TECHNOLOGY LICENSING OPPORTUNITY Intelligent Lifecycle Management for Battery Energy Storage: Transitioning from First Life to Second Life and Materials Recycling

TECHNOLOGY LICENSING OPPORTUNITY

Intelligent Lifecycle Management for Battery Energy Storage: Transitioning from First Life to Second Life and Materials Recycling

An advanced technical approach to extend battery lifecycle and facilitate second-life uses and materials recycling.

Opportunity: Idaho National Laboratory (INL), managed and operated by Battelle Energy Alliance, LLC (BEA), offers the opportunity to explore a license and/or collaborative research agreement to commercialize this approach for extending battery life. This technology transfer opportunity is part of a dedicated effort to convert government-funded research into job opportunities, businesses, and, ultimately, an improved way of life for the American people.

Overview: The broad incorporation of battery energy storage (BES) into numerous applications necessitates a comprehensive, cradle-to-grave management strategy. As batteries exhaust their first-life usage, a physics-based rationale is needed to transition these assets into secondary applications or materials recycling. This approach is essential to maintain the value and economic benefit of BES beyond their initial deployment.

Description: The focus of this initiative from INL is a systematic coupling of diagnostic data markers from aged battery cells with physics-based model (PBM) interpretations. The diagnostic data and predictive PBM are integrated into an algorithmic platform that analyzes large matrices for second-use scenarios. This platform addresses the aging path dependency of batteries over their first and secondary life applications. It is developed on the solid foundation of the INL CellSage suite of PBM tools, which is known for its reliable prediction of battery aging during primary-to-secondary life transition.

Benefits:

• Provides actionable, data for transitioning batteries from first-life to second-life uses.

• Enables a strategic approach assessing battery end of life for materials recycling.

• Rapid and accurate connection of battery use conditions to remaining useful life for specific applications.

• Reduction in test time for PBM learning, using less data compared to machine learning methods.

• Accelerated decision-making process for optimal battery deployment.

Applications:

• Optimal deployment in electric-drive vehicles (land, water, air).

• Expansion of stationary storage capacity.

• Enhancement of consumer electronics lifespan.

• Efficient evaluation and sorting of used batteries in regional facilities supporting the second-use market.

Development Status: TRL 4: Technology has been validated in a laboratory environment.

IP Status: Provisional Patent Application No. 63/509,201, “Battery Energy Storage (BES) Asset Management to Facilitate Transition from Battery First Life to Second Life Using Physics-Based Modeling,” BEA Docket No. BA-1417.

INL seeks to license the above intellectual property to a company with a demonstrated ability to bring such inventions to the market. Exclusive rights in defined fields of use may be available. Added value is placed on relationships with small businesses, start-up companies, and general entrepreneurship opportunities.

Please visit Technology Deployment’s website at https://inl.gov/inl-initiatives/technology-deployment for more information on working with INL and the industrial partnering and technology transfer process.

Companies interested in learning more about this licensing opportunity should contact Andrew Rankin at td@inl.gov.

INL’s Technology Deployment department focuses exclusively on licensing intellectual property and partnering with industry collaborators capable of commercializing our innovations. Our goal is to commercialize the technologies developed by INL researchers. We do not engage in purchasing, manufacturing, procurement decisions, or providing funding. Additionally, this is not a call for external services to assist in the development of this technology.