Battery choice and management for New Generation Electric Vehicles

Different types of electric vehicles (EVs) have been recently designed with the aim of solving pollution problems caused by the emission of gasoline-powered engines. Environmental problems promote the adoption of new-generation electric vehicles for urban transportation. As it is well known, one of the weakest points of electric vehicles is the battery system. Vehicle autonomy and, therefore, accurate detection of battery state of charge (SoC) together with battery expected life, i.e., battery state of health, are among the major drawbacks that prevent the introduction of electric vehicles in the consumer market. The electric scooter may provide the most feasible opportunity among EVs. They may be a replacement product for the primary-use vehicle, especially in Europe and Asia, provided that drive performance, safety, and cost issues are similar to actual engine scooters. The battery system choice is a crucial item, and thanks to an increasing emphasis on vehicle range and performance, the Li-ion battery could become a viable candidate. This paper deals with the design of a battery pack based on Li-ion technology for a prototype electric scooter with high performance and autonomy. The adopted battery system is composed of a suitable number of cells series connected, featuring a high voltage level. Therefore, cell equalization and monitoring need to be provided. Due to manufacturing asymmetries, charge and discharge cycles lead to cell unbalancing, reducing battery capacity and, depending on cell type, causing safety troubles or strongly limiting the storage capacity of the full pack. No solution is available on the market at a cheap price, because of the required voltage level and performance, therefore, a dedicated battery management system was designed, that also includes a battery SoC monitoring. The proposed solution features a high capability of energy storing in braking conditions, charge equalization, overvoltage and undervoltage protection and, obviously, SoC information in order to optimize autonomy instead of performance or vice-versa

An efficient equalizing method for lithium-ion batteries based on coupled inductor balancing

This article developed a coupled inductor balancing method to overcome cell voltage variation among cells in series, for Lithium Ion (Li-ion) batteries in Electrical Vehicles (EV). For an "eight cells in series" example, the developed balance circuit has four inductors, one magnetic circuit with one winding per two cells, and one control switch per cell, as compared to the traditional inductor-based equalizer that needs N-1 inductors and magnetic circuits for N number of cells and more switches. Therefore, ultimately, a more efficient, cost-effective circuit and low bill of materials (BOM) will be built up. All switches are logic-level N-Channel metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) and they are controlled by a pair of complementary signals in a synchronous trigger pattern. In the proposed topology, less components and fast equalization are achieved compared to the conventional battery management system (BMS) technique for electrical vehicles based on the inductor balancing method. This scheme is suitable for fast equalization due to the inductor-based balancing method. The inductors are made with a well-chosen winding ratio and all are coupled with one magnetic core with an air gap. Theoretical derivation of the proposed circuit was well-presented, and numerical simulation relevant to the electrochemical storage devices was conducted to show the validity of the proposed balance circuit. A complete balance circuit was built to verify that the proposed circuit could resolve imbalance problems which existed inside battery module

Powering the future: a comprehensive review of battery energy storage systems

Global society is significantly speeding up the adoption of renewable energy sources and their integration into the current existing grid in order to counteract growing environmental problems, particularly the increased carbon dioxide emission of the last century. Renewable energy sources have a tremendous potential to reduce carbon dioxide emissions because they practically never produce any carbon dioxide or other pollutants. On the other hand, these energy sources are usually influenced by geographical location, weather, and other factors that are of stochastic nature. The battery energy storage system can be applied to store the energy produced by RESs and then utilized regularly and within limits as necessary to lessen the impact of the intermittent nature of renewable energy sources. The main purpose of the review paper is to present the current state of the art of battery energy storage systems and identify their advantages and disadvantages. At the same time, this helps researchers and engineers in the field to find out the most appropriate configuration for a particular application. This study offers a thorough analysis of the battery energy storage system with regard to battery chemistries, power electronics, and management approaches. This paper also offers a detailed analysis of battery energy storage system applications and investigates the shortcomings of the current best battery energy storage system architectures to pinpoint areas that require further study.This publication is part of the project TED2021-132864A-I00, funded by MCIN/ AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by the European Union “NextGenerationEU”/PRTR”.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

A smart high-voltage cell detecting and equalizing circuit for LiFePO4 batteries in electric vehicles

A battery management system (BMS) plays an important role in electric vehicles (EVs) in order to achieve a reasonable-lasting lifetime. An equalizing method is essential in order to obtain the best performance. A monitoring system is required to check if any cell voltage is high or low. In this paper, an equalizing and monitoring system for an ultra-light electric vehicle is proposed. The monitoring system detects if one cell is fully charged or all cells are fully charged and the equalizing system tops each cell at the desired voltage. To solve this issue, a light-emitting diode (LED) band gap is used as a voltage reference to inform the user if any cell is at its high voltage. A smart monitoring displays on the liquid crystal display (LCD), if one cell is high or all cells are high. This detection also provides a signal to the microcontroller to turn on/off the charger if all cells are high. Also, a Bluetooth module was designed to command the microcontroller the charger to turn on/off via voice/text message by using a smartphone. Additionally, a new smart monitoring system based on the Bluetooth model (HC05) and mobile app has been made in order to monitor individual cell voltage. A major feature of the system is to draw a very-low current, so that the system does not contribute significantly to the self-discharge of the battery and the circuit does not need sophisticated control. Manufacturers of large electric vehicles may have more intelligent systems that may require a permanent connection to the grid and allow high standby losses, where more state of charge (SOC) may be lost per day. The paper is rather focused on reducing the standby losses, and to activate the equalizer only when charging and/or driving. The experimental results are performed in order to verify the feasibility of the proposed circuit

Forward converter current fed equalizer for lithium based batteries in ultralight electrical vehicles

In this paper, the concept of a forward balancing technique fed by a buck converter for lithium-based batteries in Electrical Vehicle (EV) applications is investigated. The proposed active topology equalizes eight cells in a series in a battery pack, by using a forward converter for each battery pack and the whole battery packs, using a buck converter. The battery bank consists of four battery packs, which are in series. Therefore, the proposed system will equalize 32 cells in series. In this paper, the proposed circuit employs a single transistor used in a Zero Voltage Switch (ZVS) for the forward converter. In practice, this means a capacitor in parallel with the switch at the same time a demagnetizing of the transformer is obtained. The circuit realizes a low Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) and reduces ringing. To overcome the problem of many pins on a coil former, the transformer secondary windings are made by using hairpin winding, on a ring core. It permits, e.g., having eight secondaries and uniform output voltages. Each secondary winding is made by two hairpin turns using two zero-Ohm resistors in series. The proposed topology has less components and circuitry, and it can equalize multiple battery packs by using a single buck converter and several forward converters for each battery pack. Experimental and simulation results are performed to verify the viability of the proposed topology

A single transformer for active cell equalization method of lithium-ion batteries with two times fewer secondaries than cells

In this paper, the concept of active cell-balancing technique, by using a multiple-outputs double-forward converter for lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries, is investigated. It controls two times more cells than secondaries, and it equalizes eight cells in a series. In this method, four secondaries can reasonably be wound with the same back electromotive force (EMF). This means a low pin count on the transformer and a low bill of materials (BOM). The bridge uses four N-channel MOSFETs as switches, which means two times fewer transistors than cells, resulting in fewer switching losses. This scheme is applied for controlling the minimum voltage among the cells of the lithium-ion battery. It uses a multi-winding transformer based on a forward double converter structure. Conventional schemes using a multi-winding transformer for electric vehicles (EVs) require an equal number of secondaries per cell. This scheme requires one secondary for two adjacent cells, thus the number of secondaries is reduced by a factor of two. Also, the redistribution of charge from a high cell to a low cell does not require many switching components and little intelligence to determine low cell voltage detection. The basic principle of this method is to use the overall battery pack voltage as a reference to supply individual cells, using a forward converter containing a transformer with a well-chosen winding ratio. The experimental and simulation results are performed to verify the feasibility of the proposed system