Acta Materialia Materials and Society Award Forum: Vehicle Electrification

2011 MRS Fall Meeting

Alan Taub, 2011 Acta Materialia Materials and Society Award Winner

Dr. Alan Taub - Vice President, General Motors Global Research & Development

Sunday, November 27, 2011
8:45 am - 4:45 pm
Sheraton Boston Hotel, Republic Ballroom, 2nd Floor 

Forum Chair: Mark W. Verbrugge, GM Global Research & Development 

This forum addressed the key technology areas required for vehicle electrification and explored the critical materials issues in each area.  Developing the required materials solutions will be crucial to realizing the promise of electric vehicles and providing significant energy, environmental, and economic benefits to society.

This forum was dedicated to Alan Taub, winner of the 2011 Acta Materialia Materials and Society Award for his contributions to increased interactions between materials technology and societal interests, as well as significant accomplishments in materials science that have had a major impact on society.  Dr. Taub is Vice President, General Motors Global Research & Development.  He leads GM’s global advanced technical work activity, eight science laboratories located around the world, and global science offices.  

  • 8:45 am - 9 am
    Mark Verbrugge, General Motors
    Welcome and Introduction 
  • 9 am - 9:15 am
    Art J.Coury, Board Member, Acta Materialia, Inc.
    Award Presentation 
  • 9:15 am - 10 am
    Alan Taub, General Motors Global Research & Development, Warren, Michigan.
    Keynote: Addressing the Challenge of Sustainable Transportation through Vehicle Electrification.
    Vehicle electrification is a key enabler for energy diversification, sustainable automotive transportation, and new personal mobility options. Electrically driven vehicles can store electricity on board a vehicle electrochemically in a battery or chemically as hydrogen that is converted into electricity by an onboard fuel cell. These technologies can be employed in a range of electric vehicle solutions to allow virtually every energy source to be utilized to power automobiles, including renewable resources. In his keynote, Dr. Taub reviewed the key technology areas required for vehicle electrification and highlight some of the major challenges and opportunities they present. Developing solutions in these areas is critical to realizing the promise of electric vehicles and providing significant energy, environmental, and economic benefits to society.
     
  • 10 am - 10:30 am
    BREAK 
  • 10:30 am - 11 am
    Michael Wang, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois
    Well-to-Wheels Analysis of Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicles.
    Electric drive vehicle technologies including plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) are being introduced for their energy and environmental benefits. On a well-to-wheels (WTW) basis, the energy and environmental benefits of PHEVs are affected by PHEV efficiencies, vehicle operation splits between the electric mode and the engine mode, and cleanness of the electric grid, among other factors. Argonne National Laboratory has been conducting WTW analysis of PHEVs and comparable gasoline vehicles. The analysis examines PHEV designs with different all-electric range and different U.S. regions with various electric generation mixes. The GREET (Greenhouse gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy use in Transportation) model developed at Argonne has been configured for this analysis. This presentation summarized key findings of the PHEV WTW analysis.
     
  • 11 am - 11:30 am
    Iver E. Anderson, Ames Laboratory (USDOE), Iowa State University, Ames
    Innovative Permanent Magnet Development for Automotive Traction Motors.
    A high level of effort is required on many types of materials problems to enable the full-scale “sea change” for vehicle propulsion from the current liquid fuel (stored in a tank) and internal combustion engine (burning fuel for conversion to rotary motion) to the complete electrification of the drive system. A pure electric vehicle certainly must have on-board high-capacity electrical energy storage (in an electrochemical battery or in a chemical form, e.g., hydrogen), as probably the most well-recognized technological hurdle. However, the electric drive motor that converts the stored electricity to rotary motion and, especially its critical materials problems, have only recently started to receive sufficient attention to make progress toward practical solutions from the perspective of mass production of a complete vehicle replacement fleet. While it is undoubtedly useful to work on alternative concepts for electric machines that can meet the weight and size limitations for vehicle propulsion but do not require high strength permanent magnets, the first choice of OEMs as the most robust technology for drive train applications remains the interior permanent magnet (IPM) motor. In general, advanced IPM motors are most capable of meeting the compact size and limited weight needs of vehicle manufacturers, as well as having the design flexibility to accommodate many types of permanent magnet (PM) materials with a variety of shapes, magnetic strength, and magnet manufacturing approaches.

    With the magnet requirements of the current IPM drive motors as a benchmark; it is essential to improve the alloy design and processing of permanent magnets. A major research project addressing this problem has been under way at Ames Laboratory for 10 years with the support of the Vehicle Technologies (VT) program of the USDOE-EERE office. This project is driven both by the technical goals that the fully developed PM materials must meet for operation at elevated temperature (180-200˚C) with adequate magnetic torque and by the market forces of reduced cost and wide availability. These requirements necessitate that anisotropic magnets, either sintered or bonded, should be targeted with sufficient strength and durability to permit assembly and use in compact traction drive systems with high manufacturing efficiency and long life. While magnet materials meeting the goals may be most readily achieved using rare earth (RE) permanent magnets, the rising concerns over cost and foreign control of the current supply of RE resources has motivated a search for non-rare earth-based permanent magnet alloys with performance metrics on par with current materials. Our research scope expansion beyond RE magnets (BREM) is still young, but if planned objectives for BREM are achieved, the field of permanent magnets could be revolutionized (again), reducing our reliance on foreign controlled commodities for hybrid and electric vehicle propulsion and for other important renewable energy applications, i.e., wind turbine generators.
     
  • 11:30 am - 12 noon
    Peter Friedrichs, Infineon AG, Erlangen, Germany
    Power Electronics Based on Wide Bandgap Semiconductors (SiC and GaN).
    The penetration of power electronics into our daily life continues at an exciting speed and extent, mainly driven by increasing requirements on energy efficiency during electricity generation, distribution, and use. Wide bandgap semiconductors are key elements for corresponding power electronic systems mainly when silicon cannot continue to meet the demands regarding power density in modern applications. Additional impact is expected from higher efficiency and an extended range of theoretically possible operation temperatures. This contribution sketched why and how in particular wide bandgap semiconductors have gained such an outstanding position in today’s discussion about the next generations of power semiconductors.

    Already early in the 1990s, hexagonal silicon carbide (SiC) with a band gap of >3eV exhibited a remarkable progress regarding the development of corresponding power devices. This material can be grown in the form of freestanding substrates like silicon, nowadays 100mm diameter high-quality material is well-established and 150mm wafers are presented as prototypes. Commercial products have been available since 2001, mainly in the blocking voltage range above 600V. For such components, the advantages compared to silicon are large enough in order to compensate at least at system level for the higher cost of diodes or transistors based on SiC. The acceptance of this technology is rising continuously, characterized by a growth rate exceeding the average numbers of power semiconductors in general. The rationale for this development is mainly an increasing trust in this emerging technology. It is driven by a proven outstanding reliability and the technical progress in target applications, which more and more are based on topologies being only possible with SiC components.

    Recently, a second material system became popular for power electronics, again a binary-wide bandgap material with a history in semiconductor-based lighting (e.g., LEDs or lasers) ‒ gallium nitride (GaN). Based on the material properties expressed in the figures of merit, the material is close to SiC regarding its potential in power electronics, but the possibility to create two-dimensional electron gases offers much higher carrier mobilities in thin layers. In addition, there are strong attempts to grow GaN on silicon substrates, which is promoted to be the way for being cost-competitive. The development is still in a comparably early stage. Hurdles like a huge defect density, challenges with growing thick enough layers for higher blocking voltages, or effects like current collapse need to be solved. However, first products are launched, mainly in the lower blocking voltage range (50-200V) for subsystems of the computer power supply architecture.

    In the lecture, an overview was given on the differences and similarities of both materials, followed by a critical consideration on the current maturity and long-term perspectives of the wide bandgap power semiconductors. Also, specific aspects of device concepts and technologies like the question of normally-on vs. normally-off transistors, which is valid for both materials, were intensively reviewed. Finally, a summary of the current device spectrum and the most important target applications and the benefits therein complemented the presentation.
     
  • 12 noon - 1 pm
    LUNCH BREAK 
  • 1 pm - 1:30 pm
    Yet-Ming Chiang, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts
    Role of Olivine-Based Lithium-Ion Batteries in Vehicle Electrification.
    This talk reviewed the development of olivine lithium-metal phosphate batteries over the past decade, from initial laboratory demonstrations of high power discharge capability to a broad range of current commercial applications including electric vehicles. This family of cathode materials has also proved to be a rich testbed for the exploration of lithium storage mechanisms and electrochemically-induced phase transformation behavior, the current understanding of which will be summarized. Developing applications related to large-scale grid storage were also discussed.
     
  • 1:30 pm - 2 pm
    Doron Aurbach, Department of Chemistry and the Institute for Nanotechnology & Advanced Materials, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel
    Advanced Materials for High Energy Density Li-Ion Batteries for EV Applications.
    The author reported in this talk on the frontier of advanced materials for high energy density Li-ion batteries that can be relevant to EV applications. For the anode side, novel graphitic materials, silicon, and Li-Ti-O compounds that deserve attention will be mentioned. At the cathode side, he will describe in brief Li[MnNi]2O4 spinel, LiMPO4 olivine (M = Mn+Fe or Co], and very-high-capacity integrated layered materials whose initial formula is Li2MnO3*(LiMO2)x (M = [MnNiCo] or [Mn+Ni]). The Li-S option was also mentioned. The choice of electrolyte solutions and current collectors for the cathode side is a challenge. Relevant options to advance this field were discussed.
     
  • 2 pm - 2:30 pm
    BREAK 
  • 2:30 pm - 3 pm
    Frederick T. Wagner, Electrochemical Energy Research Lab, General Motors Research & Development, Honeoye Falls, New York
    Reduction of Platinum Usage in Automotive Fuel Cells.
    Hydrogen fuel cell-electric vehicles (FCEVs) can provide the full utility that customers have come to expect from their automobiles. With sourcing of hydrogen from renewable and/or CO2-neutral primary energy sources, they can be an important contributor to a sustainable energy future. Many components of the current high cost of demonstration FCEVs are amenable to reduction through economies of scale, but the cost of the platinum used on the electrodes is not. To make fuel cells competitive on cost with alternative powertrains, the activity per gram of Pt of electrocatalysts for the slow oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) must be increased at least four-fold compared to that of state-of-the-art Pt/carbon black catalysts. This talk briefly reviewed concepts towards the design of improved ORR catalysts. It then outlined possible pathways towards catalysts with durable higher activity, including improved-dispersion nanoparticles, continuous-layer catalysts, monolayer catalysts, Pt-alloy and partially dealloyed nanoparticles, and facet-orientation-controlled Pt-alloy nanoparticles. Improved techniques for characterization of atomic-scale structure and composition within active catalyst particles are clarifying where the Pt and non-Pt atoms should reside within catalyst particles to give durable high activity.
     
  • 3 pm - 3:30 pm
    Steven J. Hamrock, Mark S. Schaberg, John E. Abulu, Greg E. Haugen, Michael A. Yandrasits, Michael M. Emery, Pa Xiong, 3M Fuel Cell Components, 3M Company, St. Paul, Minnesota
    New Fluorinated Membranes for PEM Fuel Cells.
    Proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) represent a promising future energy technology for transportation and other applications. While many breakthroughs have been made over the last few years in the development of PEMFCs, technical and economic barriers for their commercialization still exist. Key barriers to PEMFC commercialization include the requirement for substantial external stack humidification and careful temperature control to assure adequate membrane conductivity and durability. This is particularly true for automotive fuel cell applications. Requirements of system size, efficiency, performance, and cost mean that automotive fuel cells must be able to run robustly and exhibit adequate durability under a wide variety of operating temperatures, in some cases ranging from -40°C to 120°C. They must also be able to do this with little or no external gas humidification (i.e., “dry”). To meet these conductivity and durability requirements, improved ionomer membranes are required. Some low-equivalent-weight ionomers can meet conductivity targets, but these materials have poor mechanical properties and high water solubility, which compromise durability. Also, higher-temperature and low-humidity operating conditions increase the rate of membrane degradation and MEA failure, and so lifetime targets and conductivity targets have not been met simultaneously with the same membrane. At 3M, we are developing new perfluorinated and partially fluorinated ionomers with multiple protogenic hydrogen atoms on each side-chain to address these needs.
     
  • 3:30 pm - 4 pm
    Richard Chahine, Hydrogen Research Institute, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Quebec, Canada
    Evaluation Tool of Hydrogen Adsorption Storage Systems.
    Significant R&D efforts are being pursued to improve the efficiency and economics of hydrogen storage systems. The sorption of hydrogen on or in a solid substrate, relying either on physisorption or chemisorption or even a combination of both, offers a potential alternative means of storing hydrogen. Hydrogen storage via physisorption on porous materials, such as activated carbon, carbon nanostructures, and metal organic frameworks (MOFs), is particularly enticing due to its inherent reversibility and cyclability. Moreover, these materials exhibit fast kinetics and operate at relatively low storage pressures. However, hydrogen physisorption at ambient temperatures on currently available porous materials leads to unacceptably low hydrogen storage densities. Acceptable densities are only attainable at cryogenic temperatures. We presented the results of our evaluation of an adsorption-based hydrogen storage tank using activated carbon materials. We discussed the net storage capacity of the system over wide temperature and pressure ranges and compare it with other hydrogen storage methods. 
     

  • 4:00 pm - 4:15 pm
    Alan Taub, General Motors
    Closing Remarks 

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