By Josh Perry, Editor [email protected]
According to CORDIS, the information outlet for European Commission research projects, the OSEM-EV (Optimized and Systematic Energy Management in Electric Vehicles) project is studying the use of waste heat from vehicle operation to manage electric vehicle (EV) battery temperature.
OSEM-EV is looking at a heat pump solution to maintain EV battery temperatures. (Wikimedia Commons)
A heat pump would be used to take the waste heat from EV subsystems and heat or cool the battery as needed. By maintaining the battery at its optimal operating temperature, researchers would extend its range and its lifetime.
“Thanks to the in-depth quantitative understanding of energy flows in electric vehicles they gathered over the duration of the project, the consortium was able to design and optimize the vehicle’s energy architecture and to develop control algorithms for effective coupled electro-thermal energy management,” the report indicated. “These improve not only the energy efficiency of the powertrain, but also the reliability and lifetime of every subsystem in the car.”
Researchers demonstrated the viability of the heat pump solution in class-A and class-C EV. Commercialization is in the works for this new system.
Other thermal management solutions that the project investigated include insulation, thermal energy storage, electronic control of power flow, and other energy harvesting concepts.
Learn more about the OSEM-EV project at http://www.osem-ev.eu.
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