The challenges and opportunities of battery-powered flight

Viswanathan, Venkatasubramanian; Epstein, Alan H.; Chiang, Yet-Ming; Takeuchi, Esther; Bradley, Marty; Langford, John; Winter, Michael

doi:10.1038/s41586-021-04139-1

The challenges and opportunities of battery-powered flight

Journal Article · Wed Jan 26 00:00:00 EST 2022 · Nature (London)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-04139-1· OSTI ID:1842014

^[1]; ^[2]; ^[2]; Takeuchi, Esther ^[3]; Bradley, Marty ^[4]; Langford, John ^[5]; Winter, Michael ^[6]

Carnegie Mellon Univ., Pittsburgh, PA (United States)
Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)
Stony Brook Univ., NY (United States)
Univ. of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)
Electra.aero, Falls Church, VA (United States)
Pratt & Whitney, Hartford, CT (United States)

Aircraft, and the aviation ecosystem in which they operate, are shaped by complex trades among technical requirements, economics and environmental concerns, all built on a foundation of safety. This Perspective explores the requirements of battery-powered aircraft and the chemistries that hold promise to enable them. The difference between flight and terrestrial needs and chemistries are highlighted. Safe, usable specific energy rather than cost is the major constraint for aviation. We conclude that battery packs suitable for flight with specific energy approaching 600 kilowatt hours per kilogram may be achievable in the next decade given sufficient investment targeted at aeronautical applications.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0012704

OSTI ID:: 1842014

Report Number(s):: BNL-222650-2022-JAAM

Journal Information:: Nature (London), Journal Name: Nature (London) Journal Issue: 7894 Vol. 601; ISSN 0028-0836

Publisher:: Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

References (33)

Review of Recent Development of In Situ/Operando Characterization Techniques for Lithium Battery Research Liu, Dongqing; Shadike, Zulipiya; Lin, Ruoqian Advanced Materials, Vol. 31, Issue 28 https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.201806620	journal	May 2019
Analysis and design of hybrid electric regional turboprop aircraft Voskuijl, Mark; van Bogaert, Joris; Rao, Arvind G. CEAS Aeronautical Journal, Vol. 9, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1007/s13272-017-0272-1	journal	October 2017
Updating United States Advanced Battery Consortium and Department of Energy battery technology targets for battery electric vehicles Neubauer, Jeremy; Pesaran, Ahmad; Bae, Chulheung Journal of Power Sources, Vol. 271 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpowsour.2014.06.043	journal	December 2014
Key Issues Hindering a Practical Lithium-Metal Anode Fang, Chengcheng; Wang, Xuefeng; Meng, Ying Shirley Trends in Chemistry, Vol. 1, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trechm.2019.02.015	journal	May 2019
Autonomous Discovery of Battery Electrolytes with Robotic Experimentation and Machine Learning Dave, Adarsh; Mitchell, Jared; Kandasamy, Kirthevasan Cell Reports Physical Science, Vol. 1, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xcrp.2020.100264	journal	December 2020
Holy Grails in Chemistry: Investigating and Understanding Fast Electron/Cation Coupled Transport within Inorganic Ionic Matrices Smith, Paul F.; Takeuchi, Kenneth J.; Marschilok, Amy C. Accounts of Chemical Research, Vol. 50, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.accounts.6b00540	journal	March 2017
A High-Capacity Lithium–Gas Battery Based on Sulfur Fluoride Conversion Li, Yuanda; Khurram, Aliza; Gallant, Betar M. The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, Vol. 122, Issue 13 https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcc.8b00569	journal	March 2018
Beyond Transition Metal Oxide Cathodes for Electric Aviation: The Case of Rechargeable CF _x Krishnamurthy, Venkatesh; Viswanathan, Venkatasubramanian ACS Energy Letters, Vol. 5, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1021/acsenergylett.0c01815	journal	October 2020
Performance Metrics Required of Next-Generation Batteries to Make a Practical Electric Semi Truck Sripad, Shashank; Viswanathan, Venkatasubramanian ACS Energy Letters, Vol. 2, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1021/acsenergylett.7b00432	journal	June 2017
Challenges in Lithium Metal Anodes for Solid-State Batteries Hatzell, Kelsey B.; Chen, Xi Chelsea; Cobb, Corie L. ACS Energy Letters, Vol. 5, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1021/acsenergylett.9b02668	journal	February 2020
Improving the Energy Density and Power Density of CF _x by Mechanical Milling: A Primary Lithium Battery Electrode Reddy, M. Anji; Breitung, Ben; Fichtner, Maximilian ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, Vol. 5, Issue 21 https://doi.org/10.1021/am403438m	journal	October 2013
Rechargeable Room-Temperature CF _x -Sodium Battery Liu, Wen; Li, Hong; Xie, Jing-Ying ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, Vol. 6, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1021/am4051348	journal	February 2014
Recent Advances in First Principles Computational Research of Cathode Materials for Lithium-Ion Batteries Meng, Ying Shirley; Arroyo-de Dompablo, M. Elena Accounts of Chemical Research, Vol. 46, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1021/ar2002396	journal	April 2012
Sustainability and in situ monitoring in battery development Grey, C. P.; Tarascon, J. M. Nature Materials, Vol. 16, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat4777	journal	December 2016
Status and challenges in enabling the lithium metal electrode for high-energy and low-cost rechargeable batteries Albertus, Paul; Babinec, Susan; Litzelman, Scott Nature Energy, Vol. 3, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-017-0047-2	journal	December 2017
Data-driven prediction of battery cycle life before capacity degradation Severson, Kristen A.; Attia, Peter M.; Jin, Norman Nature Energy, Vol. 4, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-019-0356-8	journal	March 2019
Fundamentals of inorganic solid-state electrolytes for batteries Famprikis, Theodosios; Canepa, Pieremanuele; Dawson, James A. Nature Materials, Vol. 18, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-019-0431-3	journal	August 2019
Revisiting metal fluorides as lithium-ion battery cathodes Hua, Xiao; Eggeman, Alexander S.; Castillo-Martínez, Elizabeth Nature Materials, Vol. 20, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-020-00893-1	journal	January 2021
Liquefied gas electrolytes for wide-temperature lithium metal batteries Yang, Yangyuchen; Yin, Yijie; Davies, Daniel M. Energy & Environmental Science, Vol. 13, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1039/D0EE01446J	journal	January 2020
Thermodynamic analysis on energy densities of batteries Zu, Chen-Xi; Li, Hong Energy & Environmental Science, Vol. 4, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1039/c0ee00777c	journal	January 2011
Quantifying the promise of lithium–air batteries for electric vehicles Gallagher, Kevin G.; Goebel, Steven; Greszler, Thomas Energy & Environmental Science, Vol. 7, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1039/c3ee43870h	journal	January 2014
Design principles for self-forming interfaces enabling stable lithium-metal anodes Zhu, Yingying; Pande, Vikram; Li, Linsen Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2001923117	journal	October 2020
Ultralight batteries for electric airplanes Crittenden, Mark IEEE Spectrum, Vol. 57, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1109/MSPEC.2020.9173903	journal	September 2020
Net-zero emissions energy systems Davis, Steven J.; Lewis, Nathan S.; Shaner, Matthew Science, Vol. 360, Issue 6396 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aas9793	journal	June 2018
High Specific Energy Lithium Primary Batteries as Power Sources for Deep Space Exploration Krause, Frederick C.; Jones, John-Paul; Jones, Simon C. Journal of The Electrochemical Society, Vol. 165, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1149/2.1061810jes	journal	January 2018
Considerations for Reducing Aviation’s CO2 with Aircraft Electric Propulsion Epstein, Alan H.; O’Flarity, Steven M. Journal of Propulsion and Power, Vol. 35, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.2514/1.B37015	journal	May 2019
Mission Analysis and Aircraft Sizing of a Hybrid-Electric Regional Aircraft Antcliff, Kevin R.; Guynn, Mark D.; Marien, Ty 54th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2016-1028	conference	January 2016
A Study in Reducing the Cost of Vertical Flight with Electric Propulsion Duffy, Michael J.; Wakayama, Sean R.; Hupp, Ryan 17th AIAA Aviation Technology, Integration, and Operations Conference https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2017-3442	conference	June 2017
VTOL Urban Air Mobility Concept Vehicles for Technology Development Silva, Christopher; Johnson, Wayne R.; Solis, Eduardo 2018 Aviation Technology, Integration, and Operations Conference https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2018-3847	conference	June 2018
Conceptual Design and Mission Analysis for eVTOL Urban Air Mobility Flight Vehicle Configurations Kadhiresan, Akshay R.; Duffy, Michael J. AIAA Aviation 2019 Forum https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2019-2873	conference	June 2019
Fuel Burn and Energy Consumption Reductions of a Single-Aisle Class Parallel Hybrid Propulsion System Lents, Charles E.; Hardin, Larry W. AIAA Propulsion and Energy 2019 Forum https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2019-4396	conference	August 2019
Design Strategies for High Power vs. High Energy Lithium Ion Cells Lain, Michael J.; Brandon, James; Kendrick, Emma Batteries, Vol. 5, Issue 4, p. 64 https://doi.org/10.3390/batteries5040064	journal	October 2019
QuantumScape Next-Generation Solid-State Battery Presentation Singh, Jagdeep; Holme, Tim Zenodo https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4609278	text	January 2020

Similar Records

Ampaire ARPA-e Electric Flight Testbed

Technical Report · Fri Jun 23 00:00:00 EDT 2023 · OSTI ID:1986116

Design and Performance of lithium-Ion Batteries for Achieving Electric Vehicle Takeoff, Flight, and Landing

Book · Fri Jul 01 00:00:00 EDT 2022 · OSTI ID:1876316

Related Subjects

25 ENERGY STORAGE
33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS

The challenges and opportunities of battery-powered flight

Citation Formats

References (33)

Similar Records

Related Subjects