(64a) Designing Battery Materials for ?ehind-the-Meter Storage (BTMS) Applications

Behind-the-Meter Storage (BTMS) is a battery-based, stationary energy storage system that is connected to the residential or industrial customer’s side of the electrical grid utility service meter. BTMS systems enable consumers to (A) economically schedule charging and usage of stored energy, (B) store and use energy from on-site generation, especially from intermittent, renewable sources like solar and wind, and (C) avoid overloading the grid during peak hours via supplementation with stored energy. BTMS battery performance requirements and general priorities differentiate from other applications, like EVs. This application prioritizes batteries with low cost, avoiding critical materials; longevity, achieving 8000 cycle and 20-year shelf lives; and importantly, high safety. These priorities dictate development and selection of less conventional chemistry pairings for Li-ion batteries. Lithium titanate (Li₄Ti₅O₁₂), lithium nickel manganese oxide (LiNi_0.90Mn_0.05Co_0.05O₂), lithium manganese oxide (LMO), lithium nickel manganese oxide (LiNi_0.90Mn_0.10O₂), and lithium iron phosphate (LFP) show promise to meet BTMS requirements. However, further development and validation at the material and cell levels is necessary to meet targets for longevity and safety.

For these systems, adjustments to cell architecture as well as electrode and electrolyte design provide opportunities to meet these targets. In terms of cell architecture, careful selection of “inactive” battery components, such as a cellulose-based separator or metallized film current collector, can facilitate improvements to longevity and safety.[1,2] Electrodes can be microstructured via laser ablation to enhance electrochemical and cycling performance.[3] Electrolytes can be designed with nonflammable solvents to improve safety in a thermal runaway event, but must be balanced with a potential tradeoff to electrochemical performance. In this presentation, discussion will be provided on results of these approaches.[4,5]

A portion of this work was authored in part by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, operated by Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC, for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) under Contract No. DE-AC36-08GO28308. Funding was provided by the U.S. Department of Energy's Vehicle Technologies Office under the Behind-the-Meter Storage (BTMS) Consortium directed by Fernando Salcedo and managed by Anthony Burrell. The electrodes used in this study are from Argonne's Cell Analysis, Modeling and Prototyping (CAMP) Facility, which is fully supported by the DOE Vehicle Technologies Office (VTO). The views expressed in the article do not necessarily represent the views of the DOE or the U.S. Government. The U.S. Government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the U.S. Government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this work, or allow others to do so, for U.S. Government purposes.

References:

1. Pereira, Drew J., Hunter A. McRay, Saurabh S. Bopte, and Golareh Jalilvand. "H2O/HF scavenging mechanism in cellulose-based separators for lithium-ion batteries with enhanced cycle life." ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces16, no. 5 (2024): 5745-5757.

2. Feng, Yue, Georgios Polizos, Sergiy Kalnaus, Runming Tao, Sabine Neumayer, Wheatley Steenman, Jaswinder Sharma, Drew J. Pereira, Brian Morin, and Jianlin Li. "Metalized Polymer Current Collector for High‐Energy Lithium‐Ion Batteries with Extreme Fast‐Charging Capability."Energy & Environmental Materials (2025): e12878.

3. Pereira, Drew J., Ryan J. Tancin, Yeyoung Ha, Stephen E. Trask, Donal P. Finegan, Bertrand J. Tremolet de Villers, and Katharine L. Harrison. "Laser Ablation of High-Loading Electrodes to Improve Performance of Li-Ion Batteries in Behind-the-Meter Storage (BTMS) Applications." In Electrochemical Society Meeting Abstracts prime2024, no. 2, pp. 302-302. The Electrochemical Society, Inc., 2024.

4. Pereira, Drew J., Kae E. Fink, Stephen E. Trask, Noah B. Schorr, Brian Perdue, and Katharine L. Harrison. "Investigation of Nonflammable Electrolytes for Li 4 Ti 5 O 12/LiNi 0.90 Mn 0.10 O 2 in Behind-the-Meter Storage (BTMS) Applications." In 247th ECS Meeting (May 18-22, 2025). ECS, 2025.

5. Pereira, Drew J., Maxwell C. Schulze, Yeyoung Ha, Yicheng Zhang, Jihyeon Gim, Stephen E. Trask, Ozgenur Kahvecioglu, Glenn Teeter, Anthony Burrell, and Katharine L. Harrison. "Impact of Electrolyte Solvent on Li 4 Ti 5 O 12/LiNi 0.90 Mn 0.05 Co 0.05 O 2 Battery Performance for Behind-the-Meter Storage Applications." Journal of the Electrochemical Society(2025).