Simoldes makes the first drug ion cell “made in” Portugal
Simoldes, a business group headquartered in Oliveira de Azeméis, announced the construction of the first national factory to produce original battery ion cells for batteries, which may start operating as early as 2025.
In addition to the factory, a technological development center will also be built, with a total investment of over 27 million euros.
The project has now been approved under the Recovery Plan (PRR) and in addition to the Simoldes, the Vasco da Gama CoLab — which conceived and produced the first branch ion coin cells — and the Faculty of Engineering from the University of Porto.
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Speaking to Jornal de Negócios, Júlio Grilo, director of innovation at Simoldes Plásticos, said that the new factory and technology center will be located in Oliveira de Azeméis and construction could start as early as next year.
With this happening, the production of the new ion cells will start in 2025 and their promotion in 2026, through a new company that the group is establishing, Simoldes Energy.
The new factory responsible only for the production of cells, whose subsequent assembly in the batteries will be kept by the final integrators.
Where will they be used?
In this first phase, the new proposals for application ions are planned for the mobility and stationary sector (buildings) markets.
Within mobility, the biggest opportunity seems to reside, while in bicycles, as Portugal concentrates many bicycle factories and the transition to electric bicycles continues to gain momentum.
The automotive sector may also be included — Simoldes already supplies components for the automotive industry — but it will depend, as Júlio Grilo told Jornal de Negócios, “on the performance of the final battery”.
“Today it is still too early to perceive a similar performance to this performance cell compared to the current competitive technology”, elaborated Jú Grilo, but “our expectation is to achieve a similar performance with a level of economic competitiveness and sustainability of superior materials while doing”.
Sustainable alternative to sustainable?
There are several players in the automotive and battery industry that look to drug ion batteries as an alternative to intelligible ion batteries.
Comparing with NMC (Nickel, Manganese, Cobalt) ion batteries, such bass ion batteries have several points in their favor.
They are not very abundant through degradation, which are more abundant through degradation, which are more abundant through degradation, as the main raw material for safe cycles.
The environmental impact is less and they have the potential to be much cheaper (with mass production).
For example, “coin cells” — called watch, button, or coin batteries, used in watches or electronic devices — which Simoldes has already shown, according to its data, are 20% cheaper than ion equivalents.
The big “Achilles ion heel” remains their energy density which is lower than energy ion batteries: 160 Wh/kg versus 200-250 W. This makes them bigger and heavier.
Perhaps the director of innovation at Sim does not consider this technology as an alternative to this unique solution, but rather as a technology, but that the “old cannot be useful” due to its solution.
Source: Business Journal