The satellite REIMEI was launched in August 2005, this is one of the first satellites to use Li-ion batteries. REIMEI is a small scientific satellite designed for carrying out aurora observations using three different cameras. The main scientific mission of the satellite ended in 2013. More than 14 years have passed, and the batteries have experienced over 78,100 charge/discharge cycles. REIMEI remains in operation with a new mission dedicated to analyzing its Li-ion battery. In this work, we present a durability analysis for the REIMEI battery based on telemetry data

ASAKURA, Daisuke

BOLAY, Linda J.

HORSTMANN, Birger

HOSONO, Eiji

ITAGAKI, Masayuki

LATZ, Arnulf

MATSUDA, Hirofumi

MENDOZA-HERNANDEZ, Omar S.

SONE, Yoshitsugu

UMEDA, Minoru

Electrochemistry

English

KITopen

Article Electrochemistry, (in press)Durability Analysis of the REIMEI Satellite Li-ion Batteries after more than 14 Yearsof Operation in SpaceOmar S. MENDOZA-HERNANDEZ,a Linda J. BOLAY,b Birger HORSTMANN,b,c,d Arnulf LATZ,b,c,d Eiji HOSONO,e,fDaisuke ASAKURA,e Hirofumi MATSUDA,e Masayuki ITAGAKI,g Minoru UMEDA,h and Yoshitsugu SONEa,i,*a Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency,3-1-1 Yoshinodai, Chuo-ku, Sagamihara, Kanagawa 252-5210, Japanb German Aerospace Center, Pfaffenwaldring 38-40, 70569, Stuttgart, Germanyc Helmholtz Institute Ulm, Helmholtzstraße 11, 89081, Ulm, Germanyd Ulm University, Institute of Electrochemistry, Albert-Einstein-Allee 47, 89069, Ulm, Germanye Institute of Energy Conservation, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST),1-1-1 Umezono, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8568, Japanf Global Zero Emission Research Center, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8568, Japang Department of Pure and Applied Chemistry, Faculty of Science and Technology, Tokyo University of Science,2641 Yamazaki, Noda, Chiba 278-8510, Japanh Department of Materials Science and Technology, Nagaoka University of Technology,1603-1 Kamitomioka, Nagaoka, Niigata 940-2188, Japani The Graduate University of Advanced Studies, SOKENDAI, 3-1-1 Yoshinodai, Chuo-ku, Sagamihara, Kanagawa 252-5210, Japan* Corresponding author: sone.yoshitsugu@jaxa.jpABSTRACTThe satellite REIMEI was launched in August 2005, this is one of the first satellites to use Li-ion batteries. REIMEI is a small scientific satellitedesigned for carrying out aurora observations using three different cameras. The main scientific mission of the satellite ended in 2013.More than 14 years have passed, and the batteries have experienced over 78,100 charge/discharge cycles. REIMEI remains in operationwith a new mission dedicated to analyzing its Li-ion battery. In this work, we present a durability analysis for the REIMEI battery based ontelemetry data.© The Author(s) 2020. Published by ECSJ. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (CC BY,http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse of the work in any medium provided the original work is properly cited. [DOI:10.5796/electrochemistry.20-00046]. Uploading "PDF file created by publishers" to institutional repositories or public websites is not permitted by the copyrightlicense agreement.Keywords : Satellite, Li-ion Battery, Long Operation, Durability Analysis1. IntroductionLi-ion batteries have become the first choice to power a widerange of space exploration missions.1–7 Due to their high energydensity, performance and reliability, Li-ion batteries have replacedthe use of Ni-Cd, Ni-MH and Ni-H2 batteries, which were utilized topower many missions.Li-ion batteries have shown to have a high reliability and verygood performance to power a wide range of applications. Never-theless, Li-ion batteries degrade over time and this degradation can byaccelerated by certain operating conditions.8–11 It has been reportedthat factors such state of charge (SoC), temperature, electrolyte,electroactive material composition and cell engineering have animpact on the degradation mechanisms of Li-ion batteries.12–16One of the main factors that has a huge impact on the degradationbehavior of Li-ion batteries is the operating temperature. Highoperating temperatures in combination with a high SoC canaccelerate the degradation of Li-ion cells. This combination promotesthe growth of the solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) generated aroundthe negative electroactive material, which leads to the capacity fadeof the cells.11 On the other hand, when a Li-ion cell is exposed to lowtemperatures, the occurrence of lithium plating can take place. Thislithium plating phenomenon usually occurs when a cell is exposed tolow temperatures and high currents during the charging process,17–19which leads to the generation of metallic lithium around the negativeactive material. The metallic lithium reacts with the electrolyte,which reduces the amount of cyclable lithium leading to a significantcapacity fade.19 Additionally, metallic lithium deposited on thenegative active material can grow dendritically and the lithiumdendrites could cause internal short circuits, which can result in acatastrophic thermal runway of the battery. In general, the operatingtemperature is an important parameter to control and consider inorder to extend the lifetime of Li-ion batteries.The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) started usingLi-ion batteries in 2003 with its Hayabusa spacecraft, whichtravelled to the asteroid Itokawa and was able to bring a samplefrom the asteroid back to earth.2,3 Since then, Li-ion batteries havebeen selected to power a wide range of missions. Another exampleof one of the first satellites to use Li-ion cells is REIMEI. Thispiggy-back satellite was launched from Baikonur, Kazakhstan onAugust 24, 2005 and injected into a nearly sun synchronous polarorbit. The main objective of REIMEI was the demonstration of thenext-generation advanced satellite technologies, which included theuse of Li-ion batteries. The scientific mission of REIMEI consistedof carrying out aurora observations by using three cameras withdifferent wavelength filters. REIMEI’s main scientific mission endedin 2013. Today, more than 14 years have passed, and the battery hasexperienced more than 78,100 charge/discharge cycles. The satelliteremains in operation with a new mission dedicated to analyzing theperformance of its Li-ion battery. In this work, we carry out adurability analysis for the REIMEI Li-ion battery after 14 years ofoperation.Electrochemistry Received: April 10, 2020Accepted: April 25, 2020Published online: June 9, 2020The Electrochemical Society of Japan https://doi.org/10.5796/electrochemistry.20-00046Advance Publication by J-STAGEi2. Experimental2.1 Lithium-ion cellThe REIMEI battery uses pouch Li-ion cells with a rated capacityof 3Ah. The cell uses LiMn2O4 as the positive active material andgraphitized carbon as the negative active material. The electrolytecomposition is 1M of LiPF6 EC/DEC (3:7 by wt%) + additives.2.2 Lithium-ion batteryThe flight battery consists of two strings connected in parallel.The strings are labeled as battery 1 and battery 2. Each string hasseven Li-ion cells connected in series to realize a bus-voltage of28V. The Li-ion cells were place into an aluminum case and thenpotted with an epoxy resin, to avoid any possible expansion of thepouch cells when the battery exposed to vacuum. The specificenergy density of the flight battery was 70Whkg¹1.2.3 Battery operationThe Li-ion battery is charged and discharged according to a lowearth orbit (LEO) satellite operation profile, where the charge anddischarge time periods are constant. The satellite experiences 62minof daytime and 35min of nighttime. During the daytime the batteryis charged following a constant current-constant voltage (CC-CV)protocol. Two maximum constant-voltage levels, V1 and V2 modes,are used during the charge process. V1-mode is set to 29.4V, whichcorresponds to 4.2V per Li-ion cell. V2-mode is set to 28.7V, whichcorresponds to 4.1V per Li-ion cell. During nighttime the battery isdischarged within a depth of discharge (DoD) of 20%.3. Results and DiscussionFigure 1 shows telemetry charge-discharge profiles for voltageand current of the REIMIE Li-ion battery obtained in September2005, 2008, 2012, 2015, 2017 and 2019. A constant current of 1.5Ais applied during charging until the constant voltage limited isreached (V1 or V2), then the charging process continuous in theconstant-voltage phase. During the discharging process, the batteryis discharged within a depth of discharge (DoD) of 20% with acurrent-rate of 0.5C. The voltage telemetry data has an accuracy of0.136V, while the current has an accuracy of 23mA.Figure 2 shows the end of discharge voltage (EoDV), end ofcharge voltage (EoCV) and battery operating temperature obtainedFigure 1. Charge-discharge telemetry data of the REIMEI Satellite Li-ion battery obtained in September 2005, 2008, 2012, 2015 and 2019.Figure 2. End of discharge voltage, end of charge voltage andbattery operating temperature of the REIMEI Li-ion battery 1 (a) and2 (b) as a function of charge-discharge cycles.Electrochemistry, (in press)iifrom telemetry data as a function of charge-discharge cycles for theREIMEI battery 1 and 2. Note that the operating temperature hasbeen maintained within the range of 19–21°C during the satelliteoperation. EoDV values were picked up just before the satellite’spower control unit (PCU) switched from discharge to charge modes,while EoCV values were picked up when the PCU switched fromcharge to discharge modes. It can be observed that the EoDV tendsto decrease with cycles, due to an increase in the internal resistanceof battery which is probably caused by cycling degradation. Thesatellite has a special control system consisted of contingencystrategies and measures which consider “satellite survivability” incase of unexpected malfunctions. One of those measures is the undervoltage control hardware/software (UVC) system. For REIMEI, theUVC level is set to 26.5V, this value corresponds to the minimumvoltage required by the satellite to recover sunlight acquisition for itssolar panels using the energy of the battery in the event of anymalfunction. Therefore, it is very important to monitor the EoDVtrend during the satellite operation. Parallel to the satellite operation,the same type of Li-ion cells were tested on ground under charging/discharging condition similar to those of the satellite operation.3 Theonly differences were the operating temperature, which was 25°C,and the reinforcement of the flight battery. In case of the Li-ion cellstested on ground, the trend of the end of discharge voltage reachedthe under voltage control level of 26.5V after 27,000 charge-discharge cycles. This indicates that a small difference in theoperating temperature can have a huge impact on the performanceon the Li-ion cells. Additionally, the reinforcement of the flightbattery and the in-orbit operation in space seem to prolong theutilization of the battery.In addition, two levels of EoCV can be observed in Fig. 2, 29.4Vand 28.7V, which respectively correspond the V1 and V2 maximumvoltage levels. Usually, the voltage level V2 is utilized in most of theoperation, while V2 is used in the case of any contingency and withthe aim of increasing the EoDV level. Furthermore, it can be seenthat approximately from cycle 65,000 the level of EoDV and EoCVare the same. This indicates that the battery is not been dischargedand it remains fully charged.Figure 3a shows the battery discharge time as a function ofcycles and operation time. A discharge time of 35min remainsalmost constant for most of the operation time. This discharge timedepends on the orbit into which REIMEI was originally injected.However, from approximately cycle 55,000 the discharge timebegins to decrease until zero around cycle 65,000. This coincideswith the point at which the EoDV and EoCV have the same value.Since the discharge time depends on the satellite eclipse time-period,the observed decrease in discharge time indicates that the orbit ofREIMEI has been altered so that there are periods of time in whichthe solar panels of the satellite are always facing to the sunlight, andtherefore during this periods the battery remains fully charged.Figure 3b shows the last time REIMEI experienced eclipse time andthe battery was discharged. Figure 3c shows the voltage and currentprofiles when the satellite only faces sunlight and the batteryremains fully charged.Figure 4 shows voltage discharge curves filtered from batterytelemetry data for different operation dates. In the case of thedischarge curve of 2013/03/01 a kink, which appears to be similarto a voltage plateau, is observed at the beginning of the dischargingprocess. The appearance of this voltage kink suggests theoccurrence of lithium plating during the previous battery chargingprocess. Usually, lithium plating takes place when a Li-ion cell isexposed to low temperatures and high currents during charging.17–19Since the battery temperature of REIMEI has been maintainedwithin the range of 19–21°C during its operation, the occurrence oflithium plating due to low temperature exposure can be discarded.However, the generation of lithium plating can also be aconsequence of a shift in the capacity of the battery positive andnegative electroactive materials due to charge-discharge cyclingdegradation.19 As the occurrence of lithium plating can compromiseFigure 3. (a) Battery discharge time as a function of operation time and charge-discharge cycles. (b) Last time the REIMEI satelliteexperienced an eclipse period of time and its battery was discharged. (c) The REIMEI satellite only experiences sunlight and its batteryremains fully charged.Electrochemistry, (in press)iiithe safety and reliability of Li-ion batteries, its detection is veryimportant.To detect the occurrence of lithium plating from REIMEI batterytelemetry data, discharge voltage profiles were scanned to identifythe occurrence of a voltage plateau at the beginning of thedischarging process. Figure 5 shows flowcharts of the algorithmsused to detect voltage kinks from battery telemetry data. Thealgorithms were implemented in Matlab R2017b. The scanningprocess mainly consists of reading csv battery telemetry files,identifying discharge voltage and current profiles, and calculatingthe change of voltage with respect to time (dV/dt). Then, thecalculated rate of change of the points 1 and 3 is compared with anidentification factor. In the first algorithm (Fig. 5a), variable andconstant current during the discharging process of the battery areconsidered. The variable discharge current is caused by the use ofthe satellite observation cameras. In the second algorithm (Fig. 5b),only constant current during the discharging process is considered.Figure 6 shows the results of the kink detection frequencydistribution obtained by applying the algorithms shown in Fig. 5.This detection distribution was calculated using the followingequation:fd ¼ nNtlm;yearð1Þwhere fd is the kink detection frequency distribution, n is the numberof times a voltage kink is detected and Ntlm,year is the number ofbattery cycles obtained by telemetry per year. It can be observed thatthe intensity of the kink detection distribution increases withoperation time. In case of the variable discharge current, thefrequency distribution intensity is higher than that of the constantdischarge current. This is likely due to some discharge pulses causedby the use of REIMEI cameras and these discharge pulses have anFigure 4. Discharge curves profiles for the REIMEI Li-ion batteryfiltered from telemetry data.Figure 5. Flowcharts of the algorithms that were used to identifyvoltage kinks at the beginning of the discharge process from thetelemetry data of the REIMEI satellite Li-ion battery.Figure 6. Annual voltage kink detection frequency distribution results for the REIMEI satellite Li-ion battery.Electrochemistry, (in press)iveffect on the discharge voltage profiles which could generate somevoltage kinks. In addition, it can be seen that voltage kinks are notdetected in the years 2017, 2018 and 2019. This due to the fact thatthe satellite started experiencing a few eclipse periods of time inthose years and the battery remains fully charged most of the time,and therefore voltage kinks are not detected. In general, the resultsof Fig. 6 show that the appearance of a high voltage plateau at thebeginning of the battery discharging process, which could be relatedto the occurrence of lithium plating, is increasing with operationtime. We will continue to track the appearance of this high voltageplateau during the satellite operation.4. ConclusionsThe REIMEI satellite was launched on August 23rd, 2005 andafter more than 78,100 charge-discharge cycles of its battery,REIMEI is still in operation. REIMEI uses a battery which iscomposed of LiMn2O4-Graphite pouch Li-ion cells. The mainscientific mission of the satellite ended in 2013, since then, REIMEIremains in operation with a new mission dedicated to analyzing itsLi-ion battery performance. A durability analysis of the Li-ionbattery has been carried out. The end of discharge voltage for battery1 and 2 has been monitored as a function of operating cycles and theobtained trend was similar for the two battery strings, indicating thatthe current distribution between these strings has been the sameduring the satellite operation. The temperature of the battery hasbeen maintained within the rage of 19–21°C. This proper control intemperature has allowed the battery to prevent any prematuredegradation, which is reflected in its long operation performance. Inaddition, the appearance of a voltage plateau at the beginning of thedischarging process from the battery telemetry data was analyzed.The results showed that the appearance of this voltage plateau hasincreased with operation time. The operation of the satellite willcontinue, and we will keep tracking the end of discharge voltagetrend and the appearance of a high voltage kink at the beginning ofthe discharging process of the REIMEI Li-ion battery.AcknowledgmentsThis work has been partially supported by the International JointResearch Program for Innovative Energy Technology of the Ministryof Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), Japan. The authors wouldlike to thank Ms. Kawano, Prof. Mizuno and Prof. Fukushima fortheir kind support during the REIMEI satellite operation.References1. B. V. Ratnakumar, M. C. Smart, A. Kindler, H. Frank, R. Ewell, and S.Surampudi, J. Power Sources, 119–121, 906 (2003).2. Y. Sone, H. Ooto, M. Kubota, M. Yamamoto, H. Yoshida, T. Eguro, S. Sakai, T.Yoshida, M. Uno, K. Hirose, M. Tajima, and J. Kawaguchi, Electrochemistry,75(7), 518 (2007).3. M. Uno, K. Ogawa, Y. Takeda, Y. Sone, K. Tanaka, M. Mita, and H. Saito,J. Power Sources, 196, 8755 (2011).4. Y. Sone, Electrochim. 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Durability Analysis of the REIMEI Satellite Li-ion Batteries after more than 14 Years of Operation in Space

Omar S. MENDOZA-HERNANDEZ

Linda J. BOLAY

Birger HORSTMANN

Arnulf LATZ

Eiji HOSONO

Daisuke ASAKURA

Hirofumi MATSUDA

Masayuki ITAGAKI

Minoru UMEDA

Yoshitsugu SONE

Directory of Open Access Journals

ABSTRACT

The satellite REIMEI was launched in August 2005, this is one of the first satellites to use Li-ion batteries. REIMEI is a small scientific satellite

designed for carrying out aurora observations using three different cameras. The main scientific mission of the satellite ended in 2013.

More than 14 years have passed, and the batteries have experienced over 78,100 charge/discharge cycles. REIMEI remains in operation

with a new mission dedicated to analyzing its Li-ion battery. In this work, we present a durability analysis for the REIMEI battery based on

telemetry dat

Mendoza-Hernandez, Omar

Bolay, Linda

Horstmann, Birger

Latz, Arnulf

Hosono, Eiji

Asakura, Daisuke

Matsuda, Hirofumi

Itagaki, Masayuki

Umeda, Minoru

Sone, Yoshitsugu

Institute of Transport Research:Publications

https://publikationen.bibliothek.kit.edu/1000122725/85124741

Durability Analysis of the REIMEI Satellite Li-ion Batteries after more than 14 Years of Operation in Space

Abstract

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Institute of Transport Research:Publications