Energy Storage Systems and

EV Battery Charging Technologies

Contents

• Battery basics
• Types of batteries
• Lithium ion batteries and types
• EV/HEV battery characteristics
• Ragone plots
• Requirements of batteries for EVs
• EV charging methods
• Types of chargers
• Charger requirements
• Conductive and Inductive chargers
• Topologies
• V2G and G2V operation

2
 Energy Source
• Energy source can be either primary or secondary
• Primary Energy
– Energy available in nature for conversion and usage by society
– Stored chemical, thermal, kinetic energy
• Secondary Energy
– Primary energy transformed by one or more energy conversion
processes and/or devices
• Alternative Energy
– Energy available or derived from sources other than burning of
fossil fuels. Example
• Wind energy (alternative primary energy) available in kinetic form
can be converted into electrical energy (secondary energy)

Comparison of Energy Sources

Energy source Nominal

Energy Density
(Wh/kg)
Gasoline 12,300
Natural gas 9,350
Methanol 6,200
Hydrogen 28,000
Coal (bituminous) 8,200
Lead-acid battery 35
Sodium-sulfur battery 150-300
Flywheel (steel) 12-30

4
 Energy and Power Needs
Storage technology Energy density
Lead-acid batteries 100 kJ/kg (30 W-h/kg)
Lithium-ion batteries 600 kJ/kg
Compressed air, 10 MPa 80 kJ/kg (not including tank)
Conventional capacitors 0.2 kJ/kg
Ultracapacitors 20 kJ/kg
Flywheels 100 kJ/kg
Gasoline 43000 kJ/kg
5

Engineering at Illinois

Energy and Power Needs

• Lead-acid battery energy density is only about 1% of
the usable energy in gasoline.
• Sample test car: 275 kg battery
pack  equivalent to 4 L of gas!

6
 What is a battery?

• A battery is a device that converts chemical energy to electrical energy.

• A battery is composed of a positive electrode (holding a higher potential) and a negative
electrode (holding a lower potential) with an ion-conductive but electrically insulating
electrolyte in between.
• During charging, the positive electrode is the anode with the reduction reaction, and
the negative electrode is the cathode with the oxidation reaction.
• During discharge, the reaction is reversed, and so the positive and negative
electrodes become cathode and anode electrodes, respectively.

Battery Basics

• Batteries are the most popular choice of energy source for electric vehicles
• Constructed of unit cells containing chemical energy that can be converted to
electrical energy
• Cells can be grouped together and are called a battery module
• Battery modules can be grouped together in parallel or serial combination to
yield desired voltage/current output and are referred to as a battery pack . 8
 Nissan Leaf battery pack

Battery elements

Must be a non-conductor for electrons in order to avoid self-discharge of batteries.

10
 Batteries for Electric and Hybrid
Vehicles
• Batteries are of two types
– Primary: Designed for single use and not rechargeable
– Secondary: Can be recharged by forcing current into the battery.
These types are used in vehicles. Secondary batteries are
primary topic for HEV/EV’s
• Popular rechargeable Batteries used or considered for EV/HEV are:
– Lead-acid (Pb-acid)
– Nickel-metal-hydride (NiMH)
– Lithium-ion (Li-ion)
– Lithium-polymer (Li-poly)
– Sodium-sulfur
• The Li-ion battery technology is the most promising among the four
battery chemistry mentioned. There are several different types of
Li-ion battery technology that is being developed for EV/HEV
11

Battery Technologies

12
 Lithium-ion battery
• Lithium-ion (Li-ion) — Most promising battery systems; used for
portable consumer products as well as electric powertrains for
vehicles; is more expensive than nickel- and lead acid systems
and needs protection circuit for safety.
• Increasingly being adopted by a variety of industries
• Many advantages:
– Long cycle/shelf life
– Low self discharge rate
– Rapid charge/discharge capability
– High specific energy and energy density
• Safety concerns need to be addressed
• Understanding the failure modes of the chemistry is important

13

Lithium ion basics

14
 Principle of operation of lithium ion
battery

15

Li-ion cathode and anode materials

• Among the cathode materials, LiCoO2 is the most popular one used in
today’s notebook computer, but it is notorious for catching on fire.
• LiMn2O4, widely used in cell phones, is low in specific energy and poor in
both cycle life and calendar life.
• LiFePO4, with improvements in both abuse tolerance and power capability,
also suffers from low energy (both capacity and voltage) and short
calendar life.
• Both Li (Ni, Mn, Co)O2 (NMC) and Li(Ni, Co, Al)O2 (NCA) are new additions to
the list, but still have concerns in calendar life and abuse tolerance.
• Among the anode materials, graphite is the most common. Although
graphite has a relatively high specific energy and a low cost, it has an
unstable SEI (Solid Electrolyte Interphase) layer, especially at higher SOCs
and elevated temperatures (>40C), which causes severe performance
degradation, especially in the output power.
• Li4Ti5O12 (LTO) or the similar Li–Ti oxides provide solutions to both the cycle
life and calendar life issues of graphite; however, the specific capacity of LTO
is only half of that of graphite, and its half-cell potential is at least 1.0 V higher
than graphite.
16
 Lithium ion batteries
Li-ion systems get their name from their unique cathode materials. The
lithium-ion family is divided into three major battery types, so named by
their cathode oxides, which are cobalt, manganese and phosphate. The
characteristics of these Li-ion systems are as follows.
– Lithium-ion-cobalt or lithium-cobalt (LiCoO2): Has high specific energy
with moderate load capabilities and modest service life. Applications
include cell phones, laptops, digital cameras and wearable products.
– Lithium-ion-manganese or lithium-manganese (LiMn2O4): Is capable of
high charge and discharge currents but has low specific energy and
modest service life; used for power tools, medical instruments and
electric powertrains.
– Lithium-ion-phosphate or lithium-phosphate (LiFePO4): Is similar to
lithium-manganese; nominal voltage is 3.3V/cell; offers long cycle life,
has a good safe record but exhibits higher self-discharge than other Li-
ion systems.

17

Li-ion battery cathode and anode material

comparison

18
 Pros and Cons of Lithium ion batteries

19

Battery Characteristics and Metrics

The main considerations in the selection of EV/HEV batteries are :
• Specific power, also called gravimetric power density of a battery is
the peak power per unit mass. It is expressed in W/kg
– Specific Power = Rated Peak Power/Battery Mass in kg
• Power Density, is the peak power per unit volume of a battery
(W/L). Function of battery power, as a function of volume
• Energy density, also referred to as the volumetric energy density, is
the nominal battery energy per unit volume (Wh/l).
• Specific Energy: A function of battery energy, as a function
of battery mass. (Wh/kg)
• Good charge acceptance rate
• Long calendar and cycle life
• Temperature range
• Environmental conditions
• Cost
20
 EV/HEV Battery characteristics
• Power determines the acceleration ability of the vehicle.
• Energy gives an indication of the potential range.
• Specific energy of a battery is the key parameter for determining the total
battery weight for a given mile range of EV.
– Specific Energy = Rated Wh Capacity/Battery Mass in kg
• Power Density. Power density is the peak power per unit volume of
a battery (W/L).

• Cycle life measures how often the battery can be charged to its full
capacity, and related to battery life time.
• Weight and volume can affect the efficiency and thus the range of the total
system.
• Cost is determined by the availability of resources, technology, and
manufacturability.
• Batteries for parallel hybrid vehicles are used mainly for providing peak power
required during acceleration and other short-term, high drain functions.
Hence, the battery should have high power density, but energy density is less
critical

21

Figures of Merit of Advanced batteries

22
 Battery charge capacity
• A battery’s charge capacity (Rated capacity, in Ah) is typically rated as
the amount of charge removed in one hour
• C1/1 Rate – a current corresponding to the manufacturer’s rated capacity
(in ampere-hours) for a one-hour discharge at 300C. For example, if the
battery’s rated one-hour capacity is 40Ah, then C1/1 is 40A.
• “C Rates” are a measure of charge and discharge rates.
• Rated Energy is related to rated capacity.
• Rated Energy (Wh) = Rated capacity (Ah) x Nominal Discharge Voltage (V)
The C rate is often used to describe battery loads or battery charging. 1C
is the capacity rating (Amp-hour) of the battery.

Hours of
C-Rate C-Rate
Discharge
1C (1 hour rate) 1C 1 hour
C/4 (4 hour rate) 0.25C 4 hours
C/10 (10 hour rate) 0.1C 10 hours
C/20 (20 hour rate) 0.05C 20 hours 23

Battery Characteristics
• Ampere-hour Capacity. Ampere-hour (Ah) capacity is the total charge
that can be discharged from a fully charged battery under specified
conditions. The Rated Ah capacity is the nominal capacity of a fully
charged new battery under the conditions predefined by the manufacturer.
Generally, Wh (or kWh) capacity to represent a battery capacity.
• Internal Resistance. Internal resistance is the overall equivalent
resistance within the battery. It is different for charging and
discharging and may vary as the operating condition changes.

24
 Battery Characteristics
• Peak Power. According to the U.S. Advanced Battery
Consortium (USABC)’s definition, the peak power is defined as :
• P = 2Voc2/9R
– where Voc is the open-circuit voltage and R is the internal
resistance of battery.
• The peak power is actually defined at the condition when the
terminal voltage is 2/3 of the open-circuit voltage.
• Cut-off Voltage. Cut-off voltage is the minimum allowable voltage
defined by the manufacturer. It can be interpreted as the “empty”
state of the battery.
• State of Charge (SOC). SOC is defined as the remaining capacity
of a battery and it is affected by its operating conditions such as
load current and temperature.

25

State of charge

• SOC = Remaining Capacity/Rated Capacity

• If the Ah capacity is used, the change of SOC can be expressed as

• SOC is a critical condition parameter for battery management.

Accurate gauging of SOC is very challenging. It is the key to
the healthy and safe operation of batteries.

26
 Battery Characteristics

• Depth of Discharge (DOD) is used to indicate the percentage of

the total battery capacity that has been discharged. For deep-cycle
batteries, they can be discharged to 80% or higher of DOD.
DOD =1 – SOC

• Cycle Life (number of cycles). Cycle life is the number of discharge–

charge cycles the battery can handle at a specific DOD (normally 80%)
before it fails to meet specific performance criteria. The actual
operating life of the battery is affected by the charging and discharging
rates, DOD, and other conditions such as temperature.
• The higher the DOD, the shorter the cycle life. To achieve a
higher cycle life, a larger battery can be used for a lower DOD
during normal operations.

27

Battery Characteristics

• Battery Management System (BMS). BMS is a combination of

sensors, controller, communication, and computation hardware
with software algorithms designed to decide the maximum
charge/discharge current and duration from the estimation of SOC
and SOH of the battery pack.
• Thermal Management System (TMS). TMS is designed to protect
the battery pack from overheating and to extend its calendar life.
Simple forced-air cooling TMS is adopted for the NiMH battery,
while more sophisticated and powerful liquid cooling is required by
most of the Li-ion batteries in EV applications.

28

14
 6/14/17

Characteristics of
four commonly used
rechargeable battery
systems showing
average performance
ratings at time of
publication.

29

Ragone Plots
• In batteries there is a decrease in charge capacity
(excluding voltage effects) with increasing currents.
Often referred to as Ragone relationship and is
described by Ragone plots
• Ragone plots are usually obtained from constant power
discharge tests or constant current discharge plots.

30

15
 6/14/17

Specific energy and specific power of

rechargeable batteries.

Ragone analysis involves plotting the discharge power versus the discharge
energy for the cells. Choice of cell based on comparing power requirements
of application with power capability of cells

31

Ragone plot

32