的开发，该SIB将使用油砂衍生的沥青质制造阳极材料。该计划项目的主要科学目标是：i）确定沥青质衍生碳纤维和碳改性碳纤维作为SIB中的阳极材料，ii）研究潜在的存储机制，以实现电池的高能量密度和寿命的目标优化，以及iii）基于LCA分析估计产品的CO2排放量。其将建立在来自合成和电化学取向的工作包的数据上。