British agency studies new battery cooling technology to reduce the risk of battery fires

(Photo source: M&I official website)

According to foreign media reports, British M&I Materials, the School of Manufacturing Engineering (WMG) at the University of Warwick and Ricardo Consulting have jointly launched the i-CoBat project, which aims to develop and demonstrate new electric vehicle battery cooling technology. It uses M&I Materials' biodegradable dielectric coolant MIVOLT to test the concept of immersion cooling battery packs.

As the automotive industry transitions to electrification, high-capacity batteries used in electric vehicles face major challenges in thermal management. The operating temperature range of batteries is narrow. Once the temperature exceeds the limit, the performance and efficiency of the battery will decrease and ageing will accelerate. In extreme cases, exceeding the upper limit of operation may cause thermal runaway of the battery, catastrophic failure, and possible fire.

When fast charging, the heat generated by the battery is three times that of normal driving and charging. Currently, electric vehicle battery packs are usually cooled by air, or cold plate cooling with water/ethylene glycol or refrigerants. The use of these thermal management systems will limit the charging speed and the number of fast charging times. In order to increase the driving range, one possible way is to increase the size of the battery pack, but this will significantly increase the cost.

The i-CoBat project is led by M&I Materials and is part of the UK government's Faraday Battery Challenge, which encourages the development of the latest electric vehicle battery technology. In the i-CoBat project, researchers use M&I Materials' biodegradable dielectric coolant MIVOLT, whose chemical properties allow it to act as a dielectric coolant to directly remove heat from the surface of the battery cell. This is because the MIVOLT dielectric liquid is non-conductive and can be directly in contact with the battery pack. Using MIVOLT for liquid immersion cooling allows heat conduction from the heat source, without the need for a secondary indirect cooling system, providing a simpler thermal management solution.

This innovation is expected to increase power output and battery life, speed up charging, while reducing costs and effectively solving the range anxiety problem. David Greenwood, professor of advanced drive systems at the School of Manufacturing Engineering at the University of Warwick, said: "It's not just a matter of keeping the battery cool, but optimizing the operating temperature."