TKS Session 18: Battery Tech + Velocity Session 8
This velocity session was a little different from past ones. Usually, we would discuss the PotW and the MotW. But this time, we focused more on ourselves and our own future. What I mean by this is TKS students, especially those in the velocity program, have come out of these 10 months with something huge, whether that be an internship or starting their own company with funding. Now, after the first 4 months of getting to know your interests, the next 6 months are all about setting a goal for yourself to get out of this program and do what needs to be done to achieve it. That goal could be something like:
Get a cool internship
Working on a project that is mentioned by someone legit
Work on a cool project in a lab
Start a company with funding
Depending on what that goal may be, everyone’s path may be a little different for the next few months. That’s why, we need to start early and decide what we will dedicate all our energy to. So, for velocity, we each discussed what we thought could be our goal for the end of TKS and what we would need to start doing now to set ourselves up for success. I really liked this session because I felt like I was evaluating my goals better and getting a better understanding of what I need to start doing now to achieve my version of success.
For today’s session, the topic was battery tech. We first looked at how batteries work, where a chemical reaction occurs and the electrons pass through the battery from the anode (negative side) to the cathode (positive side), which produces an electric current to power its device. We went over a few batteries and their characteristics:
Lithium-Ion Batteries
Lightweight
High energy density
Long lifespan
Sodium-Ion Batteries
Cheaper
Widely available
Environmentally-friendly
Solid-State Batteries
High energy density
Improved safety
Longer lifespan
Made with solid electrolytes instead of standard liquid/gel
Expensive to make
Can be unstable in different temperatures
Scalability in early development
We then looked at different energy storage methods that are being used in the world. This connects to battery tech because batteries are things that store energy. We went over quite a few methods such as:
Batteries (of course)
Pumped hydroelectric storage (most popular energy storage method)
Flywheels
Compressed air energy storage
Hydrogen storage
Molten salt storage
Phase change materials
Capacitors/supercapacitors
Superconducting magnetic energy storage
Gravity energy storage
For our hands-on activity, we had a prompt asking:
How would you allocate $50M to reduce the cost per kWh of energy storage (amount of money required to store 1 kilowatt-hour (kWh) of energy using a specific battery or energy storage system)?
To answer this question, we had to ask 2 things:
How do we reduce cost?
Increase energy density
Increase lifespan
Increase efficiency
Reduce maintenance cost
Different technology/material innovations for the method
Which energy storage system do we improve?
Current cost of that storage system?
Recommendation for new cost
We would then compile the recommendation information onto a one-pager, which is a way to communicate a complex topic or message in a simple way, which can also be used for other things like:
Creating a company overview
Technical brief/overview
Marketing material for a program or event
Proposal overview, which can accompany a longer document
Summarizing recommendations (what we are using it for in this activity)
Explaining a complex topic/subject
I partnered with Arissai Filleul to make improvements to the materials used in solid-state batteries to decrease the cost per kWh of energy storage by changing the ceramic separator in the solid-state battery to one that is LLZO-based (Lithium Lanthanum Zirconium Oxide) along with the incorporation of aluminum doping. A separator in a solid-state battery allows ions to flow between electrodes while preventing short circuits. Modifying that to LLZO will enhance the battery’s performance by improving ionic conductivity (allows for faster charging and discharging of electricity to power its device), as well as boosting durability and temperature stability, which increases cycle life. It also helps stop dendrites (microscopic branch/crystal structures that can cause short circuits in batteries) from forming and ensures battery safety.
Doping is the process of adding small amounts of specific elements or compounds to a material to improve its properties. Using aluminum as the doping element helps to enhance ionic conductivity and reduce grain boundary (which causes resistance to ion flow), which also improves battery efficiency and stability.
This is the one-pager we made to formulate our recommendation on modifying the materials in solid-state batteries:
We then got into the mindset of the week, which was Stoicism. Stoicism is the idea of not letting outside events control you. My favourite ideal that really sums up Stoicism is
Control what you can, accept what you can’t
This represents Stoicism and is easy to understand. Whatever is in your control, act upon it, but whatever is outside of your control, accept it and learn that you cannot do anything about it besides continue on. We also looked at some famous Stoic philosophers such as:
Zeno
Marcus Aurelius
Epictetus
Seneca
They all pioneered Stoicism and made it a well-known philosophy that impacted both their time as well as our modern times.
Today’s session was really good because I got to think more about my goals with TKS, as well as learn some cool stuff about energy storage. I’m now more set up to begin setting my goals and working my way to achieving them.
