Gigafactories fueling renewable energy transition through automation control technologies

Gigafactories: Fueling renewable energy transition through automation control technologies, was presented by Michael Kennelly, Vertical Leader, Sheet and Giga, Honeywell Process Solutions, and Ms. Sarah Martin, President, Honeywell Sensing and Safety Technologies, at the Honeywell conference in Chicago, USA.

On the path to decarbonization, there is global focus on sustainability, enabling renewable energy transformation. Gigafactory, large-scale battery manufacturing plants, enables adoption of electric vehicle and renewable energy storage. Honeywell’s advanced technologies are supporting optimizing every step of battery manufacturing.

Projected job growth is 21% for electrical, electronic, and electromechanical assemblers in EV battery manufacturing from 2021-2031. Global battery demand will grow to 3.6 TWh from 2022-2030 at 34% CAGR. This year, the EU approved a law to ban sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2035, aiming to speed up the transition to EVs.

Honeywell is optimizing every step of the battery lifecycle. In mining and mineral processing,
it is enhancing efficiency, and minimizing environmental impact. Battery material production has seen high quality and sustainability in raw material transformation. Gigafactory / battery production is toward building the future with rapid gigafactory expansions. Thee can be effective energy Management for a greener tomorrow. For recycling, it is creating possibilities for used resources.

In the gigafactory, Honeywell’s encompassing end-to-end solutions include material receiving through finished goods, electrode production, cell creation and finishing. Gigafactory is meant for building the future. There is an integrated manufacturing excellence platform, bringing quality-focused operations from life science to battery manufacturing. Data and user apps are ontegrated in a ‘single pane of glass- SPOG’. It helps achieve faster scale-up and increase A Grade cell yields. Online quality measurement and control is from sheet manufacturing. We are also reducing batch startup losses.

We have bidirectional product genealogy and traceability. There is full traceability from slurry-to-cell. It enables rapid root cause analysis and proactive corrective actions. We can minimize the recall risk.

Li-Ion tamer provides the earliest possible alert for potential battery failure – up to 30 minutes advance notification. This allows time for successful suppression. It detects an individual cell malfunction within a battery rack across all Li-ion chemistries. We can also prevent thermal runaway battery fires

Ms. Sarah Martin, Honeywell, added that gigafactories will be critical, though, they come with risk to workers. Top hazards in the EV industry include electrocution and electric shock, burns, fire, exposure to continual, loud noise. There is also exposure to toxic and combustible gases, lack of oxygen, and arc flash and arc blast.

Honeywell offers solutions across gigafactory processes. These include mixing, coating and drying, cell assembly, filling, formation, degassing and sealing, and EOL testing and shorting. Workers are also protected from portable and fixed gas detection, and have electrical safety gear and protective equipment.