Researchers at Cornell University have developed a method that cuts a critical stage of lithium-ion battery manufacturing by up to 60%, potentially saving large factories as much as $100 million in production costs.Developed in collaboration with New York-based battery company Charge CCCV (C4V), the approach uses real-time measurements to monitor chemical changes inside batteries during their initial charging and discharging cycles.The process, known as battery formation, creates protective layers inside a battery that influence its performance and lifespan. It is among the most expensive and time-consuming stages of lithium-ion cell production.According to the researchers, formation accounts for roughly one-third of battery production costs and occupies about a quarter of a manufacturing facility’s floor space.By accelerating this stage, manufacturers could reduce production bottlenecks, free up factory space and lower overall electricity consumption by an estimated 10% to 15%.Monitoring batteries in real timeBattery formation typically involves repeated charging and discharging cycles under carefully controlled conditions. These cycles help establish protective interfaces between the electrodes and electrolyte.However, manufacturers have limited visibility into how these layers develop during the process. Determining whether a particular formation protocol will maintain long-term battery performance can require months or years of testing.“Evaluating formation processes is typically very trial and error,” said Vibha Kalra, a professor of chemical engineering at Cornell and the study’s principal investigator.“It can take months to years to effectively evaluate long-term performance because you’re letting the battery run for thousands of cycles.”To address this limitation, the researchers combined two diagnostic techniques that observe batteries while they operate.Operando Raman spectroscopy tracks chemical changes occurring at electrode surfaces, while electrochemical impedance spectroscopy measures changes in electrical resistance.Together, the techniques allowed researchers to monitor the development of protective layers and identify when important chemical and electrical properties stabilized.The team found that slower charging helped create more uniform, inorganic-rich protective layers, which are important for maintaining stable battery performance.However, the discharge stage could be accelerated without compromising the formation process.Crucially, key resistance measurements stabilized after just 1.5 cycles, providing an early indication of how the protective interfaces were developing.Factory tests show savingsUsing these findings, the researchers developed two accelerated formation protocols and tested them at C4V’s battery manufacturing facility in Binghamton, New York.Both protocols maintained performance comparable to the company’s conventional process while reducing formation time by approximately 60%.The results suggest that manufacturers could shorten a costly production stage without sacrificing the battery performance measured during testing.“This work demonstrates why strong partnerships between research institutions and cell manufacturers are so important for moving the battery industry forward,” said Shalabh Gupta, system engineering manager at C4V.Formation also accounts for approximately one-quarter of a battery factory’s electricity consumption.Gupta estimated that reducing formation time by half or more could lower overall factory electricity use by 10% to 15%.For large-scale operations producing more than 10 gigawatt-hours of batteries annually, the approach could deliver up to $100 million in reduced formation costs.However, those savings remain projections rather than independently verified commercial results.The research was supported through the National Science Foundation’s Energy Storage Engine in Upstate New York, which brings together universities and industry partners to advance battery technology.The findings could help manufacturers increase battery production capacity without proportionally expanding factory space or energy consumption.The findings were published in the journal Energy Storage Materials.