A New Generation High Density Thermal Battery Based on Advanced Metal Hydride
- Univ. of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT (United States)
In a world that is facing an energy crisis and environmental pollution, the development of an electric vehicle (EV) as zero-emission, energy-efficiency mode of transportation has taken on an accelerated pace. Most of major automotive manufacturers have launched aggressive programs to develop new-generation EVs, and some economical EVs have been commercialized. Moreover, market forecasting has suggested that Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEVs), Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs), and Electric Vehicles (EV), will be a growing component of the US vehicle fleets in the near future. By supplying power to EV, a rechargeable electric battery is one of the most crucial components in EV. However, the capacity and cost of an electric battery represent the highest barriers to wide scale adoption of electric vehicles as the large and expensive batteries needed to provide significant driving range can result in unattractive vehicle design and price points. In addition to the electric energy that has been used in powertrain, a key drain on the electrical battery system of an EV is needed to serve cabin heating and cooling loads. Cabin climate conditioning can significantly reduce the electric range of plug-in and full electric vehicles, by as much as 40% in extreme cases, or inversely and can increase the battery size and cost by a comparable amount for the same range. Therefore, significant reduction in the size/cost of EV batteries or a significant increase in driving range can be enabled by eliminating the need for cabin climate load to draw on the electrical battery system. The work of this project focused on a concept that employs metal hydride materials and chloride-ammonia as energy storage materials to build a new generation thermal battery with sufficient energy density to meet the above requirements. The high-energy density of metal hydride material makes the thermal battery meet the requirements of HVAC system for EB automobiles. The present research focused on a specific on-board application to develop a novel HVAC system for EV. However, the methodology of the thermal battery could be extended to a much broader range of applications, including other transportation vehicles such as long haul trucks, stationary HVAC, solar thermal energy storage systems, and waste heat recovery and storage systems. Multiple prototypes were designed, fabricated, and tested. The results successfully demonstrate the principles of the thermal battery using advanced metal hydrides. The performance of the concept-demonstration-unit showed both high heating/cooling power and high energy densities. Although the feasibility of the “Thermal Battery” has been demonstrated by this project, the commercial applications of this technology remain challenging. Either the volumetric or the gravimetric energy density of the materials used often cannot be both met. The solution to this problem is to work with vehicle HAVC designers to identify design innovations that can take advantages of the thermal battery without compromising the performance of the vehicles.
- Research Organization:
- Univ. of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AR0000173; FOA-0000471
- OSTI ID:
- 1183573
- Report Number(s):
- DOE-UTAH-00173-1
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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