The German Federal Ministry for the Environment is funding a new plant of E-Lyte Innovations GmbH for the production of electrolyte solutions for innovative battery and other energy storage technologies.
The project will enable significant chemical savings, lower waste volumes and a reduction in waste air containing (fluorine) hydrocarbons. The pilot project is being funded with almost 800,000 euros from the Federal Environment Ministry’s Environmental Innovation Program and will be implemented at the company’s headquarters in Kaiserslautern.
Federal Environment Ministry promotes resource-efficient production of electrolytes for energy storage systems
Pilot plant in Rhineland-Palatinate receives around 800,000 euros from the Environmental Innovation Program
The Federal Ministry for the Environment is funding a new plant from E-Lyte Innovations GmbH for the production of electrolyte solutions for innovative battery and other energy storage technologies. The project enables significant savings in chemicals, lower waste volumes and a reduction in (fluoro-)hydrocarbon-containing exhaust air. The pilot project is being funded with almost 800,000 euros from the Federal Environment Ministry’s Environmental Innovation Program and is being implemented at the company’s headquarters in Kaiserslautern (Rhineland-Palatinate).
E-Lyte Innovations GmbH develops and produces liquid high-performance electrolytes for batteries and capacitors, which are used in battery-powered vehicles and in space and medical technology, among other things. The company plans to build an innovative plant for the flexible and environmentally friendly production of electrolyte solutions with a capacity of up to 8,000 tons per year.
Existing systems for the production of liquid electrolytes have the disadvantage that they require large quantities of chemicals, nitrogen shielding gas and water for chemical separation (purification) and release polluted exhaust air into the environment. In order to reduce this use of chemicals, a process combination is to be used for the first time in this project, consisting of a continuous mixing process, in which different substances are mixed together continuously and without interruption, and a discontinuous mixing process, in which the mixing takes place in separate steps and one after the other. The aim is also to make the production process so flexible that a wide range of electrolyte formulations can be produced. This is particularly important in view of the high demand not only for standard electrolytes, but also for customized electrolytes for special applications.
The project can save approx. 100 cubic meters of water, approx. 20 tons of cleaning waste and approx. 6,000 cubic meters of nitrogen per year. In addition, over 500,000 cubic meters of exhaust air containing (fluoro-)hydrocarbons and 8 tons of CO2 emissions can be avoided each year. The Environmental Innovation Program promotes the first-time, large-scale application of an innovative technology. For a project to be eligible for funding under the Environmental Innovation Program, it must go beyond the state of the art and should be of a demonstration nature.
Further information on the funding program and the project can be found at: http://www.umweltinnovationsprogramm.de/projekte
