Latest Technology in Battery for Electrical Vehicles - Research Paper Example

Latest Technology in Battery for Electrical Vehicles Latest Technology in Battery for Electrical Vehicles Electric vehicles are relatively fast and quiet with almost zero pollution to the environment. They are, therefore, quick and have a range that allows movement within the cities (Czapnik et al., 2015). These vehicles avoid environmental pollution that is associated with other conventional vehicles, including carbon dioxide emission from combusting gasoline. However, electric vehicles account for a small portion of automotive sales (Czapnik et al., 2015). The main reason for their low sales is because the batteries that propel them are extremely expensive. Moreover, these cells need to be frequently recharged. Since the discovery of electric cars, countless breakthroughs in technology have been made over the previous decade. These innovations are aimed at translating into commercial batteries that store energy and are cost effective. Improving the electric drive vehicle batteries, such as plug-in electric vehicles and hybrid electric vehicles is critical enhancing the environmental, economic, and social sustainability (Czapnik et al., 2015). In essence, changing to light-duty hybrid electric vehicles and plug-in electric vehicles may reduce a country’s dependence on foreign oil by approximately 60% and also reduce emission of greenhouse gas by about 50% (Czapnik et al., 2015). However, these reductions are dependent on the particular mix of technologies employed. With the numerous electric vehicles that are being made available on the market, efforts to make further improvements in electric vehicle batteries would not only make these cars more affordable but also more convenient to consumers. The vehicle technologies office has come up with numerous initiatives that focus on reducing the weight, cost, and volume of the batteries, while concurrently improving the performance of the electric vehicle batteries in terms of durability, energy, and power (Harris, 2012). The ability of these cells to tolerate cruel conditions is also improved. Besides light duty vehicles, manufacturers of some heavy duty vehicles are emulating hybridization of heavy and medium duty vehicles to enhance fuel economy. Realizing the goals of these researchers in these areas as well as commercializing innovative energy storage technologies enables more individuals to buy and use these electric drive vehicles (Harris, 2012). Moreover, this latest technology in electric vehicle batteries helps the energy department to meet the electric vehicle needs. This makes the United States the first nation globally, to produce affordable plug-in electric cars. This allows the average families in America to purchase such vehicles. The most vital part of the electric vehicles is the battery that drives power (Harris, 2012). Conventional car batteries are commonly known as lead acid batteries. These batteries have unlike efficiency levels (Harris, 2012). Typical lead acid batteries required one to arrange maintenance and refilling of cells.On the other hand, sealed lead acid batteries, need no maintenance since the cells are sealed hence no evaporation occurs. The vehicle technology office focuses on three main areas of study in electric vehicle batteries (Jandura & Bukvic, 2013). The first area they pursue is the exploratory battery materials examination. Here, this office deals with fundamental issues concerning materials as well as electrochemical relations connected with lithium as well as beyond lithium batteries. The research seeks to create new and favorable materials, using innovative material models to simulate the standard batteries failures. Then, they make use of scientific diagnostic equipment and skills to gain understanding into why systems and materials fail. Based on these findings, the Office works to devise ways of mitigating these failures (Jandura & Bukvic, 2013). The second area that the vehicle technology officers pursue is the applied battery research. In this area, they focus on elevating next generation lithium ion that has high energy. Also, these electro-chemistries of lithium ion integrate new battery materials. Their activities focus on identifying, analyzing, and mitigating the issues that negatively affect the life and performance of cells, using innovative materials. Thirdly, the vehicle technology personnel pursue advanced battery development, analysis, and testing of the system (Marr, Walsh & Symons, 1992). In this area, they concentrate on the development of reliable battery modules and cells to considerably reduce the cost of the battery, improve performance, and increase the durability of the battery. This study aims at making sure that these systems realize specific goals for certain electric vehicle applications. This research has built upon the work that has been conducted by the department of energy on energy storage and batteries (Marr, Walsh & Symons, 1992). The conducted studies have led to the present new nickel metal hydride batteries. These batteries are used by almost all first generation HEVs. Also, the office’s research has helped in the development of the lithium-ion battery machinery that is used in the first commercially made plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (Marr, Walsh & Symons, 1992). This technology is presently being employed a range of plug-in electric and hybrid vehicles that are directly coming into the market. In order to solve the problem of battery in a manner that boosts range and drives down cost, various cell research and improvements have been used to pave the way for the widespread use of electric vehicles (Molenda, 2011). Among these technologies is the expansion of lithium-ion production. Battery manufacturers and automakers are putting huge bets on lithium ion to turn out to be the primary battery chemistry due to its comparatively high energy density and the low cost. Even Toyota that still makes use of nickel metal hydride batteries mainly in its modern Prius hybrid models arranged to increase the manufacture of lithium-ion batteries (Molenda, 2011). Lithium-ion technology carries on and continuously improves. This is because increased densities turn into lighter and smaller battery packs that are more powerful. Additionally, the leading manufacturers of battery cells have constructed new factories using the modern techniques of production, such as faster throughput and greater automation. This in turn, has led to drop in the rate per hour (Molenda, 2011). In other words, the innovation of lithium-ion battery has brought about economies of scale that has helped in driving lower costs. Another technology that has been employed is increasing battery R&D commitment (Shen, 2006). Increasing the volumes of production alone cannot adequately address the battery problem. There have been improvements in the weight, energy density, safety, and material of the battery for the electric vehicles to attain massive scale. The grand challenge acts as a plan outlining the United States energy department. One of its primary targets is to accomplish a 280 mile range at a reasonable cost of equivalent conventional fueled vehicles (Shen, 2006). In order to attain this goal, the costs of the batteries have to be cut. Improvements in lithium ion technology, therefore, offer an opportunity to increase the energy density of the energy pack through the use of modern higher voltage electrolytes, high capacity cathode items, and high capacity silicon. Another improvement is increasing the energy storage levels. The lithium ion battery produces electrical current when the lithium ions travel between two electrodes (Tran,Harmand & Sahut, 2014). Light, though powerful, lithium has helped in the renovations of portable electronics. However, their application in electric vehicles is recent. The lithium-ion battery is yielding encouraging results since it operates at high voltages and achieves high energy storage levels (Tran, Harmand & Sahut, 2014). As a result, manufacturers of battery have realized that using relatively modest voltage levels considerably increases energy storage levels. In the meantime, cell researchers are broadcasting published papers that reveal how additives alter the behavior of materials thereby making it easy to edge up energy storage and voltage (Tran, Harmand & Sahut, 2014). The important thing is to put together research that gives details about the physics and chemistry of batteries with the know-how that have been gained by battery manufacturers in manufacturing practical products. An experiment that was done using a lithium-ion battery that was based on materials made at laboratory of the United States department of energy was found to store twice as much chemical energy as the batteries that were previously used in many electric vehicles (Burke, 2007).This implies that if this technology can be improved, it can provide affordable electric vehicles a range of more than two hundred miles per charge. Alternatively, the developed storage capacity can be used to reduce the size of battery packs halfway while keeping constant the range of driving current (Burke, 2007). This has an effect of making the electric vehicles significantly cheaper. Another prototype that can be used is the solid state battery, which refers to the replacement of the liquid electrotype that is used in the lithium ion batteries as a solid electrolyte. The Solid electrolyte is manufactured by Seeo and has several advantages. For instance, it uses pure lithium (Burke, 2007). The pure lithium enables it to store more energy. Although several companies have manufactured batteries using solid electrolytes together with pure lithium, their capacity of energy storage has been lower than that achieved by Seeo. Usually, solid electrolytes, compared to liquid electrolytes, do not conduct many ions. Moreover, pure lithium has a tendency of forming metal filaments known as dendrites (Czapnik et al., 2015). These dendrites cause short circuits. In order to prevent this problem, lithium is incorporated into another material like graphite. The solid electrotype developed by Seeo, however, has two layers of polymer. One of these polymers is soft and hence conducts ions (Czapnik et al., 2015). On the other hand, the other layer of polymer is hard. Therefore, it forms a physical obstacle between the electrodes. This in turn prevents the dendrites from producing short circuits. As a result, other enterprises that have created solid state batteries using pure lithium have been forced to make alterations somewhere in those batteries. These changes are aimed at increasing the storage capacity, predominantly due to the voltage limitations that result from the solid electrolytes (Czapnik et al. 2015). Seeo, however, have devised means of preventing that problem. They avoid this problem by making the batteries by making use of the conventional tool for making lithium batteries that also keeps down the costs. Though countless innovations have been made over the past decade, some of these advances have failed and cannot be implemented in commercial batteries (Jandura & Bukvic, 2013). One of the significant challenges in making better electric vehicle batteries is because technology is poorly understood. The techniques require thorough testing so as to make them viable. Some of these problems are not possible to detect without decades of testing (Jandura & Bukvic, 2013). There are many reasons why significant advances in electric vehicle batteries are hard to realize. Due to these reasons, startups that seem promising in changing the global breakthroughs, have struggled. In the past decade, remarkable improvements were seen in these industries. However, despite the effort, these industries have come majorly from established corporations that gradually make small advances. Another problem facing the development of electric vehicle batteries is the doom factor (Marr, Walsh & Symons, 1992).This refers to the voltage at which the operations of the manufactured battery change in manners that make it unusable. Researchers have looked at the problem, but no ready answer has been found. This implies that there is need properly to understand the fundamental physics and chemistry of the in order to understand whatever is wrong rather than just trying to fix it. There is, however, still ample room for improving lithium ion batteries, though it is not easy to imagine this success with minor changes to the chemistry of cell (Marr, Walsh & Symons, 1992). Realizing this improvement requires radical changes. In addition, such changes have to be tightly unified with the engineering and manufacturing expertise. In an attempt to make these improvements, the experts have to seek to arrive at solutions to some questions that have remained unanswered for decades (Marr, Walsh & Symons, 1992). For example, they should examine the number of times the lithium-ion battery can be charged. Another challenge that needs to be addressed is the fact that the existing batteries made of lithium ion are speedily scaling up the manufacturing of conventional batteries that are cheaper. In conclusion, electric vehicles are more convenient and efficient due to the numerous advantages that come with them. They are light in weight and thus quick. Besides, electric cars are environment-friendly. They do not pollute environment, unlike other conventional vehicles. Mainly, electric vehicles do not discharge carbon dioxide that is emitted from burning gasoline. Despite the vast advantages of electric vehicles, the batteries that move their electric motors are very expensive (Tran, Harmand & Sahut, 2014). For this reason, electric automobiles have accounted for a slight portion of automotive sales. Since the efficiency of electric vehicles is largely dependent on the batteries, a number of breakthroughs in technological inventions have been made. These technological improvements are meant to make commercial batteries that can store more energy so as to reduce costs incurred. Improving the electric drive vehicle batteries, such as plug-in electric vehicles and hybrid electric vehicles is crucial for enhancing the environmental, economic, and social sustainability. Though little technological advancements have been realized, more research is needed so as to increase the efficiency and production of these cars. References Burke, A. F. (2007). Batteries and ultracapacitors for electric, hybrid, and fuel cell vehicles. Proceedings of the IEEE, 95(4), 806-820. Czapnik, B., Sarioglu, I., Schröder, H., & Küçükay, F. (2015). Conceptual design of battery electric vehicle powertrains. International Journal Of Vehicle Design, 67(2), 137. doi:10.1504/ijvd.2015.068141 Harris, A. (2012). Charge your engines [electric vehicle]. Engineering & Technology, 7(5), 50-53. doi:10.1049/et.2012.0513 Jandura, P., & Bukvic, M. (2013). Lightweight Battery Electric Vehicle for Educational Purposes. AMM, 390, 281-285. doi:10.4028/www.scientific.net/amm.390.281 Marr, W., Walsh, W., & Symons, P. (1992). Modeling battery performance in electric vehicle applications. Energy Conversion And Management, 33(9), 843-847. doi:10.1016/0196-8904(92)90012-l Molenda, J. (2011). Li-ion batteries for electric vehicles. Annales UMCS, Chemistry, 66(-1). doi:10.2478/v10063-011-0004-z Shen, W. (2006). Estimation of Residual Available Capacity for Lead Acid Batteries in Electric Vehicles. JAEV, 4(1), 861-867. doi:10.4130/jaev.4.861 Tran, T., Harmand, S., & Sahut, B. (2014). Experimental investigation on heat pipe cooling for Hybrid Electric Vehicle and Electric Vehicle lithium-ion battery. Journal Of Power Sources, 265, 262-272. doi:10.1016/j.jpowsour.2014.04.130 . Read More