Rapid grading for second-life automotive batteries
WMG’s research helps ensure a ‘second life’ for Nissan’s EV batteries
Even batteries for electric vehicles (EVs) have a limited lifespan, so what happens once they can no longer be used in cars? Well, thanks to The University of Warwick’s WMG technology experts, these Lithium-ion batteries, which still retain sufficient energy and power capability after usage, can be graded quickly and used for ‘second life’ applications – some of which are in renewable energy sources.
To work out if batteries are suitable for ‘second life’ applications, where they are put to a different use after their initial lifecycle is over, they first need to be graded. This process identifies which batteries can be used for spare parts, recycling, or second life. This is normally a long and expensive process, taking well over three hours, but in January 2020 the WMG team developed methods of grading the sub-components of battery packs in as little as three minutes – an impressive 98% decrease.
Nissan partnered with WMG, AMETEK, and Element Energy on the “UK Energy Storage Laboratory” project, and the methodology was successfully transferred to their second-life facility. It was predicted that by 2021, the number of battery packs returning to Nissan would start to increase. However, with electric vehicle batteries lasting longer than expected, this only started to come into play in late 2022.
Early models of Nissan’s Electric LEAF cars, which first went on sale around 13 years ago in 2010, are now starting to reach the end of their life spans. These used batteries are being collected at Nissan dealerships and sent to their factory in Namie, Fukushima, where factory workers will disassemble and prepare them for a second life. In this way, Nissan should be able to make a truly green transition with their cars – where clean electric vehicles can be driven, and their batteries recycled at the end of their lifespan.
The sustainability benefits
- Reusing batteries from electric vehicles will help us to lead more efficient and smarter lives, supporting the UK’s plan to end our contribution to climate change by 2050.
- In their second life, batteries can be used to ensure the smooth operation of renewable energy sources. They will work as storage to allow usage of intermittent renewable energy sources on the grid, without putting security of supply at risk. This will help decrease our reliance on non-renewable sources.
- Lithium-ion batteries, used by EVs, are expensive to manufacture, partly because of the high cost of mining cobalt. With recycling EV batteries hopefully becoming the norm, the less environmental destruction is needed for the manufacturing process.
- The easier and less expensive it is to put new electric vehicles on the roads, the more EVs can be manufactured. An increase in using zero emission vehicles and a resulting decrease in using diesel and petrol vehicles can only be a positive changeIn 2017,The University of Warwick’s WMGLink opens in a new windowwas awarded £5.7m by theEngineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)to form an electrifyingProsperity PartnershipwithJaguar Land Rover (JLR). Since then, WMG and JLR have been accelerating their electrification journey, and JLR is on the road to achieving carbon net zero by 2039.
The electrifying collaboration between Warwick’s WMG and JLR that transformed electric vehicles
The Prosperity Partnership saw WMG and JLR collaborate to advance electric vehicle technology and to grow scientific understanding. The aim was to make the UK a global leader in the technology of vehicle electrification, withresearch specifically focused onbattery performance and degradation, new devices and packaging for power electronic, design of electric motors, and the optimisation of electric drives under different conditions. JLR’s vision is that by 2050, almost every car and van in the UK will be an ultra-low emission vehicle.
This collaboration is one of many between WMG and JLR across the past ten years. In the National Automotive Innovation Centre (NAIC), which opened in 2020, JLR and WMG, alongsideTata Motors, are developing next generation future electrified and autonomous vehicles. Sustainability is at the heart of theNAIC’s purpose, so it’s fitting that the research here is vital in the production of electric vehicles. WMG’s insights into the functionality of lithium-ion batteries have even underpinned the battery development for JLR’s first all-electric SUV vehicle(the Jaguar I-PACE, set to release in 2024).
The sustainability benefits
- Collaborations between WMG and JLR have resulted in the production of an all-electric vehicle. This means the car has no tailpipe, so no carbon dioxide emissions will be produced while driving. As electric vehicles replace standard vehicles, air pollution will be considerably reduced.
- Electric vehicles run on... you guessed it, electricity! This is instead of the typical diesel or petrol fuels which are non-renewable energy sources. The switch to renewable electricity is much more sustainable.
- Once an electric car battery or the car itself has come to the end of its life, some parts of it can be recycled or reused. EVs are often much easier to recycle than standard vehicles because they don’t have oily engine parts that will need depolluting.