Weiss Technik builds a dry room system in Norway

As the market leader in the field of environmental simulation, Weiss Technik is also the first choice for scientific institutes when it comes to plant engineering. For SINTEF, Scandinavia’s largest independent research organisation based in Trondheim, Weiss Technik is planning and implementing a dry room for the development and production of lithium-ion batteries. Norway, in particular, is committed to the transformation to new energy sources and is giving battery cell production a strong push.

SINTEF has been developing scientific know-how in the fields of tech-nology, natural sciences, medicine and social sciences for more than 70 years now. The Norwegian institute is currently building a research facility for research and development as well as production of lithium-ion batteries for the electric drives of the future. To build this competence centre, SINTEF is relying on Weiss Technik as its partner for the dry room system. Dry rooms are crucial for efficient and safe battery production. A constant room climate with extremely low humidity is crucial for the quality and functional safety of the lithium-ion batteries with regard to the moisture-sensitive production process.

Maximum dehumidified room air

To keep the extremely dry production climate constant under all conditions, the dry room is separated airtight from the surrounding production building as a room-in-room solution. A slight overpressure of the system protects the chamber from the penetration of humid outside air.  Inside the chamber, moisture is removed from the air according to the principle of adsorption dehumidification: The air stream to be dried flows through a layer of fibre fleece, which has a structure of bonded silica gel and metal silicate, and is dehumidified to the required dew point temperature. In the counterflow, the moisture adsorbed in the silica gel is expelled by means of hot regeneration air. With this system, a continuous dehumidification process with dew point temperatures between -40 and -70 degrees can be achieved.

Energy-efficient overall system

For the SINTEF system, Weiss Technik is designing and supplying the cell construction and the demand-oriented dehumidification technology for the dry room, which measures around 155 square metres. The customer’s target is a constant dew point temperature in the room of -42.5 degrees Celsius with maximum energy efficiency. This is achieved by using one of the most efficient dehumidification systems on the market. The system in Trondheim will be able to be commissioned as early as mid-2022.