SPARTACUS

The project:

Effective sensors are needed to identify changes inside a battery that lead to degradation and failure. The EU-funded SPARTACUS project aims to develop cost-effective sensors that detect degradation and failure mechanisms before the battery’s loss of performance. Temperature sensors, as well as mechanical and acoustic sensors completed by electrochemical impedance measurement will be developed. The project will correlate sensor data to battery performance and corresponding models. It will continuously monitor the state of different parameters so that the battery can be cycled on an age-dependent optimum level. In addition, an advanced battery management system will be developed. The global objective of the Spartacus project is to develop an affordable sensor solution to detect degradation and failure mechanisms, intentionally before a loss of performance. The project will focus on mechanical and acoustic sensors completed by electrochemical impedance measurement and temperature sensors. The sensoric data will be correlated to battery performance and to corresponding models. The state of different parameters (SoX) will be monitored continuously which enables the management system to cycle the battery on an age-dependent optimum level. An advanced Battery Management System (BMS) will be developed. BMS will work in proximity to the cells terminals (i.e. a cell management system, CMS) to efficiently exploit all the sensoric data without extra-wiring harness. At the end of the project, an 24V smart battery module will be assembled and the CMS enhanced by the senoric data will be validated in different ageing conditions or for misused or abused batteries at lab-scale (TRL4). Quantitatively, a reduction of 20% charging time without any negative effect on life time by exploitation of sensoric data is targeted. By usage of sensoric data, cell monitoring will be also improved and will increase the safety of batteries and avoid overheating (thermal runaway), fire or explosion.