Greece’s Sunlight Group has concluded a battery research programme which aimed to create longer-life lithium-ion batteries.
The EU-funded project, which ran from January 2021 until the middle of 2023, aimed to develop a robust prediction model for monitoring the State of Health (SoH) and State of Charge (SοC) of lithium-ion batteries for electric industrial vehicles.
The project was also about integrating the prediction model into the battery management system of Sunlight’s products. INEM Technologies, a Xanthi-based academic spin-off, was a project partner.
Battery maker Sunlight said the project was innovative and correlated the internal ageing mechanisms and physical parameters (such as pressure and temperature) at battery cell level. External battery electrical parameters determined the SoH and SοC.
The project analysed and utilised data sourced from the electrical and internal parameters of industrial lithium-ion batteries. That included capacity loss, correlation of internal and electric parameters, and the development of a model for the accurate determination of SoC and SoH.
It found the specialised analysis of incremental capacity showed that the key mechanism leading to battery ageing is lithium depletion and increase in internal resistance. The analysis also demonstrated a strong correlation between pressure and stored charge, as well as pressure and SoH.
The company said in a statement: “The implementation of the Smart Healthy Battery project led to significant observations and offers the opportunity for direct applications of its results. Specifically, the prediction model that was developed will be integrated into the BMS of Sunlight Group’s existing products, upgrading their specifications.”
The initial scope of the project was fully achieved, as the R&D team contributed to further increasing the efficiency, reliability and safety of Sunlight’s energy storage solutions, it said.
