The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) $712,500 to investigate the behaviour of lithium-ion batteries during charge and discharge.
The contract is one of 19 projects being awarded funding by the DoE from the $43 million set aside for the Department’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) to develop breakthrough energy storage technologies.
“This contract will give us the opportunity to analyze the capacity and health of lithium-ion batteries over time,” said Jeff Xu, a principal scientist in SwRI’s Engine, Emissions and Vehicle Research Division and a co-principal investigator of the project. “This early-stage development research is a new method for analyzing battery capacity and health that will help us improve lithium-ion battery life and recharge rates.”
“The research will utilize SwRI’s combined expertise in cell chemistry, cell testing and control system development to provide a positive contribution in the area of EV/HEV/PHEV safety,” added Joe Steiber, co-principal investigator and a principal engineer, also in the Engine, Emissions and Vehicle Research Division.
The SwRI project, entitled ”Strain Estimation Technology for Lithium-Ion Batteries,” will take two years to complete and will explore the potential of tracking physical expansion and contraction of lithium-ion batteries during charge and discharge cycles.
Source: Southwest Research Institute
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