Research and development (R&D) teams have continuously been investing their time in the field of energy storage. By doing this, they’ve come to find out and pave the way for a cleaner and more intelligent future.
Research and development (R&D) teams have continuously been investing their time in the field of energy storage. By doing this, they’ve come to find out and pave the way for a cleaner and more intelligent future.
The smart battery market is worth more than $30 billion currently. It’s predicted to rise even more in the upcoming years and guess what? This is now the chance for businesses to take advantage of it and use these intelligent batteries for their future innovation strategies.
Let’s dive deeper into this article to learn more about the future of intelligent batteries and their capabilities.
Every single battery you use has a battery management system (BMS). BMS is a technology that supports an oversight of a battery pack. This oversight includes the following:
Lithium-ion (li-on) rechargeable batteries have the most energy density and are a standard choice for consumer products. You can find them on your mobile phones, electric cars, laptops and more. However, when li-ion batteries perform in environments that are not favorable to them, it becomes a problem. The most common issues it faces are when it’s either really hot or cold.
BMS has many design features, battery pack protection and capacity management being one of them. The battery pack protection has two key areas:
However, throughout history, we’ve seen that battery management systems have been considered an afterthought. Many companies are now incorporating battery management software to unlock the full potential of batteries. This is done through two main products:
Both these products translate standard telematics data into advanced insights to prolong battery life, safety and performance.
Battery intelligence optimization is entirely changing the field of battery management by unlocking the full potential of batteries, increasing their lifecycle, improving safety features and optimizing their performance.
Battery intelligence focuses on connecting battery data with battery systems, electrochemistry and data science to increase the battery lifecycle and its safety features.
Practical experiences of battery intelligence are being used through BMS algorithms and cloud platforms.
BMS algorithms can be applied to the needs of your battery application. Their main goal is to extend battery life and maximize power and safety. There are companies around the world that will use different BMS algorithms. A good example is Elysia. It offers a suite of powerful BMS algorithms for battery system developers.
Their algorithms are integrated into existing software stacks to increase the safety and lifetime of the battery. It’s primarily designed for:
The embedded software can be installed through your BMS and gives you real-time control over your state of charge, fast charge capabilities, power and charge, state of health and reduces downtime.
Cloud platforms are part of battery intelligence optimization since they enhance a battery system's safety, lifecycle and performance. They turn standard telematics data into insights built through real-world battery experiences. Cloud platforms are great for monitoring and better understanding the long-term performance of your batteries, clearly informing you of their degradation factors.
Cloud platforms like Elysia can help you monitor the following:
When issues are identified earlier in the product development stage, it reduces ownership costs, allowing fleet managers and battery system developers to create world-class batteries.
Data science follows a structured, step-by-step process for providing results and AI optimizes them. Data is generated every minute, measuring important metrics of battery functions, including temperature, voltage and volatility in the battery currents.
Five important steps for performing data science include:
Through the data we collect, we use it to learn more and for:
Together with data science, AI impacts how new battery material is being researched, understanding issues earlier in the product development stage and predicting their performance throughout their lifecycle. All of these impacts need to be analyzed through the proper metrics.
Batteries with AI can collect big data, meaning they are one of the smartest assets you can use out there. All of the processed data allows all battery manufacturers, fleet operators and others to achieve crucial business metrics regarding the battery life cycle, their value and warranty management.
The more data you gather, the better it’s, so in this case, you’re getting more accurate insights.
When it comes to battery intelligence optimization, electrochemistry plays an essential role here. The electrochemistry process focuses on how Lithium ions move from one point to another in the battery when electricity is being produced.
Whenever you are designing new materials and batteries, it’s always important to go with a closed loop of ion-electron flow within the cells and apply electrochemistry to it so that you can identify the slowest steps initially. Afterward, the right steps can be taken to accelerate and control the process.
Lithium ions will go through a few steps when they are trying to get from one point to another. The slowest step during this process will depend on the conditions around it and the materials of the electrodes.
Why is electrochemistry important for battery intelligence? Well, it’s great for helping industries design a high-performing battery that is much faster and uses less expensive materials for powering electric cars and other important applications.
When you’re using intelligent batteries, you are getting some of the greatest benefits out there and they are:
Overall, intelligent batteries have many benefits associated with them. Considering that it might undergo different environmental conditions, they can control what is happening in the battery to ensure the degradation process is slowed down. For instance, when it’s too hot or cold, the fast charging process will be slowed down to ensure the battery's health remains optimal and performs well.
Intelligent batteries have come a long way to provide us with some of the greatest experiences when using our batteries and ensuring that throughout time, they are performing well and have a long lifecycle. Different environmental conditions can seriously impact the degradation speed of batteries and we know that in different parts of the world, the climate isn’t the same.
After all, many consumers, producers, grid operators, and others continuously face pressure to improve energy usage. Therefore, managing energy consumption in batteries is more important than ever and this is exactly what intelligent batteries are great at doing.
