Bridging the gap between fundamental battery research and development
Researchers at PNNL use the Advanced Battery Facility to prepare, fabricate, and validate pouch cells. The laboratory includes a semi-automatic system for film casting and pouch-cell assembly, and an ambient lab for powder handling and mixing.
Andrea Starr | Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Focused on accelerating the development of the next generation of energy storage technologies, PNNL features a host of facilities that make up a holistic development program. The Advanced Battery Facility (ABF) houses much of the critical work done in this process.
The ABF was built to bridge the gap between fundamental battery research and commercial-scale battery development. The facility provides an ideal system for exploring a broad range of chemistries and materials at a commercially relevant scale. It also contains a complete process line capable of preparing, fabricating, and validating pouch cells from powder materials to battery testing.
The ABF is a user facility that compliments the Department of Energy’s other facilities in the development of high-density energy storage systems for electric vehicles. Scientists there collaborate with their counterparts in industry, academia, and national security. The lab features:
a 600-square-foot dry room
a 600-square-foot ambient lab dedicated to developing anode materials, slurry, and electrolytes, and performing pouch-cell lifetime testing
standard pouch cell capacity of 1 ampere hour (Ah), which can be adjusted from 100 milliampere hours to 2 Ah
This makes the ABF ideal for the development of new battery chemistries, including lithium-sulfur, sodium-ion, and magnesium batteries, as well as the next generation of lithium-ion batteries.
With its capabilities spanning development and validation of new chemistries, to validating consumer-developed and commercial materials, the ABF is at the heart of energy storage research efforts at PNNL.
The ABF is part of the integrated facility for battery research at PNNL that include state-of-the-art imaging and spectroscopic characterization tools, and a variety of standard testing and diagnostic equipment, and unique capabilities for grid applications to test and validate the performance of the batteries for both grid and transportation.