As the cost of large Li-Ion batteries declines and battery life and safety become proven, this compelling battery technology is threatening to capture new industrial applications that are currently powered either by lead-acid chemistry or by petrol-based engines. This session will take a look at these emerging applications and the competing energy-storage solutions.
Session Chairman: Kevin Trenholme, Director of Electrical Engineering & Firmware Development, Kiva Systems (an Amazon Company)
Mr. Trenholme leads electrical and firmware development for Kiva Systems. In this role he has evaluated cutting edge Li-Ion battery technologies for Kiva mobile robotics. Li-Ion batteries are a key initiative within Kiva to help the company reduce the lifetime capital expenditure on their robots compared to the lead acid solutions used today. Mr. Trenholme is leading the effort to implement the technology in production at Kiva. Prior to this work, he ran the X86 Server development group at Oracle (Sun Microsystems) and has spent much of his career in the data communications field.
SESSION AGENDA
Power for a New World of Robots Kevin Trenholme, Director, Electrical Engineering, Kiva Systems
From racing around vacuuming carpets and floors, to being our eyes and ears while doing autonomous repairs and maintenance in hostile environments, to relieving workers of their repetitive and tiring actions commonplace on factory floors, Robots are an ever growing part of our lives and economy. As the tasks that robots undertake become more complex and expansive, there is a corresponding need to provide them with the ever increasing power necessary to undertake these new applications. In this presentation I will discuss how and why at Kiva Systems we moved from century old lead acid battery technology, as the power source for our automated inventory handling robots, to a lithium ion based system needed to keep pace with the growing performance requirements of our robotic systems. The presentation will examine the specific environmental and overall system requirements which led to our focusing on high charge rate acceptance systems, and in a broader context touch on why there is no “one size fits all” advanced battery technology which will be usable across the board for all robotic applications.
Practical Use of Automotive Lithium Energy Storage in Commercial Marine Applications Brent Perry, CEO, C-Rate Solutions
As the automotive industry pushes forward, battery technology advances. Quality and reliability issues have been addressed and traditional heavy industrial markets are now taking notice. For a decade or more naval architects have seen the potential for huge increases in operational efficiency by integrating energy storage into their designs and only now are beginning to utilize energy storage in a variety of vessel types and duties.
In this presentation, attendees will learn:
What is energy storage on a commercial vessel?
How is it used (what is the Swiss Knife approach)?
Where do the operators see payback?
Hybrid or full electric?
What types of vessels can use energy storage?
What attributes does energy storage need in order to perform on a vessel?
Summary: Battery hybrids are here to stay and will gradually take over a variety of heavy industrial applications. As the technology advances and continues to increase in lifespan, safety and longevity the value proposition will get stronger for companies who are willing to adapt to meet the needs of the market.
Cost-Effective Commercial Hybrid Electric Vehicle Applications Ed Lovelace, Chief Technical Officer, XL Hybrids
XL Hybrids is a fleet electrification company that launched a medium/heavy duty platform product began pilot deployments in 2012 based on a charge-sustaining hybrid electric system technology that can easily be installed on a range of major OEM commercial vans and trucks from Class 2 to 6 to save fleets money and meet sustainability goals. Today XL Hybrids systems in their 3rd generation have been purchased and deployed by delivery, service, and passenger fleets including Coca-Cola, FedEx, Pepsi, and many others in more than 40 states from California to Florida, and Canada to the Mexico border with no government incentives on most sales and millions of customer miles. This talk will discuss the energy storage design and production strategy from a business and technical standpoint and ways the strategy might differ from strategies employed for the passenger vehicle market.
The Evolution of SAFT Lithium Ion Solutions from Automotive to Industrial Markets Michael Duffield, Senior Applications Engineer & Pre-Project Manager, SAFT
SAFT is a world leader in the design, development, and production of advanced electrochemical energy storage systems. In addition to several other Lithium-Ion chemistries, SAFT manufactures its proprietary Super-Phosphate® which is well suited for Industrial transportation applications and is the basis for its recently introduced the Xcelion 6T high performance battery. The X6T is a 24V battery system originally developed for starting, lighting and ignition power that today is finding new applications in non-automotive, industrial systems. In this presentation, we will discuss how several SAFT lithium ion technologies, such as the Xcelion 6T system, although originally developed for automotive use are fitting a much broader market need as improved energy storage solutions for an ever growing number of industrial applications.
XALT Energy Lithium Ion Batteries for Heavy Duty Vehicle and Marine Applications Dennis Corrigan, Director of Technology, XALT Energy
XALT Energy has developed large format lithium ion batteries with an excellent combination of high energy, high power, and long cycle life performance which is proving ideal for heavy duty vehicles, large marine applications, and grid and stationary energy storage. XALT has a large world-class manufacturing facility in Midland, Michigan capable of producing over 600 MWh of batteries annually. Customers find our highly automated plant and extensive quality systems in place to provide excellence in product manufacturing highly attractive. This talk will include:
XALT Energy battery cell performance specifications and cycle life performance
Requirements for EV bus applications including fast charge
Electric bus battery packs systems
Requirements for large marine applications
Battery pack systems for electric ferries and tug boats
Synergies between batteries for heavy duty vehicles and large marine applications
Leveraging Automotive Lithium-Ion Technology for Commercial and Industrial Applications Steve Wood, Director Global Product Development, Johnson Controls, Inc.
The rechargeable battery market has experienced unprecedented changes over the last two decades and there are no signs of slowing down. Since Johnson Controls was the first to mass-produce lithium-ion technology for the Automotive market in 2009, there has been a level of investment in technology, supply chain, and capacity that will soon surpass all other markets that have adopted lithium-ion technology in recent years.
Looking forward, we have substantial opportunity to leverage this investment across many industries. One of the largest opportunities is the application of Lithium-ion technology in Industrial and Commercial applications.
In this session, we’ll look at key factors enabling market adoption:
Market opportunities and growth
Drivers of successful adoption
Application needs
Product attributes
Economic sense check – does the ROI pay off?
Advancing Ultracapacitor Applications in Industrial and Transportation Applications Mike Everett, Chief Technical Officer, Maxwell Technologies
Ultracapacitors continue to broaden the application base of high power energy storage applications displacing batteries and other traditional energy storage means, mechanical, hydraulic and otherwise. The performance of ultracapacitors in these applications is nothing short of astounding. The technology lives up to its reputation in every way including unfailing stability and reliability. This paper will illustrate the most interesting applications in which ultracapacitors are found performing day in and day out power delivery. Examples will be shown of applications with more than a decade of reliability/lifetime of the devices in those highly demanding applications. Fleets of hybrid buses are operating around the world with extraordinary performance. Rail and Grid are seeing the light and expanding the use of Ultracapacitors. The Renewable energy markets are expanding the use of UCAPs at a strong pace. You will hear about UCAP performance in:
Hybrid Bus propulsion
Light Rail all electric operations
Renewable energy especially wind applications
Heavy equipment applications, hybrid excavators, earth movers and more commercial vehicles.
This presentation will be a broad look at the perfect application of power delivery via ultracapacitors that are demonstrating lifetimes measured in 10’s of years and reliability measured in single digit PPM failure rates. In addition to these aspects, the safety record of ultracapacitors will be described showing that UCAPs are safe, reliable and the perfect solution for trouble free extraordinary lifetimes with an exceedingly positive economic business case.
