.gif)
.gif)
Industry News
August 6, 2012
Industry, Academia, and Government Working to Extend Battery Life in EVs
In what could propel electric vehicles (EVs) miles down the road toward commercial viability, GE researchers, in partnership with Ford Motor CompanyUniversity of Michigan, will develop a smart, miniaturized sensing system that has the potential to significantly extend the life of car batteries over conventional battery systems used in electric vehicles today.
Recommended: DOE Selects Consortium to Develop Next-Generation Batteries for Automobiles
"The car battery remains the greatest barrier and most promising opportunity to bringing EVs mainstream." said Aaron Knobloch, principal investigator and mechanical engineer at GE Global Research. "Improvements in the range, cost and life of the battery will all be needed for EVs to be competitive. With better sensors and new battery analytics, we think we can make substantial progress at increasing battery life. This, in turn, could help bring down its overall cost and the cost entitlement of buying an electric car."
To improve the life and reduce the lifecycle cost of EV batteries, GE will combine a novel ultrathin battery sensor system with sophisticated modeling of cell behavior to control and optimize battery management systems. Today’s sensors on EVs and plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEVs) measure the health of the battery by looking at factors such as its temperature, voltage, and current. However, these measurements provide a limited understanding of a battery’s operation and health. The goal of the ARPA-E project will be to develop small, cost effective sensors with new measurement capabilities. Due to their small size, these sensors will be placed in areas of the battery where existing sensor technologies cannot be currently located. The combination of small size and ability to measure new quantities will enable a much better understanding of battery performance and life.
A group of scientists from the University of Michigan, led by Anna Stefanopoulou, a professor of mechanical engineering, will use the data generated by GE sensors to verify advanced battery models. They will ultimately create schemes that use instantaneous sensor data to predict future battery-cell and battery-pack behavior.
"Ensuring a battery’s health over many cycles requires taking frequent snapshots of its condition as it ages. Control systems on cars have to be able to use this vast amount of data quickly and efficiently. Information provided by advanced sensors will allow us to create and verify finely resolved physical models to underpin battery management schemes," said Charles Monroe, a chemical engineering professor on the University of Michigan team. He added, "The big challenge is to make battery management programs adapt and work fast."
The use of sensors in conjunction with real-time models will enable novel algorithms that optimize how the battery system is managed to extend its life. To demonstrate the capabilities of the sensor system and analytics, Ford will integrate them into one of their vehicles for validation.
Tony Philips, Senior Technical Leader, Vehicle Controls, Research and Engineering, Ford Motor Company, said. "This collaboration brings together a diverse set of experts on sensor technology, controls and modeling, and automotive engineering to innovate on some of the most critical elements of battery technology. Ultimately, through this collaboration we anticipate being able to deliver more cost effective and durable battery system solutions to our customers."
The goal of this 3-year / $3.1 million program is to demonstrate a working sensing system in an actual electric vehicle.
The Department of Energy (DOE) announced that a team of engineers at Washington University in St. Louis will receive $2 million to design a battery management system for lithium-ion batteries that will guarantee their longevity, safety and performance.
The project is one of 12 that won funding from the DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) under the new AMPED program that focuses on innovations in battery management and storage to advance electric vehicle technologies and to help improve the efficiency and reliability of the electrical grid.
"This initiative is part of a broader effort to strengthen the university’s expertise in energy-related technologies," says Pratim Biswas, PhD, chair of the Department of Energy, Environmental & Chemical Engineering in the School of Engineering & Applied Science. "While this grant targets car batteries," he says, "the technology is also directly applicable to intermittent sources of energy such as solar that produce energy that may need to be buffered rather than plugged directly into electrical grid."
The AMPED award goes to the Modeling, Analysis and Process-control Laboratory for Electrochemical systems (MAPLE) in the Department of Energy, Environmental & Chemical Engineering, led by Venkat Subramanian, PhD, associate professor.
Lithium-ion batteries are what are called secondary cells, because the electrochemical reactions that create a current are reversible and the battery can be recharged. The more familiar primary cells, in contrast are used once and thrown away. The lithium is stored in metallic (uncharged) form inside the particles of a graphic electrode, explained Subramanian. During discharge the lithium comes to the electrode’s surface, where it is ionized, creating a current that travels to the cathode. At the cathode, typically a lithium-based alloy, the ions are neutralized and enter electrode particles as metallic lithium. The battery is recharged by forcing a current to flow in the opposite direction, moving the lithium back into the anode.
Lithium-ion batteries hold great promise for applications such as electric vehicles because they have high energy density (energy stored per unit volume) and lose charge very slowly when not in use. No battery is perfect and lithium-ion batteries, like all batteries, have drawbacks. If the batteries are charged too fast, they can heat up and may explode. To avoid catastrophic failure, manufacturers overdesign the batteries and use only part of their energy capacity per cycle, Subramanian said.
"The goal of the AMPED program is to push the current technology to 100-percent efficiency, while making sure battery lifetime is not compromised," Subramanian said. This would ultimately reduce the weight of the car and improve its energy efficiency.
"If you can predict what will happen inside the battery, you can push the battery to do more per cycle," Subramanian says. "Currently empirical (experience based) models that have no predictive capability are used to manage the batteries. This is why manufacturers over-stack the material; they have no idea what’s happening inside."
There are physics-based models of lithium-ion batteries but they are computationally intensive and can’t be solved in real time by the usual methods. This is where the MAPLE lab comes in. The engineers plan to use a class of simulation techniques called spectral methods aided by mathematical analysis to solve a physics-based model’s differential equations. Spectral methods should allow them to cut down on the model’s computational demands so that it runs faster.
The Battery Management System (BMS), MAPLE lab develop will keep the battery operating optimally, enabling maximum utilization of energy at all times.
More news and information regarding the latest developments in Smart Grid electronics can be found at Darnell’s SmartGridElectronics.Net.
Share this story
Send via E-mail
Post to Twitter
On the Web:
Ford Motor Co.
GE Global Research
University of Michigan
US Department of Energy
Washington University in St. Louis
White Papers
March 11, 2013
Power Modules for Charger Applications
Sponsored by Vincotech
February 27, 2013
The Adaptive Cell Converter Topology Enables Constant Efficiency Over Universal Input AC Line in Front-End, High-Density Power Factor Correction Applications
Sponsored by Vicor Corp.
February 27, 2013
From 48 V direct to Intel VR12.0: Saving "Big Data" $500,000 per datacenter, per year
Sponsored by Vicor Corp.
More White Papers
- Altera Acquires Enpirion for $140 Million, Forms Power Business Unit
- Ericsson Saves Board Space with Surface-Mount Digital Bus Converter
- SiC Modules, IGBTs and Super-Junction MOSFETs Introduced on Day One of PCIM
- SiC and GaN Again a Major Focus at PCIM Europe
- PowerbyProxi Joins Wireless Power Consortium
- Vincotech and Infineon Introduce New Packaging Options at PCIM Europe
- Bosch Claims First Sub-$450 240V EV Charging Station
- Eaton and CA Technologies Join to Deliver Infrastructure Management for Data Centers
- DOE Selects Consortium to Develop Next-Generation Batteries for Automobiles
- Dana Receives Grant from NRCan to Improve Thermal Management for EV Battery Packs
- Renesas Adds IGBT Drivers with Micro-Isolator for Electric and Hybrid Vehicle Inverters
- European Project Reports Achievements in Drive to Shape the Future of Power Microelectronics
- Bosch Claims First Sub-$450 240V EV Charging Station
- Vicor Reports Reduced Q1 Results – Anticipates a Brighter Future
- GE Opens $1.5 Million New Product Introduction Accelerator Lab
- Alpha and Omega Delivers "Lowest" On-Resistance in a DFN5x6 with 150V Power MOSFET
- ROHM Claims New Hybrid MOS Combines the Best Characteristics of MOSFETs and IGBTs
- SL Packs 60 Watts of Industrial-Grade AC-DC Power in Small and Robust Package
- 500W Full-Brick DC-DC Converter Optimized for Fuel Cell Applications
- Altera Acquires Enpirion for $140 Million, Forms Power Business Unit
- Green Building Power Forum 2010: Fujitsu Components America
- Darnell's Digital Power Forum 2009: CUI Incorporated
- Green Building Power Forum 2010: EMerge Alliance
- Green Building Power Forum 2010: Anderson Power Products
- Green Building Power Forum 2009: Independence Station
- Darnell's Digital Power Forum 2009: Coilcraft
- Darnell's Digital Power Forum 2009: Champs Technologies
- Darnell's Digital Power Forum 2009: EXAR Corporation
- Darnell's Digital Power Forum 2009: PMBus
- Darnell's Digital Power Forum 2009: Power Plaza
Design Features
October 22, 2012
Energy Efficiency with Class D Amplifier Modules
Class-D switching amplifiers are helping audio designers create personal multimedia devices and home audio/visual systems that demonstrate how compact and stylish equipment can also deliver high sound quality and high audio output power. The key to this breakthrough, providing freedom from the large and bulky boxes housing traditional audio products, lies in the class-D amplifier’s high energy efficiency, which is typically around 90%. This allows designers to reduce or eliminate heatsinks as well as using smaller-sized PCBs and smaller components such as transformers, connectors and power supplies.
Design Features
October 8, 2012
The Role of Hall Effect Sensors in Power Distribution Infrastructure
Power distribution units (PDUs) form an essential part of modern computing and data communications hardware. They provide multiple outputs for transferring electrical power with maximum efficiency, controlling the power capacity and safeguarding against the possible causes of supply interruption. With an ever increasing need from tech savvy consumers for higher data throughput and greater quantities of data storage capacity, as well as tough international legislation now governing CO&sub2; emissions, the demands being placed on these units are proving challenging for engineering teams to satisfy.
Product Focus
August 13, 2012
The Year in AC-DC Power Supply Technology
The past year witnessed significant new product releases, technological developments, and industry news related to the field of AC-DC Power Supply technology.