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H2020 project: SELF-sustained and Smart Battery Thermal Management Solution for Battery Electric Vehicles

The Challenge

The next generation of electrified vehicles (EV) will require ultra-fast charging, long range and long battery life without sacrificing cost for the buyers. Battery Thermal Management will play a key role as an enabling technology to make these trade-offs possible.

Right now, there is no electric car that can accept “ultra-fast charging” with charge rates between 150 kW and 350 kW, but upcoming EV models are expected to able to accept that kind of power. SELFIE aims to ensure that the EVs can accept this high charge rate (towards 5C, 140kW), and store the electric energy efficiently in their batteries with minimal losses.

The Project

The SELFIE project consortium consists of 10 leading partners, including i2m, CRF (Fiat Research Centre), AIT, Virtual Vehicle, and Fraunhofer. By 2022, the project partners will develop and demonstrate in a car:

A smart modular battery pack, which has excellent internal thermal conductivity properties, a refrigerant cooling system and a PCM based thermal storage system (heat buffer) capable of absorbing excess heat due to fast charging, and which is thoroughly insulated from the outside.
An advanced Battery Thermal Management System (BTMS), that is capable to keep the battery temperature effectively within the optimal window and to prevent overheating (and battery degradation) due to fast charging.

The specialised Phase-Change Material (PCM) developed by i2m will be further developed to TRL 6 and integrated into the demonstrator vehicle body, serving as a High-Performance Thermal Storage. It will complement the other components as part of the BTMS.

The Results

Currently the project is under development and will complete its work by 2022.

The project aims to deliver:

Enabling fast-charging up to 3 times faster than today for a 30 kWh battery pack.
Increase energy efficiency by 34-55% during winter and 17-20% during summer periods
Reduce the costs by 30% at pack level.
Enable long(er) distance trips through optimized battery thermal management.

Public results are disseminated through the SELFIE project website and through our i2m website. Please contact us for more information on the project or our PCM technology.

The Benefits of our PCM thermal storage technology for BTMS of EVs

Enabling fast charging with even downsized and therefore less costly components of BTMS (chiller, pumps etc.) by battery thermal preconditioning made possible by the thermal storage
Energy efficiency: latent heat storage equipped BTMS needs less energy to operate than todays active battery cooling systems allowing longer driving range of EV
Rapid uniform transfer of heat away from the battery saving battery lifetime

Read more about our High-Performance Thermal Storage technology > (link) > (link)

Visit the project website https://eu-project-selfie.eu

View the project video presentation on YouTube

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 824290