USE OF ELECTROCHEMICAL CELLS CONTAINING A LITHIATED TITANATE OXIDE NEGATIVE ACTIVE MATERIAL FOR LOW EARTH ORBIT APPLICATIONS

• Main Authors: TESSIER, Cécile, NECHEV, Kamen, GRESZLER, Thomas, MA, Chengsong, BORTHOMIEU, Yannick
• Format: Patent
• Language: English; French; German
• Published: 30.10.2019
• Subjects: BASIC ELECTRIC ELEMENTS; ELECTRICITY; PROCESSES OR MEANS, e.g. BATTERIES, FOR THE DIRECT CONVERSIONOF CHEMICAL INTO ELECTRICAL ENERGY

A Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite has 95 to 105 minutes orbit time with only 60-65 minutes available for recharging. Due to the low charge capability of a Li-ion graphite cell, depth of discharge is limited for this application. The cell of the invention using a lithiated titanate oxide or a titanate oxide able to be lithiated in the negative electrode allows increase of depth of discharge. Increasing charge rate without amplifying capacity loss per cycle allows improvement of useful specific energy per cycle. Depth of discharge values up to 70-80% can be envisioned. Even if the cell exhibits low specific energy, the LEO application is a specific case where useful energy per cycle can be optimized to 70 to 80 Wh/kg.