Scaling up Battery‐Electrode Drying from Lab to Pilot Scale: Match the Drivers, Not the Set Points

Ramping up new products or equipment for the production of electrodes for lithium-ion batteries can be very challenging. Even when process parameters have been derived at the laboratory or pilot scale, transferring them to industrial-scale machines can present additional challenges that can be costly in terms of time and money. This paper presents a physics-based drying model developed to describe the drying behavior of anode coatings in convective roll-to-roll pilot plant dryers. To this end, a dryer air condition model and an electrode-drying model were coupled to accurately predict the entire process. Drying kinetics were measured and compared between two pilot plants and a laboratory dryer. The results demonstrate that the model can accurately describe the complete temperature profile of the wet film and predict the exhaust-air dew point with precision across both pilot plant machines. The mean heat-transfer coefficient was identified as a physical parameter with which to compare the ventilation settings of different dryers, allowing for the transfer of machine parameters between different roll-to-roll machines. This tool can be used to shorten ramp-up phases or to transfer complex drying profiles or new electrode recipes from the lab to the pilot or industrial scale.