The French company Total Energies operates three huge production plants for various plastic and petrochemical products in La Port and Port Arthur in Texas and in Carvill, Louisiana. These plants need a lot of energy to produce polypropylene and polystyrene, for example.

Reducing emissions from production

To minimise emissions from plastic production, Total Energies built the huge Myrtle Solar Farm south of Houston, Texas. This will at least allow the company to reduce the CO2 emissions generated for energy production. The refining of petroleum into various petrochemical products such as fossil fuels continues to produce immense CO2 emissions. But with solar energy, at least its production is climate-neutral, which makes it only marginally better in view of the climate crisis.

70 per cent for self-consumption

Total Energies has installed about 705,000 solar modules to supply the three plants on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. These have a combined output of 380 megawatts. About 70 per cent of the solar power generated is sufficient to supply the production facilities with electricity.

See also: Stabilisation of solar module prices seems to be in sight

Total Energies markets the remaining approximately 30 per cent to the real estate company Kilroy Reality under a power purchase agreement (PPA). The latter will purchase the profit from the solar power for the next 15 years at a fixed price and use it to supply its commercial properties.

Storage unit provides grid service

In addition, Total Energies has installed 114 containers full of battery storage on the site of the solar farm south of Houston. These were made by the subsidiary Saft. They can hold as much as 225 megawatt hours of the Myrtle solar power plant and feed it into the grid when needed. This enables it to take over grid stabilisation services from the Texas grid operator Ercot.

Tax subsidised by the IRS

The Myrtle solar power plant is, according to Total Energies, the largest project of its kind built in the USA to date. It is part of a strategy by the group to establish integrated production based on self-supply in the USA, as Vincent Stoquart, head of Total Energies’ renewable division, points out.

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Times are good for such a strategy in the US. This is because the project benefits from tax credits as provided for in the US government’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) industrial incentive programme. Based on the benefits of the IRA tax credits, Totals Energies will actively expand its portfolio of renewable energy projects in the USA. In total, this includes a green power capacity of 25 gigawatts, part of which is already in operation. (su/mfo)





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Together with partners, researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation (IPA) have developed a scalable production process for solid-state batteries. The scientists have thus closed a gap that still exists in the market launch of such solid-state batteries. This is important for the energy transition. After all, solid-state batteries have several advantages over lithium-ion batteries. For example, they are not flammable because they do not have a liquid electrolyte. Solid-state batteries are also lighter, which results in a higher energy density.

See also: Tesvolt equips large-scale storage facility with 65 megawatt hours

Basis for further development close to industry

However, solid-state batteries with a ceramic electrolyte layer have so far only been produced on a laboratory scale. With the current development, the researchers at Fraunhofer IPA have created the basis for the further development of solid-state lithium-ion batteries on an industrial scale. “We have been able to raise the production of solid-state batteries from laboratory scale to an industry-oriented, scalable level,” emphasises Jonas Heldt, scientist at Fraunhofer IPA.

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Sounding out the situation on the raw materials market

To this end, the analysts from machine manufacturer Dr Fritsch GmbH, as a project partner, first analysed the situation regarding the required raw materials. In particular, the focus was on the solid electrolyte lithium aluminium titanium phosphate (LATP). This is because it has not yet been used industrially and is therefore not produced in large quantities. The initial question was therefore: where can the necessary raw materials be obtained and how do they have to be processed? “The challenge here is not the availability of the individual raw materials per se, but the still relatively small number of manufacturers who produce the solid-state electrolyte LATP from them,” says Elke Ade, Head of the Metal Powder Division at Dr Fritsch. “However, experience shows that this will grow rapidly in line with demand for the end product.”

Making the process scalable

However, it is not just a secure supply of raw materials that is needed if the solid-state batteries are to reach the market, but also a production process that is close to industrial scale. It must be possible to scale this up to a higher throughput. Normally, foils are coated during production so that they serve as an anode, cathode and neutral intermediate layer. These are then assembled to form the actual battery.

Intermediate layers reduce mechanical stresses

However, ceramics are used for solid-state batteries. Various powders are the starting materials here. To bring this into a solid form, it must be sintered. This means that it is heated under pressure.

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The researchers at Fraunhofer IPA have investigated various processes for this purpose. The most promising was to stack the powders dry in a mould. In addition to cathode, anode and electrolyte layers, intermediate layers are also added to prevent the electrolyte content from increasing too abruptly. These gradual transitions reduce mechanical stresses and improve contact resistances in the sintered battery.

Material is pressed together

The filled mould is then placed in a sintering press. The materials are pressed together with a stamp under high pressure and comparatively low temperatures. This only takes a few minutes and is extremely fast compared to conventional sintering processes. These take several hours. “Using this process, several graded layers of cathode and separator can be produced in a single manufacturing step, which significantly reduces the amount of work involved and allows subsequent scaling up to larger throughputs,” explains Jonas Heldt. This would lay the foundation for the industrial production of solid-state batteries. (su/mfo)





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