He will develop cold resistant biobased batteries

Yin Hu’s research project aims at developing biobased batteries with enhanced longivity and performance in extreme cold conditions.
“Developing these kinds of batteries will contribute to the ecological and economical sustainibility in the Arctic, as well as other cold regions in the world”, says Yin Hu.

As a consequence of the current transition to a fossile free society, batteries as storage units for energy have gained an increasing importance. Batteries have versatile uses, for example electric cars, renewable energy storage systems (e.g. wind and solar installations) and scientific monitoring equipment for climate reserarch and environmental sensing.

When a battery is connected to an equipment, electrons flow from the negative electrode to the positive electrode through an ion-conducting electrolyte. A common type of battery is lithium-ion based batteries. One of its strengths is that it is rechargeble. However the performance of lithium-ion batteries is considerably weakened in cold enivronments. Another drawback of the lithium-ion battery is that the cathode being used contains cobalt which is both poisonous and expensive.

“My research aims at developing batteries with novel electrolytes and anodes with better perfomance under extreme cold conditions, thereby contributing to the long-term sustainability of Arctic energy systems.”

Cooperate with Umeå and Oulu

Yin Hu will cooperate with reserachers at Umeå University who are developing carbon based electrode materials. He will also cooperate with reserachers at University of Oulu who are developing solid state electrolytes, bio-based anodes and cobolt free high voltage cathodes. Yin Hu’s aim is to combine their research with his own research on cold-tolerant, biobased quasi-solid-state-electrolytes.

Solid state batteries offer several key advantages over conventional liquid-based batteries. They are are non-flammable and eliminate the risk of leakage, reducing the chances of fire or explosion associated with volatile liquid electrolytes. Furtherly, they have higher energy density, thus eliminating the need for separators, enabling a more compact cell architecture and increasing the effective energy per unit volume.

“My research group at Luleå Unversity of Technology have cooperated succesfully with Umeå University and University of Oulu for ten years. I look forward to our continous collaboration.”

During these years, the collaboration has also developed a strong network with industries in Sweden, Finland and other countries which will increase the possibilites of scaling up production and export the developed batteries to the international market.

“The need for biobased cold resistant batteries will increase, not only in the Euorpean Arctic, but in all cold regions of the world”, says Yin Hu.

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