Libest (CEO Kim Joo-seong) will be holding the ‘Seoul Technology Center’ in the main exhibition hall (LVCC) of ‘CES 2023’ held in Las Vegas, USA for a total of 1 days from January 5th (Thursday) to January 8th (Sunday, local time), 4. announced that they would participate.
Libest, a flexible secondary battery manufacturing startup, won the Innovation Award for its flame-retardant and anti-freeze battery manufacturing technology at CES 2.
It is widely known that battery performance deteriorates on cold days like these when the temperature drops below freezing. Temperature has a significant impact on the usage time of smartphones as well as the driving range of electric vehicles. A Libest official said, “If the temperature drops further, it may even experience inoperability. In this case, it may be considered a product failure, but in most cases, it is a battery problem. This is because when the temperature drops, the electrolyte freezes, which lowers the conductivity of lithium ions. For this reason, lithium-ion batteries generally can only be used at about 40 to 70 percent of their original capacity at sub-zero temperatures.”
This flame-retardant/passive battery manufacturing technology presented by Libest is unique. The anode and cathode used NMC and graphite as is, and combined Rivest’s special electrolyte and separator. As a result, its strength is that it has flame retardancy and passivity characteristics while maintaining the battery’s voltage and high energy density.
Filming and Editing – AVING NEWS
When the electrolyte of a typical battery is directly exposed to a flame at about 1,300˚C, the electrolyte quickly catches fire and the flame continues until all of the electrolyte is burned. In the same situation, in the case of Rivest’s electrolyte, it takes a longer time for a fire to spread, like a flame retardant, and even if it catches, it is extinguished quickly, so direct ignition at the battery cell level can be suppressed, the official explains.
In other words, even if a fire occurs in an individual battery cell, it prevents it from spreading to the battery pack or the entire battery, and in the event that a fire occurs in the battery in an electric vehicle accident, it prevents the entire vehicle from catching fire or even exploding. That you can.
In addition to being flame retardant, it also has anti-freeze properties. The battery currently being developed by Rivest operates at -40˚C, which is impossible for batteries to operate with regular electrolytes, and is said to be capable of normal charging and discharging even at -20˚C and -10˚C. In addition, although it is a battery for battery electric vehicles (BEV) with high energy density, it shows a capacity remaining rate of more than 500% after 90 charging and discharging.
An official said, “If you look at the characteristics alone, commercialization seems far away, but the technology maturity is at a level of TRL 6, so it is not that far away. Unlike all-solid-state batteries, which are still slow to be commercialized, this battery can be manufactured through a general manufacturing process. Therefore, it can be mass-produced sooner than all-solid materials and applied to all aspects of our lives.”
The scope of application is also diverse. By applying it to Libest’s main product, flexible batteries, the safety of metaverse devices, including VR/AR, and healthcare and medical devices can be further strengthened. Small batteries with a capacity of 1 to 5 Ah can be applied to delivery robots or drones used outdoors, and can also be derived as a battery system that can be used in special environments such as military use. Since it can be easily applied to pouch type and cylindrical type, it is expected that it can be used in urban transportation aviation (UAM), electric vehicles (EV), and energy storage systems (ESS) when manufactured into medium to large-sized batteries.
This product can be seen in person at the Rivest booth in the Central Hall of the CES Las Vegas Convention Center and the Innovation Awards special exhibition hall at the Venetian Hotel.
Meanwhile, ‘CES’, the world’s largest IT exhibition, is an exhibition where you can understand the trends of the global home appliance industry at a glance. Hosted by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), it is held every January in Las Vegas, USA. AVING News, which has covered CES for 1 consecutive years, has reported CES news around the world every year since 17, and has been selected as the ‘BEST OF CES’, which selects the best innovative products and technologies, and the ‘BEST OF’, which selects domestic innovative companies. ‘MADE IN KOREA’ was held. In addition, CES on-site issues were vividly conveyed through ‘AVING LIVE’.
The Seoul Technology Museum is comprised of a Theme Zone that embodies future vision and experiential elements, and a Tech Zone that displays the innovative technologies of collaborating large corporations and startups. The Seoul Business Agency (SBA) will showcase innovative technologies in the ‘Mobility and ESG’ field at the Seoul Technology Center through open innovation in conjunction with large corporations, and seven startups with innovative technologies in related fields will participate.
* Special reporters: Joseph Choe, Kidai Kim, Dongkwan Kim, Mokkyung Lee, Sangun Choi, Joon Suh Lee, Yeawon Choi, Jinnsun Park, Seung Hyun Nam, Min Seok Cha