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.