Humiscope has built one of the largest ultra-dry rooms in Australia for lithium sulfur battery manufacturing.
It was built for ASX-listed R&D company, Li-S Energy. The company was created because lithium sulfur battery cells had a short life, they failed too quickly making them commercially unviable.
Li-S Energy has been able to solve this long standing issue, successfully creating a lightweight lithium sulfur battery with a cycle life approaching that of lithium ion.
To begin manufacturing the battery, Li-S set out to design and build a 220 square metre, 2MWH automated battery production facility in Geelong, Victoria.
It would be one of the largest lithium battery production rooms in Australia.
Lithium batteries require a dry environment to accommodate the automated anode production equipment. It also allows Li-S team to operate at full capacity without the restriction of inert gas enclosures or globe boxes.
Li-S Energy CEO, Dr Lee Finniear, immediately went in search of an Australian company that could do the job. As part of his research he spoke with the Queensland University of Technology’s National Battery Testing Centre (NETC).
In 2017 NETC produced Australia’s first lithium battery at its purpose built battery testing facility. The NETC were quick to recommend Gold Coast based Humiscope who had previously provided advice on desiccant dehumidification technology.
Humiscope has been in operation since 2015. The company can design and build controlled environments using customised HVACR systems with a special focus on dehumidification technology.
Dr Finniear met with Humiscope director, John Morgan and lead mechanical engineer, Ladan Bage, and was impressed by their technical knowledge. Morgan and Bage began the design phase with Humiscope’s draftswoman Paula Andrea-Gil in late 2022.
They needed to create an ultra-low humidity, ultra-dry room and antechamber at minus 45 dew point or lower at 22 degrees C. The custom designed room required fireproof walls and ceiling panels running at positive pressure of 40 pascals, with the antechamber at 20 pascals.
To achieve this, Humiscope designed a desiccant dehumidifier to create a dry environment where the dry air is circulated into the room through a maze of sealed ducting and filtration systems.
The unit was manufactured in Europe by Humiscope’s long-time supplier, TFT Dry Air Solutions.
Today the dry room is operational and has a complex external infrastructure, including a large external chiller that works in tandem with the desiccant dehumidifier to dry the atmosphere.
The room includes a sealed airlock that enables the production teams to enter and leave the dry room while preventing the external atmosphere from contaminating the facility.
The reason behind all this careful planning and design is that lithium reacts strongly with moisture. When lithium metal and water in the air mix, the reaction is exothermic (generates heat) and can lead to burning or even explosion. Moisture sealed inside the battery can react even after the battery is completed.
With the critical need for the room to be completely sealed and free of moisture, Humiscope commissioned a pressure test to verify there were no air leaks through panel joins or at any other area where entry points were created such as electrical outlets, ducting etc.
The system currently maintains a constant temperature of 22 degrees Celsius and a dew point of -55 degrees.