Battery Thermal Management - Enabling Extremely Fast Charging

Decarbonisation of the automotive sector is key to reducing climate change. 72% of the CO2 emissions caused by transport in the EU are from road transport (EASAC, 2019). Globally, transportation emits 23% of energy-related CO2 - a proportion which could increase to 60% by 2050 (Crist, 2019).

Thankfully, Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) have the potential to eliminate tailpipe emissions and reduce global emissions when recharged from renewable sources. However, the uptake of BEVs has been hampered by concerns around cost, range and recharge times (Jolley, 2019). Reduction in the charge times would be enabled by advanced cooling technology which has the potential to control battery temperatures during high current charging. This project will ascertain the feasibility of using Qdot's cooling technology to address the thermal challenges of Extremely Fast Charging (XFC) - the addition of 200 miles of range within 10 mins - at a battery module level.

The need for increased range has led to a drive, within the automotive industry, to improve battery cell energy densities - both gravimetric and volumetric - to reduce the mass and size of BEV battery packs. Whilst on its own, increased energy density will lead to a need for improved thermal management systems, it is XFC that will dictate the peak cooling performance requirements due to the extreme volumetric heating rates that occur in the battery cells during this process.

Qdot has developed class leading convective cooling technology which is able to extract high levels of heat over small areas that will solve this thermal challenge. Qdot's vision is to enable XFC using cooling technology developed for the extreme heat flux conditions that occur in a nuclear fusion tokamak. If this application is successful, the grant will enable Qdot to apply this technology to XFC.