The Volta Foundation have just released the 2024 edition of their annual Battery Report. These reports are well-renowned in the industry and cover the most important developments in battery research, policy and business landscape. We at Mewburn Ellis were delighted to participate in this year’s report, as Mewburn Ellis partner Callum McGuinn contributed an analysis of the battery patent landscape.
In this series of articles, we will spotlight and digest some of the key technology areas and trends identified within the 2024 report. This first article looks at the adoption of battery technologies in marine and space transportation.
Marine Technology
The growth in the use of electric vehicles has been one of the most significant technological developments of the 21st century so far. Electric cars, in particular, have received enormous attention.
As battery technologies continue to advance, so too does the breadth of vehicles they can be harnessed to electrify. The Volta Foundation’s Battery Report 2024 predicts a four-fold increase – to the tune of $1.7 billion – in the European battery market for marine applications by 2032. This includes hybrid- and full-electric systems in vessels ranging from ferries to recreational craft.
Lithium-ion batteries are the preferred battery type for electrified marine vessels: the report highlights that over 35% of them are Li-ion powered (see below chart, taken from page 180 of the report). Li-ion batteries have high energy densities, making them effective for powering larger vehicles such as ships, while also being small enough to allow room for passengers and cargo.
The Battery Report features several examples of electric ferries being used on popular transport routes within the UK, Scandinavia, and connecting the UK to mainland Europe. Ferries are well placed to benefit from battery power: the short, regular routes of ferries provide ample opportunity for recharging without having to rely on several different ports having charging facilities.
As we highlighted in a recent article in collaboration with Ship Technology, organic flow batteries are emerging as an eco-friendly solution to in-port charging stations. Prominent academic institutions such as Harvard University hold impressive portfolios of granted patents relating to quinone-based flow batteries. Interest from industry is growing quickly in this area too, with big players such as Mitsubishi, LG and Sumitomo also having filed several new patent applications in recent years. Patents are crucial assets for protecting new inventions and can be used as early indicators of technological developments.
Space Technology
While the growth of battery-powered vehicles is one major technological success, another is the rise of commercial space exploration. Excitingly, companies such as SpaceX have brought together these pioneering fields to overcome some of the biggest challenges in space travel.
One headline-grabbing feature of SpaceX rockets is their ability to manoeuvre (“gimbal”) so that they land vertically after re-entry from orbit. This allows the rocket to be reused for further flights, which SpaceX sees as critical to making space travel commercially viable.
To achieve this, SpaceX’s Starship engines are equipped with gimbal actuators powered using batteries. Starships have also used grid fins powered by Tesla batteries to make minor course corrections during the controlled descent.
As the Battery Report highlights, different types of space missions encounter unique challenges. A mission to the moon can be relatively short, but the spacecraft must withstand very cold temperatures at lunar night (−130 °C), very hot temperatures in lunar day (+120 °C), and high levels of radiation exposure. A mission to Mars takes much longer and also involves extreme cold, but the maximum temperatures are milder (+20 °C) and radiation levels are lower.
Consequently, the most suitable batteries to use on a spacecraft depend on the conditions those batteries will experience during the flight. For example, Plutonium-238 cells have been proposed for lunar expeditions because of their excellent temperature stabilities, while the lander in NASA’s InSight mission to Mars used lithium-ion batteries with graphite anodes and NCA cathodes.
It will be fascinating to observe how innovation progresses in the chemistry, materials and physical design of extraterrestrial batteries over the coming years, in order to stand up to the extreme conditions of space. In addition, as patent attorneys, we at Mewburn Ellis will be interested to see whether international agreements and intellectual property law evolve in future, in order to provide greater patent protection for inventions when they are implemented in space.
A Battery-Powered Future?
As the Battery Report explains, the electrification of larger vehicles such as marine vessels and rockets is a small but rapidly developing industry. Batteries are lasting longer, and becoming more powerful and resilient. While cars are often the first thing that comes to mind when EVs are mentioned, the impressive ongoing progress in battery development is taking this technology beyond roads, and to the stars and the seas.
