Lithium Innovation Center

Project Description

The main goal of the Lithium Innovation Center (CIL, for its Spanish acronym) is to promote and contribute to the growth of the national lithium industry through the creation of an applied research area on the use of this element on advanced batteries for electric vehicles. The objective of this task is to solve four big issues associated with ION lithium batteries in the near future:

• Reducing 80% of their current price.
• Increasing their autonomy to over 300 Km, maintaining their current size and weight.
• Reducing their fast charge time to less than 15 minutes.
• Increasing their useful life to over 10 years (more than 1.000 charge cycles).

This center also supports the training of new professionals and specialists in this field, the creation of products and services with added value, and the exploration of new business models in Chile.

Origin and Contributions

The CIL Project started in 2010 as an initiative of the Centro de Energía of the Physics and Math Faculty at Universidad de Chile. Its operation over time has been made possible thanks to the collaboration of various companies and institutions, such as Soquimich, Chemetall, Marubeni, Finland’s VTT, Spain’s ICN, Antofagasta’s CELIMIN, as well as the support from Universidad de Chile, Universidad Católica, Universidad de Antofagasta, and Universidad de Santiago.