TU Graz showcases electric car battery research at “Lange Nacht der Forschung”

On May 24, 2024, the Vehicle Safety Institute (VSI) at TU Graz (TUG) participated in the Austrian-wide event “Lange Nacht der Forschung” (Long Night of Research), an initiative aimed at promoting research to the public. TU Graz set up an engaging stand and held a fascinating demonstration titled “What happens when an e-car battery reaches its limit?”

At the event, visitors had the unique opportunity to explore the pioneering work conducted at VSI’s Battery Safety Center (BSCG). Researchers there are dedicated to pushing the limits of electric car batteries, including abusive tests such as crashing batteries into a crashwall at 100 km/h to evaluate their resilience and safety. This hands-on approach not only ensures the safety of future electric vehicles but also contributes to the overall advancement of battery technology.

Patrick Höschele, Project Senior Scientist at the Graz University of Technology’s Vehicle Safety Institute, and his colleagues Christoph Drießen and Jun Yin, both PhD candidates, represented the NEMO project at the event.

Within the NEMO project, TU Graz is focused on developing a physics-based swelling model and a state of safety (SOS) algorithm, utilizing advanced techniques like electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The Battery Safety Center at TU Graz facilitates precise validation tests for these SOS algorithms, using battery cells at 100% state of charge (SOC) in a controlled laboratory environment.

Attendees of the Long Night of Research were invited to visit the Vehicle Safety Institute station, gaining firsthand insights into the innovative methods and safety measures being developed to enhance the performance and safety of electric car batteries. This initiative highlights TU Graz’s commitment to cutting-edge research and its practical applications in the real world, contributing to safer and more reliable electric vehicles for the future.

Patrick Höschele, Christoph Drießen and Jun Yin at the Lange Nacht der Forschung in Graz (Austria)

NEMO project joins the BRIDGE initiative

The NEMO (NExt-generation MOdels for advanced battery electronics) project has recently become a part of the BRIDGE initiative.

BRIDGE is the EU Commission initiative that brings together Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe projects focusing on Smart Grid, Energy Storage, Islands, and Digitalization. Its main aim is to address common challenges and facilitate knowledge sharing among selected projects committed to achieving a resilient, decarbonised, and integrated energy system.

NEMO’s entry into the initiative aligns with its focus on digitalization. With more than 100 ongoing projects involved in BRIDGE, NEMO joins the collaborative effort, leveraging collective expertise, allowing them to deliver conclusions and recommendations about the future exploitation of the project results with a single voice.

The consortium behind NEMO, including its coordinator and experts, will actively participate in BRIDGE’s working groups, particularly the Data management and Business models working groups.

The current areas of focus of the Data Management group are:

Communication infrastructure – this entails enhancing technical means for effective exchange of data
Cybersecurity and data privacy – this encompasses data integrity, customer privacy and protection
Data handling – this entails establishing the framework for data exchange and related roles and responsibilities

The key areas of the Business Models group are:

Design of tools for Evaluating Benefits and Values of services and solutions emerging from project activities
Business Model Design for Data Value Chain Integration

This represents a new step towards NEMO’s commitment to collaborating with relevant initiatives and projects, aiming to accelerate advancements in battery electronics.

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Photo: Filipe Paulo via Unsplash

NEMO unveils aspirations for advancing battery management systems in new presentation video

Towards addressing challenges in battery management systems (BMS) for electric vehicles and stationary storage, the NEMO project has introduced its innovative approach through a newly released presentation video.

The video underscores the importance of efficiency and safety in battery operations, pointing out the limitations of existing BMS that often rely on a limited amount of observed data and simplified battery models. This European project seeks to overcome these challenges by advancing BMS with a combination of new hardware and software concepts, leveraging in-situ and in-operando electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) sensing, along with active cell switching for balancing at cell-level and sufficient computing power to execute real-time advanced models and algorithms.

NEMO’s video introduces its ambitious goals, including the prediction of critical issues unrelated to severe mechanical impacts, extending first-life battery duration by at least 20%, and capturing failure modes with 100% accuracy. By focusing on advancements in digital battery management, NEMO aims to position the European BMS industry as a leader in innovation.

As the project is still in progress, viewers are encouraged to stay connected with NEMO through its website and social media channels to receive updates on developments and milestones.