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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 451 records · Page 25

A Model for Evaluating the Configuration and Dispatch of PV Plus Battery Power Plants

An open-source model was developed to optimize energy storage operation for photovoltaic- (PV-) plus-battery systems with AC-coupled and DC-coupled configurations. It includes the ability to use forecast energy prices to optimize battery charge and discharge on a rolling time horizon. The model allows for exploration of different configurations, including capital costs, inverter performance, dispatch flexibility, and capturing otherwise clipped energy for the DC-coupled system. The model can run 20 full years of hourly data in approximately two seconds, allowing comparison of a large number of configurations. We applied the model in a test case demonstrating reduced inverter clipping for DC-coupled systems and yielded slightly higher overall value than AC-coupled systems, with an approximately 2 percent increase in internal rate of return or benefit/cost ratio. Our results show that at current estimated prices for lithium-ion battery systems, large-scale PV-plus-battery plants are economically viable under the right conditions, with the configuration playing a role in system flexibility and performance. This model provides the ability for project developers, industry professionals, and researchers to use readily available software to quickly evaluate and design these systems.

41 EE - Solar Energy Technologies Office (EE-4S)↗

A Prognostics Framework for Battery Health Monitoring Integrated with Thermal Modeling

Urban Air Mobility (UAM) promises to revolutionize transportation in major cities, offering passenger travel, cargo delivery, and emergency medical services through a network of electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft. However, the limited range of current eVTOLs, due to the low specific energy of lithium-ion batteries along with a possibility of thermal runaway conditions poses significant safety concerns, leading to potentially compromising operational safety. To address this critical challenge, researchers are actively evaluating the impact of flight and environmental conditions on onboard lithium-ion battery health. This involves carefully assessing the performance of battery packs under laboratory and operational conditions for developing models to estimate future health using prognostics framework. This study examines the effectiveness of evaluating battery degradation leading to catastrophic failures under varying operational conditions in laboratory. These are captured using physics based models of underlying phenomenons and integrated into the prognostics framework. A fully charged battery undergoes controlled discharge cycles at varying C-rates based on the simulated power draw profile, with current and voltage, temperature data recorded throughout the experiment. The observed data provides valuable insights into how different operating conditions and mission profiles affect battery performance. This information is crucial for developing strategies to optimize battery systems, enhance range, and ultimately ensure the safe and reliable operation of UAM vehicles.

Thermal Modeling↗

A Prognostics Framework for Battery Health Monitoring Integrated with Thermal Modeling

Urban Air Mobility (UAM) promises to revolutionize transportation in major cities, offering passenger travel, cargo delivery, and emergency medical services through a network of electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft. However, the limited range of current eVTOLs, due to the low specific energy of lithium-ion batteries along with a possibility of thermal runaway conditions poses significant safety concerns, leading to potentially compromising operational safety. To address this critical challenge, researchers are actively evaluating the impact of flight and environmental conditions on onboard lithium-ion battery health. This involves carefully assessing the performance of battery packs under laboratory and operational conditions for developing models to estimate future health using prognostics framework. This study examines the effectiveness of evaluating battery degradation leading to catastrophic failures under varying operational conditions in laboratory. These are captured using physics based models of underlying phenomenons and integrated into the prognostics framework. A fully charged battery undergoes controlled discharge cycles at varying C-rates based on the simulated power draw profile, with current and voltage, temperature data recorded throughout the experiment. The observed data provides valuable insights into how different operating conditions and mission profiles affect battery performance. This information is crucial for developing strategies to optimize battery systems, enhance range, and ultimately ensure the safe and reliable operation of UAM vehicles.

Thermal Modeling↗

A Prognostics Framework for Battery Health Monitoring Integrated with Thermal Modeling

Urban Air Mobility (UAM) promises to revolutionize transportation in major cities, offering passenger travel, cargo delivery, and emergency medical services through a network of electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft. However, the limited range of current eVTOLs, due to the low specific energy of lithium-ion batteries along with a possibility of thermal runaway conditions poses significant safety concerns, leading to potentially compromising operational safety. To address this critical challenge, researchers are actively evaluating the impact of flight and environmental conditions on onboard lithium-ion battery health. This involves carefully assessing the performance of battery packs under laboratory and operational conditions for developing models to estimate future health using prognostics framework. This study examines the effectiveness of evaluating battery degradation leading to catastrophic failures under varying operational conditions in laboratory. These are captured using physics based models of underlying phenomenons and integrated into the prognostics framework. A fully charged battery undergoes controlled discharge cycles at varying C-rates based on the simulated power draw profile, with current and voltage, temperature data recorded throughout the experiment. The observed data provides valuable insights into how different operating conditions and mission profiles affect battery performance. This information is crucial for developing strategies to optimize battery systems, enhance range, and ultimately ensure the safe and reliable operation of UAM vehicles.

Thermal Modeling↗

The persistence of memory in ionic conduction probed by nonlinear optics

Predicting practical rates of transport in condensed phases enables the rational design of materials, devices and processes. This is especially critical to developing low-carbon energy technologies such as rechargeable batteries. For ionic conduction, the collective mechanisms, variation of conductivity with timescales and confinement, and ambiguity in the phononic origin of translation, call for a direct probe of the fundamental steps of ionic diffusion: ion hops. However, such hops are rare-event large-amplitude translations, and are challenging to excite and detect. Here we use single-cycle terahertz pumps to impulsively trigger ionic hopping in battery solid electrolytes. This is visualized by an induced transient birefringence, enabling direct probing of anisotropy in ionic hopping on the picosecond timescale. The relaxation of the transient signal measures the decay of orientational memory, and the production of entropy in diffusion. We extend experimental results using in silico transient birefringence to identify vibrational attempt frequencies for ion hopping. Using nonlinear optical methods, we probe ion transport at its fastest limit, distinguish correlated conduction mechanisms from a true random walk at the atomic scale, and demonstrate the connection between activated transport and the thermodynamics of information.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

Systems and methods for direct estimation of battery parameters using only charge/discharge curves

Electrochemical models for the lithium-ion battery are useful in predicting and controlling its performance. The values of the parameters in these models are vital to their accuracy. However, not all parameters can be measured precisely, especially when destructive methods are prohibited. In some embodiments of the present disclosure, a parameter estimation approach is used to estimate the open circuit potential of the positive electrode (Up) using piecewise linear approximation together with all the other parameters of a single particle model. Up and 10 more parameters may be estimated from a single discharge curve without knowledge of the electrode chemistry using a technique such as a genetic algorithm. Different case studies were presented for estimating Up with different types of parameters of the battery model. The estimated parameters were then validated by comparing simulations at different discharge rates with experimental data.

Qi, Yanbo↗

Substantial oxygen loss and chemical expansion in lithium-rich layered oxides at moderate delithiation

Delithiation of layered oxide electrodes triggers irreversible oxygen loss, one of the primary degradation modes in lithium-ion batteries. However, the delithiation-dependent mechanisms of oxygen loss remain poorly understood. Here we investigate the oxygen non-stoichiometry in Li 1.18–x Ni 0.21 Mn 0.53 Co 0.08 O 2–δ electrodes as a function of Li content by using cycling protocols with long open-circuit voltage steps at varying states of charge. Surprisingly, we observe substantial oxygen loss even at moderate delithiation, corresponding to 2.5, 4.0 and 7.6 ml O 2 per gram of Li 1.18–x Ni 0.21 Mn 0.53 Co 0.08 O 2–δ after resting at upper capacity cut-offs of 135, 200 and 265 mAh g −1 for 100 h. Our observations suggest an intrinsic oxygen instability consistent with predictions of high oxygen activity at intermediate potentials versus Li/Li + . In addition, we observe a large chemical expansion coefficient with respect to oxygen non-stoichiometry, which is about three times greater than those of classical oxygen-deficient materials such as fluorite and perovskite oxides. Furthermore, our work challenges the conventional wisdom that deep delithiation is a necessary condition for oxygen loss in layered oxide electrodes and highlights the importance of calendar ageing for investigating oxygen stability.

Atomistic models↗

Electrochemically induced amorphous-to-rock-salt phase transformation in niobium oxide electrode for Li-ion batteries

Intercalation-type metal oxides are promising negative electrode materials for safe rechargeable lithium-ion batteries due to the reduced risk of Li plating at low voltages. Nevertheless, their lower energy and power density along with cycling instability remain bottlenecks for their implementation, especially for fast-charging applications. Here, we report a nanostructured rock-salt Nb 2 O 5 electrode formed through an amorphous-to-crystalline transformation during repeated electrochemical cycling with Li + . This electrode can reversibly cycle three lithiums per Nb 2 O 5 , corresponding to a capacity of 269 mAh g –1 at 20 mA g –1 , and retains a capacity of 191 mAh g –1 at a high rate of 1 A g –1 . Further, it exhibits superb cycling stability with a capacity of 225 mAh g –1 at 200 mA g –1 for 400 cycles, and a Coulombic efficiency of 99.93%. We attribute the enhanced performance to the cubic rock-salt framework, which promotes low-energy migration paths. Our work suggests that inducing crystallization of amorphous nanomaterials through electrochemical cycling is a promising avenue for creating unconventional high-performance metal oxide electrode materials.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

Thermal modeling of a Ni-H2 battery cell

The nickel-hydrogen secondary battery has many desirable features which make it attractive for satellite power systems. It can provide a significant improvement over the energy density of present spacecraft nickel-cadnium batteries, combined with longer life, tolerance to overcharge and possibility of state-of-charge indication. However, to realize these advantages, accurate thermal modeling of nickel-hydrogen cells is required in order to properly design the battery pack so that it operates within a specified temperature range during the operation. Maintenance of a low operating temperature and a uniform temperature profile within the cell will yield better reliability, improved cycle life and better charge/discharge efficiencies. This research has the objective of developing and testing a thermal model which can be used to characterize battery operation. Primarily, temperature distribution with the heat generation rates as a function of position and time will be evaluated for a Ni-H2 cell in the three operating modes: (1) charge cycle, (2) discharge cycle, and (3) overcharge condition, if applicable. Variables to be examined include charging current, discharge rates, state of charge, pressure and temperature. Once the thermal model has been developed, this resulting model will predict the actual operating temperature and temperature gradient for the specific cell geometry to be used.

Ryu, Si-Ok↗

Validation on Aggregate Flexibility from Residential Air Conditioning Systems for Building-to-Grid Integration

To facilitate the integration of buildings to the power grid, battery-equivalent models have been proposed to characterize and quantify aggregate flexibility from building loads. An analytical method has been proposed to construct such a flexibility model for thermostatically controlled loads. Since this analytical method is derived from a simplified representation of building thermal dynamics, it is necessary to evaluate the resulting flexibility model in a more realistic context. This paper focuses on the validation of this analytical method for estimating aggregate flexibility from residential air conditioning (ACs) systems. A high-fidelity model is first developed to mimic thermal behaviors of a residential AC system through a co-simulation between Modelica and EnergyPlus. A population of virtual residential AC systems is then generated by randomizing parameters of the high-fidelity model. Finally, an aggregate flexibility model is constructed for the residential AC population using the analytical method and validated using results from simulation of the high-fidelity model. It is found that the flexibility estimated using the analytical method is with reasonable accuracy, but can be improved by explicitly incorporating heat gains into the method.

Huang, Sen↗

Elevated temperature for life extension of lithium ion power cells

Lithium ion (Li-ion) cells are increasingly being used in high power applications such as Hybrid Electric Vehicles. This paper investigates how the life of lithium ion power cells can be increased by increasing their temperature. End of life (EOL) in power applications is often defined as when the battery is no longer able to provide the required charge/discharge power because the battery voltage exceeds the maximum/minimum allowable voltages associated with the battery's chemistry. Here, this paper shows that battery life can be increased by step-wise temperature increases whenever the battery voltage exceeds a voltage limit when the EOL is reached. Experiments are conducted on commercially available lithium iron phosphate batteries for six months using a charge sustaining HEV cycle. Two, 1 °C temperature increases extend the life of the cells by 2000 cycles (3 months of continuous cycling).

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

Feature engineering for machine learning enabled early prediction of battery lifetime

Accurate battery lifetime estimates enable accelerated design of novel battery materials and determination of optimal use protocols for longevity in deployments. Unfortunately, traditional battery testing may take years to reach thousands of cycles. Recent studies have shown that machine learning (ML) tools can predict lithium-ion battery lifetimes from 100 or fewer preliminary cycles, representing only a few weeks of cycling. Until now, conclusions about the efficacy and broad applicability of these predictions across a variety of cathode chemistries have been limited by available experimental information. In this work, we leverage a battery cycling dataset representing six cathode chemistries (NMC111, NMC532, NMC622, NMC811, HE5050, and 5Vspinel), multiple electrolyte/anode compositions, and 300 total carefully prepared pouch batteries to explore feature selection and battery chemistry's role in ML battery lifetime predictions. Here, a mean absolute error (MAE) of 78 cycles in prediction was seen for a chemistry-spanning test set from 100 preliminary cycles. Furthermore, an MAE of 103 cycles was seen when using only the first cycle. This study represents an in-depth investigation of strategies for feature selection for battery lifetime prediction, ML models' generalization across multiple battery chemistries, and predictions beyond the training set in the chemical space.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

Long-Chain Polysulfide Retention at the Cathode of Li–S Batteries

Lithium–sulfur batteries present a complex interconnected chemistry where the three components—anode, electrolyte, and cathode—strongly interact with each other. One of the main issues associated with these interactions is the dissolution in the electrolyte solution of part of the sulfur reduction products (mainly long-chain polysulfides) during the discharge reactions at the cathode. These dissolved species can migrate and react at the anode surface producing undesired insulating films. A potential solution to mitigate this problem is to resort to additional materials which can act as anchors of the soluble species thus avoiding their migration. Density functional theory and ab initio molecular dynamics simulations are employed to investigate the ability of certain substrates to retain long-chain polysulfides (Li 2 S 6 and Li 2 S 8 ) at their surfaces in the presence of a pure solvent or a lithiated solution. Nanopores of graphene are first tested because the cathode is usually a mix of sulfur and carbon. Then, MoS 2 and Mo-doped graphene are evaluated because of the well-known Mo–S affinity. Finally, a material which has been reported successful in experimental studies, MnO 2 , is analyzed and compared with another oxide surface, Fe 2 O 3 . Adsorption energies of the polysulfides to the surfaces and the detailed interactions of the Li ions and S atoms with the substrate are characterized via charge and geometric analyses. Both the Mo-containing materials and the oxides adsorb the polysulfides much more strongly than graphene nanopores do. However, some of these surfaces are found to be excessively reactive. Thus, a balance between affinity for S and moderate surface reactivity is found as a promising guideline for designing these materials.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

Ca-dimers, solvent layering, and dominant electrochemically active species in Ca(BH4)2 in THF

Abstract Divalent ions (Mg, Ca, and Zn) are being considered as competitive, safe, and earth-abundant alternatives to Li-ion electrochemistry, but present challenges for stable cycling due to undesirable interfacial phenomena. We explore the formation of electroactive species in the electrolyte Ca(BH 4 ) 2 ∣THF using molecular dynamics coupled with a continuum model of bulk and interfacial speciation. Free-energy analysis and unsupervised learning indicate a majority population of neutral Ca dimers and monomers with diverse molecular conformations and an order of magnitude lower concentration of the primary electroactive charged species – the monocation, $${\rm{CaBH}}_{4}^{+}$$ CaBH 4 + – produced via disproportionation of neutral complexes. Dense layering of THF molecules within ~1 nm of the electrode surface strongly modulates local electrolyte species populations. A dramatic increase in monocation population in this interfacial zone is induced at negative bias. We see no evidence for electrochemical activity of fully-solvated Ca 2+ . The consequences for performance are discussed in light of this molecular-scale insight.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗