Eliminating VOC from battery manufacturing through dry or wet process

The current production of lithium-ion batteries requires the use of toxic solvents, generally Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC). This not only potentially damages the environment it is also a major cost factor. In NoVOC we will develop manufacturing processes that are economically viable, without the use of VOCs. The aim of NoVOC is to design and demonstrate two competitive cell manufacturing technologies, aqueous and dry, for automotive batteries intended for production in Europe.

The innovations proposed in NoVOC on improvements of the cell manufacturing process is the integration of two novel electrode manufacturing processes into the currently available cell assembly process and demonstrating the manufacturability of automotive cells in two formats (pouch and cylindrical). Therefore, the NoVOC cells will be produced without any toxic organic solvents, such as NMP, hence eliminating VOCs, and will be produced at a fraction of the current cell manufacturing cost.

NoVOC implements an entire innovation cycle by calibrating the needs of automotive end users (CENTRO RICERCHE FIAT SCPA), transferring these to battery manufacturers (VARTA MICROBATTERY GMBH​, CUSTOMCELLS ITZEHOE​, AVESTA BATTERY & ENERGY ENGINEERING ) and the leading battery R&D teams (RISE RESEARCH INSTITUTES OF SWEDEN AB​, TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITAET BRAUNSCHWEIG​, UPPSALA UNIVERSITET​, AIT AUSTRIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY GMBH​, FUNDACION CIDETEC​, LATVIJAS UNIVERSITATES CIETVIELU FIZIKAS INSTITUTS) and component producers (NANOPOW AS, TALGA AB, GRAPHMATECH AB , KANSAI ALTAN BOYA SANAYI VE TICARET ANONIM SIRKETI​, COMMISSARIAT A L ENERGIE ATOMIQUE ET AUX ENERGIES ALTERNATIVES) for the development of novel components, and finally closing the cycle by involving a recycling plant (SOCIETE NOUVELLE D'AFFINAGE DES METAUX-SNAM SAS​) for the recycling and harvesting of low and high-value components at the end-of-life.  

The new Horizon Europe research project NoVOC is funded through the European Union’s Horizon Europe Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, and has a budget of EUR 5.4 million over the next four years. NoVOC is coordinated by RISE Research Institutes of Sweden, Department of Material and Surface design.