Automakers and battery producers already put some measures in place to decrease the chance of thermal runaway, together with battery administration techniques that may detect and management battery circumstances to stop fires earlier than they happen. Thermal insulation supplies—together with these made with aerogels—are a part of the rising arsenal that may restrict the injury if thermal runaway does happen.
One potential downside to these supplies is that they add bulk to a battery, which reduces power density—the quantity of power {that a} battery can retailer in a sure quantity or weight. Increased power density interprets to longer vary for an EV, an important promoting level for a lot of drivers. The good thing about aerogels is that they’re super-light, since they’re principally air—in order that they don’t restrict power density as a lot as different supplies would possibly.
Aspen’s thermal limitations are usually between one and 4 millimeters thick and might be stacked between cells. Relying on the automaker and car in query, the fee to include it in an EV runs between $300 and $1,000, Younger says.
COURTESY OF ASPEN AEROGEL
The market is ramping up rapidly. When the corporate started promoting its battery supplies in 2021, it did roughly $7 million in gross sales. In 2023 it had reached $110 million, and that’s on observe to greater than double once more in 2024, Younger says.
Aspen Aerogels at present makes supplies for EV batteries at its manufacturing unit in Rhode Island, which additionally makes supplies for different companies, together with the oil and gasoline business. “We’re simply busting on the seams of that plant,” Younger says. The DOE mortgage will assist building of a brand new facility in Georgia, which will probably be solely devoted to creating materials for EV batteries. The plan is to have that facility operating by early 2027, Younger says.
“This mortgage is to essentially get them at scale for his or her first industrial facility in Georgia,” Shah says. The corporate might want to meet sure monetary and technical necessities to finalize the funding.
“This mortgage is critically vital to us, to assist us with the completion of that undertaking,” Younger says.
Correction: A caption has been up to date to appropriately establish the fabric pictured as a thermal barrier.