by Marina KHALIZEVA, journalist

The Liotech Company, established in 2010 by Rusnano (Russia) and Thunder Sky Group Limited (China), set up a manufacturing site-the first in our country (12 km away from Novosibirsk) and the largest in the world-producing lithium-ion accumulators for transport and energy storage cells. Production capacity of the plant is 1GW • h, which is enough to manufacture annually 1 mln of high-energy batteries and equip over 5 thous. electrobuses.

The investment project involving almost RUR 14 bln (invested by Liotech founders) has become one of the largest in the post-Soviet history of the region. The production complex of about 40,000 m² (38 thous. m² of production area) was built very quickly--in 9 months--in the territory of the Production and Logistics

Ground PNK-Tolmachevo, and has four automatic production lines supplied by Thunder Sky. Adaptable module systems can be easily transformed according to

LIOTECH building in the territory of the Production and Logistics Ground "PNK-Tolmachevo".

the demands of consumers and new designs. The production site will manufacture 3 basic models of storage batteries with a nominal capacity of 200, 300 and 700 A • h, suitable for all types of electric vehicles, including freight and passenger transport, with a further expansion of the product line for special purpose transport, power engineering, as well as storage batteries of different types--from 2 kW to 100 MW. "When initiating this project, we realized that all national plants producing batteries are totally outdated," Anatoly Chubais, Rusnano CEO, said at the opening ceremony of the production complex. "We were behind the times and were aware that we needed a breakthrough project that would move the branch to a new technological level." According to him, Novosibirsk production complex is one of the global leaders, as lithium-ion accumulator production technologies used there are among the best in the world.

Spare parts and materials are supplied by the Chinese counteragent, but by 2014 it is planned to use components designed and manufactured in Russia. That is why the plant was built in Siberia. Novosibirsk is a city of high scientific personnel potential surpassing other Siberian regions in a number of organizations engaged in creating intellectual products. Its Akademgorodok is famous for its institutes that have a long history of making high energy batteries. Near Novosibirsk is the Novosibirsk Plant of Chemical Concentrates--the only plant in Russia, producing lithium and its compounds. In the long term it will be this very plant to supply raw materials to Liotech.

Rusnano was very careful when selecting foreign partners. Lithium-ion batteries appeared on the global market of chemical current sources in the late 1990s. They are mainly produced in the USA, Canada and South-East Asia. The Chinese company Thunder Sky Group Limited is one of the global leaders in the serial production of hi-capacity lithium-ion batteries. It has more than the 10-year experience in this field and the patented technology Thunder Sky, which, under terms of the contract, is now used in Novosibirsk.

To produce batteries, complex architecture cathodes made of nanosize composite material on the basis of lithium-ferrum-phosphate (LiFePO₄), considered the world-best for their chemical and structural resistance, are used.

Until recently, lithium cobaltite (LiCoO₂) as a positive electrode (cathode) was used in commercial batteries. It was designed and patented back in 1980 by the US physicist John Goodenough (Texas University). He made a real revolution in the energy storage technology. But LiCoO₂ also had material disadvantages: high price, toxicity and a tendency to spontaneous ignition--in other words, it could not meet the principal requirement of manufacturers--safety in case of overheating and extreme operation regimes. The situation changed in 1996, when Goodenough proposed another chemical compound--lithium-ferrum-phosphate (LiFePO₄)--a cheap, stable cathode material, ideal as a source of energy. It had only one disadvantage--low electrical conductivity--which hampered its use in practice. But nanotechnologies turned this material into a commercially attractive product.

In early 21st century, the Canadian physicist Michelle Armand proved: if ferrum-phosphate particles are

Lithium-ion battery operation diagram.

decreased in size to some tens of nanometers and cover the surface of LiFePO₄ with a carbonaceous coating, you'll obtain a composite of high electric conductivity. The crystal structure of such compound is highly resistant to wearing and internal transformations. The Thunder Sky technology is based on this very promising material. Batteries made of this material are much more competitive as compared with the world analogs: absence of memory effect after numerous charge and discharge cycles, possibility of charging to 70 percent in 20 minutes with high-amperage currents, wide temperature range of operation (from --45 °C to +65 °C), reliability and safety proved by international certificates.

The new plant is a successful example of transfer of foreign high technologies, attraction of foreign investments to the national science-intensive production and creation of new jobs. When the plant reaches its designed production capacity, it will employ over 500 men. The industrial giant has already got a guaranteed market of its products for the next 4 years: Thunder Sky is planning to purchase the best part of produced batteries to fulfil its contractual obligations to Chinese car manu-facturers. The point is that the Chinese Government is planning to switch 25 percent of public transport to electric engines, i.e. over 1 thous. buses in each big city by 2015. By that time China will manufacture up to 500 thous. electric cars a year. Despite of vast plans of its partners, Novosibirsk plant will gradually shift to the Russian market; furthermore, by 2014 Chinese technologies and raw materials will be replaced by Siberian components and products.

For this purpose Rusnano is concurrently implementing one more project--serial production of a new battery material developed by specialists of the RAS SB Institute of Solid and Mechanical Chemistry (supervisor of studies Nina Kosova, Cand. Sc. (Chem.)). They developed a power-saving and environment-friendly mechanochemical production technology for the composite material LiFePO₄/C based on a surface modification of cathode materials with nanosize oxides using activators. According to the developers, the proposed production process is designed for open air and does not require special expensive equipment. The produced nanocomposites surpass foreign analogs in a number of properties (capacity and power characteris-

tics, degradation rate decrease during cycling and storage, recycling resistance), including Chinese designs used to produce Thunder Sky batteries. These composites will ensure operability of the batteries in case of high rates of charge-discharge and reaching of charging capacity of 150-160 mA • h a year. As stated by the RAS Corresponding Member Nikolai Lyakhov, Director of the RAS SB Institute of Solid and Mechanical Chemistry, in the interview to the RBC Daily, low time and energy consumption during production process, cheap raw materials and environmental benefits (no waste waters) make LiFePO₄/C the most promising material for electro- and hybrid car industry focused mainly on prices and safety. Rusnano will invest about a billion rubles in the developments of Russian chemists.

Cathode material and key lithium components will be supplied by Novosibirsk Plant of Chemical Concentrates,

where a pilot production unit is successfully operating. In parallel, it is planned to construct a new production facility on the production site, which will manufacture cathode material (3,500 t a year). In general, the import-substitution program implies hi-tech production facilities and a research center for developing and marketing Russian nanotechnological products in the field of current sources located around Liotech.

Starting from this year, the plant will increase its production output. According to Rusnano estimates, in 2012 the gain will make up RUR 9-10 bln, by 2015 it will reach RUR 35-40 bln. If Liotech succeeds in implementing the proposed development plans, its share in the national battery production market will reach 60 percent and 10-15 percent in the world market, Chubais said in Novosibirsk. In fact, the plant may become a system-forming enterprise of the region.

The necessity in electric transport today is evident: maintenance and operation costs are essentially lower as compared with the cars equipped with inner com-

Science in Russia, No.3, 2012

bustion engines. To charge a battery of an electrical bus during a year with its operational regime of no less than 600,000 km will cost RUR 150-200 thous., while fuel for its "colleague" will cost RUR 750-800 thous. for 80 thous. km. In addition, maintenance costs of the electric bus are almost 30 percent less. But the most solid argument for the development of this type of transport is its high ecological properties, ability to improve the environment in big cities. According to estimates of specialists, the transfer of buses and trucks in big cities to electric traction may reduce harmful emissions by almost 50 percent. That is why Liotech products are welcomed by city authorities in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Kazan, Stavropol and other Russian cities. The first contract for the supply of new batteries to the amount of RUR 3bln was signed with the Mobel Company (Republic of Tatarstan). Another contract was signed with Moscow: 100 buses driven by lithium-ion batteries will be supplied to the capital in 2012, another 1,000-the next year.

The Moscow Government is also planning to expand the city taxi fleet with the first national electric car called ElLada designed by engineers of AvtoVAZ (Togliatti, Samara Region)--the leading Russian car manufacturer. With the lithium-ion batteries of a new generation this giant got a chance to make a new car more successful in terms of commerce. By the moment, only one of the two existing cars of this model was exhibited at the Moscow International Forum Rusnanotech held in October 2011. The ElLada model was designed on the basis of Kalina-universal--its body and chassis were used in it. A block of lithium-ferrum-phosphate batteries takes one tenth of the electric car weight (1,215 kg). The power system also incorporates a 60 kW electric engine and a reducing gear. As explained by the designers, service life of the batteries may include up to 3,000 charging cycles. In short, if the car is charged once a day, the battery will serve for 8 years (450-500 thous. km). To "fuel" the car by means of a regular socket (220 V, 16 A, 50 Hz) takes 8 hours. The average price of a charge in our country will make up RUR 80-90. Such batteries are enough to drive 160-170 km without charging. It takes 13 seconds to reach the speed of 100 km, the maximal speed will be 140 km/h.

The manufacturer has not yet announced the price of the car, since there is no infrastructure in our country required to start its serial production. Nevertheless, AvtoVAZ representatives say that the price of ElLada will match foreign analogs: RUR 1-1.5 mln, and if the demand is high, it may be even lower.

However, there is one more industrial sector where lithium-ion batteries will be even more popular and efficient--we refer to electric power engineering. Since these batteries are characterized by a high efficiency performance ratio (95-99 percent), they can be used as net energy storage units essential to cover daily and seasonal peaks of energy consumption and as reserve power sources.

In January 2012, the International Gaidar Forum was held in Moscow, where specialists discuss strategic objectives of Russian economy. The state corporation Rusnano represented its innovative works in the field of nanotechnologies, including a model of domestic

energy storage unit based on lithium-ion batteries produced by Liotech, able to accumulate electric power taken from a power system in the period of excessive generation (at night) and give it back in daytime with the preset parameters. Compared with diesel generator sets or uninterrupted power supply units based on leadacid batteries, these units are eco-friendly and safe, neither need much space nor special maintenance. It was not by chance that the Scientific and Technical

Board of Olympstroi State Corporation made a decision to use lithium-ion batteries produced by Novosibirsk company as components of power storage and UPS units at Olympic objects in Sochi.