WPs


Activity 1: Coordination and dissemination

  • (A1.1) Financial and scientific supervision.The project manager will manage and implement the contract with UEFISCDI, will manage the funds, and regulate the relations between the team members. Together with the accounting officer, A.C will submit all the intermediate financial reports and other results on time.

  • (A1.2) Technology survey.The project manager, together with C.M. key member, will coordinate all the research activities and will monitor the progress and the results obtained during the project and, if necessary, will adjust the program of activities accordingly. They will organize, implement and follow up regular meetings to discuss progress and disseminate new data.

  • (A1.3) Dissemination and knowledge management.Knowledge development and dissemination are essential objectives of the project. A website will be created to serve as a scientific platform, and to inform the interested public. Moreover, scientific workshops will be organized every year with in order to allow the dissemination of the results to an audience of specialists in the field. The knowledge generated in this project will be disseminated through patent applications and publication in international high impact ISI journals (Electrochemistry Acta, Journal of Energy Storage, etc.) Dissemination of project results in new knowledge, training and transfer to the economic operator are key goals of the project's success.

  • (A1.4) Identification of technical risks. The potential risks of this project are minimal, starting from the large experience of the team members in recent years. The multiple patent applications of the team members prove their ability to develop and identify new research opportunities applied directly in the industry. A more realistic scenario that requires alternative planning is the lack of funds initially allocated and redistributed in the coming years. These can lead to delays in the achievement of the stages (insufficient quality) that can delay the overall and potential progress, compromising the overall quality of the final result. Taking this scenario into consideration, contingency plan is an integral part of the overall project management, fully integrated with progress monitoring, quality control and communications flow management.

Activity 2: Software development/data analysis

  • (A2.1) Use of the existing software to design new shapes for the grid.In the first step, the existing code will provide preliminary data. This activity will continue our current investigations. Its main drawback is coming from the fact that the Poisson equation is solved on a single electrode – the positive one (2D problem). The effect of the opposite (negative) electrode, as well as the role of the separator are not currently taken into account. Nevertheless, the bulk of improvements (such as the limitation of the thermal energy dissipated during the discharge) are captured already at this level. The data will provide foundation for the first set of investigations to be used in our trial-and-error procedure.

  • (A2.2) Development of improved software. The aim of the activity is to provide an improved numerical tool for the accurate investigations of the potential during the battery discharge. The novel algorithm is based on the relaxation method and grid representation of the potential, similar to the existing one.

  • (A2.3) Use of the code for the design of new grids.This will reiterate the actions of act. 2.1, but results based on the improved version of the code. The optimization of the grid will monitor the following parts: (i) minimization of the thermal energy dissipated in the grid; (ii) the uniformity of the corrosion (Buttler -Vollmer equation - the effect of overpotential at each point); (iii) the effect of the electrode's thickness to be monitored by studying the corrosion speed as a function of the distance between electrodes. A penalty function will be defined based on statistical data in order to collect all the effects mentioned above into a limited number of quantities that will be used afterward to draw the optimum correlation between shape, thickness and separation distance for the electrodes. In addition to the distance between electrodes, the 3D model will allow us to investigate the effect of introducing setups with electrodes in planes that are not parallel to each other. This has the potential to compensate the faster corrosion taking place in the upper part of the electrodes, due to potential fluctuation at discharge. In this way, a more homogenous time evolution of the electrodes can be obtained.

Activity 3: Fabrication of MG prototypes and other battery components for laboratory experiments

  • (A3.1) Fabrication of the MG’s. This activity is entirely devoted to mechanical processing of the lead sheet.

  • (A3.2) Design and fabrication of support for the model cells(2.14 V)- specially suited for Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) experiments. The aim of the activity is to provide the optimal experimental setup. The LAB elements (i.e. electrodes, separator, electrolyte) are unstable if they are in contact with air. The formation of sulphur compounds as well as evaporation have the potential to deteriorate the cells. We propose a design allowing the electrodes to be kept under the noble gas atmosphere (argon); this design will allow electrodes to be kept health over longer periods of time and also to be easily manipulated.

  • (A3.3) Fabrication of the positive electrodes - by using the novel grids and the commercial active mass available and used on current industrial batteries.

Activity 4: Fabrication of test-cells

  • (A4.1) Electrode formation. According to industrial prerequisites on electrolyte concentration, volume, separator quality, time and current of formation. The task is the intermediate step toward the assembly of a fully functional LAB (2.14V). The provided electrodes have to be formed according to industrial prescriptions. For example, average/typical values ask for 2 hours injection of a current around 0.5A followed by a 20 hours injection of 2A current. This protocol will be set-up according to the current industrial prescriptions for the given type of electrode size and active mass.

  • (A4.2) Battery assembly.The fully functional electrodes will be used to produce the cell.

Activity 5: Characterization of test-cells

  • (A5.1) Determination of current distribution in the positive electrode.This task forms the bulk of our optimization effort providing the most detailed information over the current distribution and energy dissipation over the electrode's surface. We can get the detailed results over the energy dissipation, as well as quantitative description of the distribution via statistical analysis. These data will be collected for each type of design and a quantitative description of the main parameters mentioned above will be provided. This will give us access to information on the evolution of the quality parameters over time/cycles/life of the battery. Different types of aging for the battery: (i) uniformly charge-discharge with specific parameters, battery fully charged; (ii) similar for battery that is partially charged (for example the regime of start-and-stop batteries); (iii) simulation of “daily-life” of the battery ( the complex series of charge-discharge for variable periods of time, ocrring for start-and-stop battery in traffic conditions); (iv) deep-discharge followed by full recharge.

  • (A5.2) EIS experiments for the evaluation of the battery response to different aging protocoles.The task will provide a second set of qualitative parameters for the cell produced in the project. By using variable frequencies, the impedance methods allow for clearly spotting of the processes that are involved in aging process.

  • (A5.3) Characterization of mechanical properties.In order to see if the proposeddesign meets the standards for mechanical resistance, we'll test them under vibrations with controlled amplitude and frequency. The parameters of vibrations will be set to match the worst case scenario for a working automobile.

Activity 6: Full design of a new battery

  • (A6.1) Determine the best parameters, by using the optimized electrochemical, geometric distribution,mechanical resistance parameters.The aim of the task is to synthesize the results of the trial-and-error strategy and to propose three solutions for the new type of improved battery.

  • (A6.2) Merging the results from Act. 6.1 and tests for the fabrication of fully functional new model of LAB at 12 V. This model will have to meet not the technical requirements as well as the industry specific ones (such as the cost and the compatibility with the existing technology) in order to represent a candidate for the implementation into the current production.

  • (A6.3) Full design of an optimized manufacturing cycle of novel prototypes Develop a novel manufacturing protocol based on the predictive analysis of the deterioration processes of leadacid accumulators, from their formation to the life expectancy.