Lithium-Air / Lithium-Ion Hybrid Battery for Military Use

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase II project will advance a high energy and high power hybrid battery to power the dismounted soldier’s electronics suite, and unattended sensors. One of the challenges of incorporating metal-air batteries into existing equipment is the power requirements. Metal-air systems are typically very high in energy density but low in power. A method to overcome the power issue to is to use a hybrid battery composed of the metal-air battery with another battery capable of high power discharges. The effort will be to construct and evaluate a high specific energy and high power lithium-air/ lithium-ion hybrid battery system. Specifically the project advances hybrid batteries by 1) integrating lithium-air and lithium-ion cells 2) applying our electronic hybrid configuration developed in phase one, and 3) evaluating the hybrid battery’s performance and safety. Yardney will evaluate the hybrid’s performance in various environmental conditions. Advantages of the proposed hybrid battery include a high energy density, high power, safe design, environmentally friendly components, and a high specific energy. This research will eventually lead to a hybrid system delivering a specific energy greater than 1000 Wh/kg.