Can batteries be more eco-friendly?
ULTRADRY project team: Maciej Smoliński, MSc, Prof. Marek Marcinek, PhD, and Maciej Marczewski, PhD
Researchers from WUT's Faculty of Chemistry—Prof. Marek Marcinek, PhD, Maciej Marczewski, PhD, and Maciej Smoliński, MSc —set out to answer this question. As part of the ULTRADRY project, they are working on modernising battery cell production in accordance with the principles of sustainable development and ecology.
Today's lithium-ion battery production consumes significant amounts of solvents, which are essential for electrode preparation but harmful to both health and the environment. In addition to their negative environmental impact, the use of solvents also requires their subsequent evaporation, which consumes vast amounts of energy.
“In the ULTRADRY project, our goal is to completely eliminate solvents from the electrode preparation phase,” says Maciej Smoliński, MSc. “Additionally, to create more eco-friendly batteries, we decided to modify the electrolyte composition to contain as few harmful substances as possible—both for humans and the environment—while also making it safer than those currently used in commercial products.”
Analyses have shown that the preparation of electrodes from a wet suspension, as well as the drying processes and solvent recovery, all consume about half of the energy required for battery production.
Dry processing can overcome the limitations associated with conventional electrode preparation, lead to less environmental pollution, and reduce production costs. However, before this becomes possible, several aspects of this innovative technology need to be developed — a task that will be undertaken by the research team from the Chair of Inorganic Chemistry between 2024 and 2027.
The ULTRADRY project has been carried out at the Faculty of Chemistry of the Warsaw University of Technology since December 2024, under the leadership of Prof. Marek Marcinek, PhD. It was established as a result of collaboration between leading European centres focused on the development of cutting-edge battery technologies. The project is coordinated by the SINTEF research institute from Norway. The international partners include SINTEF (Norway) and IREC – Fundació Institut de Recerca en l’Energia de Catalunya (Spain).
The budget allocated to the Warsaw University of Technology amounts to PLN 940,242, with funding provided through the M-ERA.NET 3 Call 2023 via the National Science Centre (NCN). The total project budget is EUR 760,000.