Technology Overview
Battery Principles and Basics
The smallest working unit in a battery is the electrochemical cell, consisting
of a cathode and an anode separated and connected by an electrolyte. The
electrolyte conducts ions but is an insulator to electrons. In a charged state,
the anode contains a high concentration of intercalated lithium while the
cathode is depleted of lithium. During the discharge, a lithium ion leaves the
anode and migrates through the electrolyte to the cathode while its associated
electron is collected by the current collector to be used to power an electric
device (illustrated below).
The electrodes in lithium-ion cells are always solid materials. One can
distinguish between cell types according to their electrolytes, which may be
liquid, gel, or solid-state components. The electrolytes in gel and
solid-state cells represent a structural component and do not need
additional separators for the effective separation of electrodes and
avoidance of short circuits. Cells come in button, cylindrical, and
prismatic forms.
For low-energy and low-power applications, a cell often represents a full
battery. For high-energy and high-power applications (such as transportation or
stationary storage) a number of cells are packaged in a module, and a number of
modules are packaged in a battery.
Lithium ion based battery systems have dominated every market they have ever
been introduced into, including cell phones, laptop computers, power tools, and
most recently, automobiles. Utilizing newly developed technology, Corvus is now
poised to enter the untapped market of large foot print lithium ion batteries.
There is a strong demand in many industries to replace the existing lead acid
based batteries with smaller and lighter batteries. In addition to being less
costly than the existing battery systems, the new Corvus battery system has
opened up the doors for new applications. These include hybrid/electric marine propulsion applications such as environmentally
sensitive harbor tug boats, pure electric passenger ferries, high performance
sailboats, improved personal yachts and submersibles. Corvus lithium ion batteries are also ideal for light
weight solar array batteries and portable wind power storage batteries. There are also a
number of military battery applications which would benefit from Corvus technology.
The team of engineers at Corvus has extensive experience in battery power
design and powertrain development, as well as in the production of battery
storage systems for all its applications. This unique combination of experience
and capability provides the customer with a seasoned, value-added approach to
the integration of high performance battery storage technology to their
projects. The various industries can now tap into this resource in order to
provide solutions to their world-wide market needs and secure a premier position in
their respective fields.
The Technology
Battery storage solutions in most of today’s industries utilize lead-acid based
technology. For large scale applications, the size and weight of the lead acid
batteries make them too unwieldy and dangerous.
Corvus has taken a number of the most advanced lithium ion cells on the market
today, combined them with its’ own proprietary battery management system and
packaged it all in a small, standard enclosure. A number of these enclosures
can then be connected together to make the large battery packs. Different
applications may require different size battery packs. So, with a standardized
small enclosure, all that will be required for each different application is to
simply increase or decrease the number of small enclosures needed. For each new
battery pack, this technique permits faster design times and simpler
manufacturing.
Corvus provides its’ own proprietary electronics in every enclosure. In
addition Corvus provides its’ own proprietary computer-based, supervisory
system to monitor and control the state and health of each of the small
enclosures.
|