The damage where we stop it is profit!!
Α Li-on cell works at about 4, 2V, but in the applications where are used these cells such as EV, portable electronics, laptops, Power Banks etc. a much higher voltage than the nominal voltage is required.
That’s why the Battery Pack designers combine more than one cell in a series to form a higher voltage value battery. When the batteries are connected in series, the voltage increases. For example, when 4 cells Li-on 4.2 V are connected in series, the output voltage of the resulting battery will be 16.8 V.
Connecting multiple cells in a row is like putting a lot of horses on a chariot. Only if all the horses run at the same speed the chariot will be driven with maximum efficiency. Of the four horses if a horse runs slowly, then the other three must also reduce their speed, thus reducing efficiency and if a horse runs faster, it will eventually damage itself by pulling the load of the other three horses. Likewise, when four cells are connected in series, the voltage values of all elements should be equal for the operation of the battery pack at peak performance. The method of maintaining equality of trends of all elements is called Cell Balancing.
“The damage where we stop it is profit!!.”
Spyros Loukakis
In the following years, the tendency to turn the motor into e-mobility will be established. But what about the used batteries of electric cars and other vehicles?
Batteries of electric cars usually reach the age limit of their replacement after ten or more years of operation without this meaning that they became useless for some different use from that of the movement of the Car. The recycling of these batteries for the recovery and reuse of raw materials is displayed as a first and most likely solution for their utilization. However, these battery packs still have a large part of their original capacity that can reach even 80%. There are applications that are less functional demanding, for example in power storage stations. This ability to use them for a “second-life” operating cycle can offer significant economic opportunities exploitation it.
Tesla, a car manufacturer exclusively producing electric cars, uses 16 modules Li-on batteries. Each module contains 444 cells of a specific type of the rechargeable battery trade. The modular nature of the modules gives the possibility of replacing the weakened cells and restoring the functionality of the whole. The use of these modules, which may have emerged from a crashed Tesla car for example, with a photovoltaic system of collecting solar energy and storing it in the modules of Tesla, is a successful ‘ Second Life ‘ application of the specific battery packs with a zero ecological footprint.
A small power generator, which can be substituted by a system of reusable batteries with the appropriate inverter, produces working 3h per day and consuming 1, 5l/h petrol 2.68 Kg/L CO2. By making the daily production in the year (220 days) we have 2,653 Kg CO2 savings in the year.
The damage where we stop it is profit!!