Push to reduce Chinese dependency, India gears up to invest in aluminium battery technology replacing lithium for EV

The navigation to shrink dependence on imported materials and technology, particularly from China, India is gearing to invest in a battery technology that uses aluminium rather than lithium as the crucial ingredient.

India’s largest oil refiner, Indian Oil Corporation has already collaborated with Israeli start-up company Phinergy to produce aluminium-air batteries.

As India faces the scarcity of the ore to produce lithium, the vital metal for this age of electric-vehicle batteries, while the nation holds huge reserves of bauxite, the ore to produce aluminium.

S.S.V. Ramakumar, R&D Director, Indian Oil, said: “Lithium is scarce in the country and we started scouting for an element which is abundantly available as a natural resource.”

India ranks among the top 10 global bauxite producers. According to the US Geological Survey, the nation has some 600 million tonnes of ore in proven reserves. However, India's mining ministry predicts that untapped resources may be many times plus of that amount. Furthermore, the country has invested heavily in the production of aluminium over the years to become the world's second-biggest smelter of aluminium.

James Frith, Head of Energy Storage at BNEF in London, said: “Clearly the special consideration here is that aluminium is in better supply than lithium, but with the ever-falling prices of lithium-based systems, developers will be under pressure to find niche applications where Aluminium-Oxygen can gain a foothold.”

Ramakumar said: “An aluminium-air battery could win advantages over its lithium-ion rival in three other crucial ways. It's potentially cheaper, vehicles using it would have a longer range, and it's safer.

The battery technology works by tapping electricity generated when aluminium plates react with oxygen in the air. It has one of the highest energy densities for a battery. The number of flaws, the technology carries has kept it away from wide-scale use since it was first proposed in the 1960s.

The vital drawback is the cost of materials that need to be added to the battery to safeguard the power from dropping and the fact that the cells can't be recharged, whereas, Phinergy's plan is for users to be able to quickly swap in a new battery and send the used one to a recycling facility.

“It takes just three minutes to replace the battery, about the time it takes to fill up at a gas station”, Ramakumar said.

The fuel retailer aims to utilize its network of filling stations as swapping points.

Amara Raja Batteries, the maker of vehicle battery brand, Amaron is India's largest producer of lead-acid cells, is examining existing lithium-based technologies as a “next growth engine,” though also sees scope for alternatives to be developed, as commented by Vijayanand Samudrala, the firm's president.

“I don't think there's a final word on the maturity of the technology, I can see at least two or three generations of technology shift happening in the batteries area in the next 10 years,” he said.

“Indian Oil made a strategic investment in Phinergy in early 2020, and the Indian firm's 30,000 service stations can serve as the infrastructure for the deployment of Phinergy's technology,” the Israeli company said.

“To assess the viability of wide-scale use in India, automakers Mahindra and Mahindra, Maruti Suzuki India, and Ashok Leyland are carrying out vehicle tests that are expected to take almost a year. If there's enough demand, Indian Oil and Phinergy plan to set up a gigawatt-scale facility to make the batteries in India”, Ramakumar added.

The success of the aluminium battery would help Prime Minister Narendra Modi's efforts to tackle three immediate problems for the country: cutting pollution, reducing raw material imports, and creating jobs.