I-CoBat : Immersion-Cooled Battery

"The ability to charge batteries rapidly is one of the main barriers to the wider adoption of battery electric vehicles (BEVs). For longer journeys and for users who do not have the space or equipment to charge at home ultra-fast charging stations are the answer to alleviate range anxiety. However a key limiting factor to the adoption of fast charging is the battery itself and often the rate of charge from a fast charger is limited to prevent overheating of the battery cells.

This project aims to validate the concept of immersion cooling for vehicle batteries with a novel thermal management system design. The chosen coolant is a new ester-based dielectric liquid which has been developed to meet the needs of battery cooling. This liquid is also environmentally friendly, cost effective and expected to have a long lifetime in service, needing very little maintenance.

It is intended that this new thermal management method will allow much more rapid charging of vehicle batteries, to alleviate range anxiety and also prolong the lifetime of cells by avoiding high peak temperatures during fast charge. Immersion cooling is envisaged its first application on premium/luxury/high performance vehicle but this project will address the challenges to apply it also for mainstream applications.

Validation of the new cooling concept and fluid will be achieved through modelling and testing against the current state of the art cold plate cooling method, used widely in the automotive industry. In addition testing will be conducted to evaluate the ability of immersion cooling with ester liquid to prevent thermal runaway within a battery module."