Interview with Travis Thompson from Umicore

Travis Thompson is a Senior Project Manager that oversees internal and external solid-state battery projects at Umicore. Travis conducted graduate research at the University of Michigan as a Research Scientist and has been able to build a repertoire of accolades including being awarded the Forbes 30 under 30 in 2017 for Energy and working at a solid-state battery startup under I-Core, a program for accelerating commercialization for federally funded research, where he was able to help raise seed funding. 

Umicore’s purpose is to reduce harmful vehicle emissions, give new life to used metals, and powering the cars of the future. As a global materials and technology group, they offer materials and  provide active cathode materials to battery manufacturers. 

Umicore’s three core sectors are Catalysis, Energy and Surface Technologies and Recycling; and generates the majority of its revenue and dedicates most of its R&D efforts to clean technologies, such as emission control catalysts, materials for rechargeable batteries and recycling.

At Umicore, Travis is dedicated to overseeing sustainable energy efforts through solid-state batteries. His experience and expertise in the solid-state battery industry is valued by Umicore in that he is experienced with conducting research, the ‘business side’ of the battery market, and patenting of a technology. 

His industrial perspective on the current market segment for solid state batteries is that while many companies offer different renditions of batteries, every battery customer has their own idea of the next revolutionary battery. The believes that the need for a solid-state battery is already met, but solid-state batteries can be further optimized to create solutions where current batteries are failing. For example, today there aren’t enough cardiovascular surgeons for all of the pacemakers surgeries that we need. In India, pacemakers are inserted through a capacitor, injected into the heart through an artery instead of open heart surgery. This practice does not require a lot of surgeons and does not require extensive/invasive surgeries. Batteries today are too big to undergo these procedures - we need devices small enough to be injected through arteries. 

Barriers to entry:

Because of the extremely costly nature of initial investments into battery research, this heavily limits who enters into the market.  Also, in order to manufacture solid-state batteries, the current cost of Li-based batteries is approximately a factor of four too high on a kWh basis for PEVs and approximately a factor of 50% too high on a kW basis for HEVs. The main cost drivers being addressed are the high costs of raw materials and materials processing, cell and module packaging, and manufacturing. 

Another barrier exists within the supply chain, where suppliers only are willing to work with long-term business and high volume orders. This can make the list of suppliers and distributors extremely limited to an average battery startup. 

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One sentence:

Before interviewing Travis, although we initially thought that the solid-state battery market was well-established and met most demands of EV and electric consumer good companies today, we learned that there is still a lot of potential for solid-state batteries to be perfected and more optimized to cater to specific needs for certain customers and more niche markets. 

Interview with Jim Van Hoof from Ionic

Jim Van Hoof is the Chief Financial Officer at Ionic Materials, Inc where he oversees the finance, law and market feasibility surrounding their products. He has over 20 years of experience in said field where he has gained the reputation of a “fixer” due to his success leading underperforming products/organizations to ground breaking innovations. Jim spends most of his time developing new corporate strategies, penetrating new markets, optimizing tax strategies and building sustainable operations. 

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Ionic Materials, Inc is a technology company focused on developing materials for batteries. They have developed a new solid polymer which they believe has all the properties required to replace liquid electrolytes used in current batteries. This polymer can be conducted at room temperature without sacrificing higher voltage. Using a manufacturer with fixed costs which has a high volume and low margin, they are able to produce lower cost polymers which is one of the advantages of their product. They also manufacture as much as possible then outsource to keep costs low. 

One problem Ionic deals with is lithium dendrite growth that causes the batteries to explode at higher temperatures. Like most companies, Ionic is looking for the cure but currently spend more money trying insulate the lithium. This helps to stop the explosions but is not a long term solution due to the weight the insulations adds to the unit. Phone batteries need to be very light and car batteries, although normally heavy, still need to stay away from weighing the car down and be able to be transported by an average customer with no support. 

The top 3 challenges mentioned by Jim were the ability to create a polymer/battery that has a high voltage without sacrificing safety, stopping the lithium dendrite growth and create batteries that renewable and rechargeable. 

While discussing the electric vehicle industry, Jim mentioned Ionic’s take on car batteries. First they make sure to bring down battery costs by pounding suppliers take costs out and have manufacturers with low margins. He pushed the importance of flexibility, efficiency and speed in the market. Other companies like Tesla and Panasonic are working hard and fast. The first company will be the one that is remembered. 

If Jim had a magic wand, he would create a battery that could with and any temperature, be able to have repeated cycles so it can recharge and be renewable, be cost effective and could be manufactured in any size, for any product (cars, medical, phones). 

One sentence overview: Before the interview, we believed that their were no low cost solutions to the corrosiveness/explosiveness of the lithium in the battery other then sacrificing the voltage of the battery. Through the interview we found the option of insulation, even though too much insulation can weigh down the battery, it was an avenue we were unaware of. 

Interview with Andrew Leiter

Synthetic Chemist at Ionic Materials overseeing the synthesizing of the battery’s polymer, making it more energy dense. Andrew came up with a new method for reacting the monomer with itself which reduces the costs of the raw materials involved.

Andrew spends the majority of his time working on preventing corrosion on active materials, improving ionic composition, and increasing the surface area of the ionic walls of cells.

Completed bachelor’s at Georgia Institute of Technology

• Worked on graduate research and received Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina - Columbia

• Redefining the view of solids by exploring macro effects on crystals comprised of supramolecular interactions.

• Single-crystal to single-crystal transformations were the focus of the research.

• Metal-organic frameworks were used as a template for designing new Supramolecular Metal-Organic Frameworks, which were analyzed by single-crystal X-ray diffraction.”

Postdoctoral work at Rice

• Developing a methodology for the use of transition metal carbonyl clusters as single-source organometallic precursors in a chemical vapor deposition process to produce thin films of transition metal phosphides and chalcogenides.

• The thin films are characterized and screened for potential catalytic and superconducting properties.

Pain: Need to be able to use higher voltage materials (active materials) in composition of battery. Andrew’s entire job is focused around finding the highest voltage materials they can use possible without compromising the structure of the battery.

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A big problem he mentioned on his own was the need to prevent corrosion by using suvaetants in the cell wall with inside of the wall “fatty” to stick to the material and the outside hardened to prevent exposure which would lead to corrosion.

Top 3 challenges: preventing corrosion, finding the highest voltage materials without destroying the other materials in the battery, and finding those materials that can withstand higher voltage while maintaining cost efficiency

Magic wand: Andrew said if he had a magic wand he would invent an alloy to replace the current collector, electrolyte, and other organic materials that would not be broken down by higher voltage active materials. There are solutions and durable materials in the market but their costs outweigh their benefits.

One sentence overview:

Before speaking with Andrew Leitner, a 3-year synthetic chemist at Ionic Materials, we assumed that there weren’t any solutions to improve existing energy density in solid state batteries, but discovered that there are expensive, high voltage solutions that increase density, the problem is finding organic materials combine with these solutions that won’t be broken down from the heat of high voltage