Accumulator Laboratory

Its research focus is the technological development of lithium-ion cells and packs, key for the insertion of renewable energies and the promotion of electric vehicles. It also conducts studies on lead-acid batteries, a valid alternative for microgrid applications.

Its research areas are: real-time diagnosis of the state of charge and health of cells, modeling and electro-thermal simulation of cells and packs under different operating conditions; development of packs for electromobility applications and optimization strategies to improve the design of packs.

This laboratory is part of the Energy Center and the Lithium Innovation Center.

The laboratory has a 300W programmable load to perform cell discharges; a 4KW capacity charge/discharge test equipment; an experimental device to perform tests at controlled ambient temperature; a special welding machine for lithium-ion cylindrical cells; an 8-core workstation and professional ANSYS and modeFrontier licenses that allow electro-thermal simulation of battery packs and design optimization. In addition, it has instruments for the measurement and acquisition of electrical and thermal variables.

• Optimal packaging of lithium batteries (EOBLi): the objective is to develop a software that helps in the design process of battery packs taking into account the particular operation to which it will be subjected.
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  State of Health and Charge Estimation (SOHC): the objective is to develop a device capable of predicting the state of charge and health of a lithium-ion battery bank based on historical usage pattern and Bayesian prediction algorithms.
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  Development of a lithium-ion cell pack for electric bicycle: the objective is to design, build and test a battery pack that is part of a kit that allows transforming a traditional bicycle into an electric one in a few minutes.
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  Development of a SoC estimator for a lead-acid battery bank: the objective is to develop a fuzzy logic based model that allows on-line estimation of the SoC of a pack that is installed in the Huatacondo microgrid.
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  Development of a cell packing validation device: the objective is to design and build a device to validate designs in terms of ventilation system performance.