Almost 80% of India’s energy demand is met by fossil fuels. But the reservoirs of these resources are limited and their overuse is causing pollution, loss of biodiversity, irreparable damage to nature. At the same time, with the increase in demand for fossil fuels our economy continues to falter over oil exporting countries. With the 2nd largest population and 3rd largest economy with a purchasing power parity basis, a large part of the budget goes for it. Most importantly, India stands 4th largest energy consumer besides China, USA and European Union and is believed to overtake the European Union.
Almost 18% of total consumption of energy in India is accounted for transport systems, which is expected to be more than double over the next two decades. But given the skyrocketing prices of petrol and diesel in recent times, there has been no alternative but the use of renewable sources. Ultimately, increasing the use of renewable energy such as solar energy and electrochemical-based energy systems, would be in the best interest of human beings, which in turn would lead to attain economic and international political autonomy.
Electrochemical-based systems
Electrochemical-based systems can come in various forms such as Fuel cells, Supercapacitors and Batteries. More to it, even hybrid systems are being tried out where they give collective performance with the combined mechanisms of batteries and supercapacitors. It not only replaces the present fuel quota, but also comes with other advantages including decline of the carbon emissions leading to decrease in environmental degradation, which fulfills the climate change commitments made by Government of India during the COP21 Summit held at Paris to reduce emission intensity by 33- 35% by 2030 from 2005 levels.
Steps taken by our government
To achieve this, the Indian government has planned and carried out various missions where they have promoted every automobile industry existing in India to dedicate a plant for electric vehicles by 2022. They have kept a vision to scrap out every conventional transport system working on fossil fuels by 2030 and replace entire country’s transport systems powered by batteries, CNG, bio-fuels or fuel cells.
The National Electric Mobility Mission Plan launched in 2012 targets 30% of EV penetration by 2030. Similarly, Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric vehicles (FAME) is a phase I &II plan that offers incentives over the Electric Vehicles (EV). Many esteemed industries including Mahindra Electric, TATA Motors, Hyundai, are coming forward to adopt this technology to create a boon out of it. Also, various global establishments have realized India’s innovation specific policy support and its global potential market and hence coming forward to invest in India.
Besides, the Government of India started the Electric Vehicles (EV) Accelerator program in association with the partnership of Huddle and growX ventures. Accelerator program supported upfront investment of up to $150,000. It also gave an opportunity to raise an investment of $500,000 and above from a larger network of mentors, investors and corporations on a demo day to showcase their efforts.
Some of the top ongoing start-ups in the market:
- Ather Energy-Bengaluru Boon (bike and electric charging grid)
- Yulu-Rent a ride out (scooter and bicycle renting)
- Tork- (electric motorcycle and charging infrastructure)
- Euler- Transportation electrified (light commercial electric vehicles for intra-city transportation and battery packs for their vehicles)
- Emote Electrics- Electric on gears (high power motorcycles, fastest e-bikes with gears)
- Revolt motors- Revolting against oil (Al enabled e-bike)
- Ultraviolette Automotive- Ultra electric (electric motorcycle equivalent to conventional motorcycle with 200-250 cc segment)
- Strom- Taking the car industry by storm (3-wheel and 2-wheel sector with fully charged vehicles in 3 hrs, the same as that of standard mobile phone)
- Orxa Energies- Electrically amped (electric bikes going from 0 to 100 km/hr in 8 sec.)
- Emflux Motors- Electric in efflux (fastest electric bike going from 0 to 100 km/hr in 3 sec with top speed of 200 Kmph)
- Ola Electric (electric scooters made with Al enabled robots)
- Hero Electric (developer of electric scooters)
- GMW (developer of electric rickshaws and bicycles)
- Sun Mobility (Operator of swappable battery stations for electric vehicles for 2 and 3 wheelers and also provides battery solutions for buses)
Pros and cons of Lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries
At present Lithium-ion batteries are on the forefront of powering every system with best performance and stability compared with the conventional lead-acid batteries. It not only provides high storage capacity in the range of 110-250 Wh/kg (for lead acid its 30-40 Wh/kg), but also the charging time of Li-ion batteries is less as compared to conventional one. It is comparably light weight benefiting its easy installation. It has low maintenance and provides high cell voltage (3.6 V), which decreases the number of cells in battery applications and its broad use from small devices such as smartphones to large applications like EV.
Need and solution of the hour
Right now, only 1% of total vehicle sale constitutes for electric vehicles. We need long lasting, quick-charging batteries for the expansion of the electric vehicle market, which seeks another viable option to fulfil the need of the hour. Moreover, since India does not have sufficient Lithium resources, it has to be imported from Chile, China, etc. leading to dependency and cost issues. Due to this, cost of electric vehicles is not in the range of a common man, which solely depends on high cost of raw materials. Fortunately, TES have been emerged as low-cost solution as sodium is abundantly available and its low-cost extraction- purification makes it a potential candidate against lithium. It demonstrates almost 20% higher performance with the same amount of electrolyte used in Li-ion batteries, making it work in low concentration for cost reduction. Due to absence of over-discharge characteristics, it is allowed to discharge to 0 volts unlike for lithium, which makes lithium-ion batteries useless when fully discharged and need to be kept above the optimum charge value. It provides energy density of 75-165 Wh/kg, which is quite comparable. Its abundance in earth, high stability, high safety, low weight and cost effectiveness have attracted a scientific community and its commercialization will soon be realized.
Nevertheless, inconvenience faced due to non-availability of charge stations at concerned places, lack of infrastructure for charging at homes, rental houses, for homeless people, etc. are some major concerns at the moment. People are also sceptical about the safety of batteries in EV as they consist of chemicals and air sensitive material like lithium, whose mishandling, damage or exposure to air leads to explosion.
On an average, practically one can use these batteries for 3-4 years, which demands its replacement, recycling or proper disposal. Dumping of waste is always out of the equation as it contains hazardous chemicals, harming not only with direct contact but also through air, water and soil. People around the world are working with recycling where they could extract the active material and other components and reuse it after proper treatment, which also has its own challenges as it’s not a virgin material and could compromise productivity. To overcome this, they are also trying to perform various treatments and addition of additives. Other developed countries such as Korea and Japan import used batteries from India. Many industries in India are trying to recycle the batteries, which is also a potential market for consumers. Companies like Gravita India Ltd., Tata Chemicals Ltd, Mahindra Electric, TES-AMM, Exigo, Sungeel Hi-metal, ECOTantra, EXIMO Recycling have already started their units. Battery swapping is also a considerable option, which could help consumers to connect directly with industries for battery recycling.
Battery production and recycling in India
The Government of India is trying to promote industries, which could not only have battery production and recycling units but also trying to couple them up with the raw materials and component producers from India itself. It would not only bring down the prices of the EV but also grant employment for skilled people in the industry sector. It is also trying to maximize the charging stations by partnering up with various petrol and gas stations to provide accessibility for Electric Vehicles with all the amenities needed for it. It will not only help India to fully electrify but also help to develop this technology on the home ground with resources and power solely belonging to the country, which could also help to boost the country’s economy. It would also help to invest in innovation rather than basic cost leading to a cost-effective model resulting in penetration of product at every level of society fulfilling the vision of Dr APJ Kalam’s India.
Dr. L. D. Jadhav has specialization in the field of Electrochemical Energy Materials including Battery and Solid Oxide Fuel Cell materials, Thin films, Nanomaterials and Energy Science. She is presently a Professor of Physics at Govt. of Maharashtra’s Rajaram College and I/C Director, Pre IAS Training Center, Kolhapur.
Rohan S. Kamat is currently a Ph.D. research scholar at Electrochemical Energy Materials Laboratory, Rajaram College, Kolhapur (MH, India). His research interests include Synthesis of MXene and its composites and their applications in electrochemical energy storage devices (Supercapacitors and Batteries).
