PEM Chair develops present innovative new battery packs

In the European research project ‘RESiLiTE’, the Chair of Production Engineering of E-Mobility Components (PEM) at RWTH Aachen University is working with several partners to develop innovative battery packs. The aim is to increase the energy density, efficiency, safety, temperature resistance and sustainability of battery packs.

The research project is being funded by the EU with a total of around €6.2 million as part of the Horizon Europe programme. Project partners include Turkish electric car manufacturer Togg, chip manufacturer Infineon Austria and the Fraunhofer Institutes EMI and LBF.

The project is based on the idea of densely packing cylindrical cells in 4695 format into a lightweight housing using the cell-to-pack approach. The housing will be made from recycled fibre-reinforced thermoplastic materials. In other words, the protective housing will be made from plastic that can be moulded when heated and hardens again when cooled. “A cell holder structurally integrated into the housing makes it possible to completely dispense with casting materials,” says PEM director Prof. Achim Kampker.

This has the advantage of achieving a significantly higher energy density than has been possible to date. The planned concept targets an energy density of 220 Wh/kg at the pack level. “This is more than 14 per cent above the state of the art,” emphasised Kampker.

Thanks to combined indirect cooling solutions integrated into the cell holders of the housing, charging and discharging rates of more than 4.5 C are to be achieved. Fire safety is to be improved by a soft ventilation concept in conjunction with fire-retardant nanomaterials integrated into the cell holders.

The energy efficiency of the battery will also be increased. “The use of thermoplastic materials for the housing provides additional insulation for the battery pack, resulting in a longer service life in cold environments before active heating solutions are required,” said PEM management member Prof. Heiner Heimes.

The battery packs to be developed are intended to be suitable not only for electric vehicles, but also for electric aircraft in the future. Incidentally, the acronym RESiLiTE stands for Robust, Economical, Silicon-rich, Lightweight, and Thermally Efficient battery packs. The project is scheduled to run until June 2028.

pem.rwth-aachen.de, pem.rwth-aachen.de (RESiLiTE)

This article was first published by Florian Treiß for electrive’s German edition.