Benteler presents new cooling system for EVs
The supplier Benteler has presented an effective cooling system for electric vehicles. The high-pressure heat exchanger is only the size of a cigarette pack designed to couple the battery cooling and air conditioning systems.
The idea is providing more efficient cooling performance in some situations. The system can easily be installed in the vehicle’s air conditioning circuit, the company claims. “Coupling battery cooling and air conditioning in this way increase the cooling power available during charging,” says Jens-Eike Jesau, the developer responsible at Benteler. “This shortens the battery charging time.”
Shorter charging times are a factor in the widespread acceptance of electric cars, the company says. The charging power (and thus the duration of the charging process) is limited, among other things, by the heat generated by the battery during fast charging. On the one hand, the high-pressure heat exchanger should make it possible to use the interior air conditioning system’s cooling power for battery cooling. On the other hand, it should also be possible to use waste heat from the battery to heat the passenger compartment if required.
The heat exchanger uses CO2 as a coolant; in this function, CO2 is referred to as R744. Before entering the cooler, the refrigerant is liquefied. It evaporates and absorbs the waste heat from the battery charging process – the simple and familiar principle of a heat exchanger. However, with the high-pressure version, the cooling capacity is supposed to be “considerably higher” according to Benteler – but the exact cooling capacity is not quantified in the press release.
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