May 12, 2021 | back to news
To achieve this overall objective, the project will include research, development and demonstration activities. The research activities will focus on increasing the power and energy density of Li-ion capacitor (LIC) cells, their advanced characterization and upscaling their production. The development activities will focus on the optimization and production of the LiC modules and the development of a new battery management system, including new SoX (state-of-charge, state-of-health, and state-of-power) algorithms for the LiC cells. They will also cover the integration and assembly of the full system, including a direct current (DC) /DC converter specifically developed for high input and output voltage ranges. Finally, it will also include the development of the energy management system for control of the HEROES hybrid system. The prototype system will be demonstrated for the fast charging of EVs in operational environment (charging station).
The project outcomes will be key enablers for the cost-effective deployment of electric vehicles fast-charging stations and will contribute to the wide adoption of electric vehicles. HEROES project will have a strong impact on Europe's energy storage sector, employment, and industrial competitiveness, as well as at the European Union level.
Sustainable Innovations and ENSO are part of a consortium formed by a total of ten partners coming from five different European countries. All of them will be working together for 36 months, developing an energy storage system for fast electric vehicle charging.
The main responsibilities of Sustainable Innovations in HEROES are to lead the exploitation of the project results, market research strategies, and the development of e-learning materials for training programs. For their part, ENSO will be in charge of developing a detailed assessment of the life cycle costing of the HEROES storage system prototype. In terms of environmental impact, ENSO will evaluate all aspects regarding sourcing, production, use, and waste of most critical materials.
"Economic and environmental assessments are key to ensure the feasibility of innovative solutions for energy storage on the electromobility field," remarks Toni Pons, Founding Partner of ENSO. "It is an important milestone in the company and a great challenge to apply our knowledge and expertise on Life Cycle Assessment and Life Cycle Cost on the EV and batteries areas to assess HEROES solution on the future of transport and mobility."
Electric vehicles are expected to play a key role towards a decarbonized transport system and thus contribute to meet the European Union's ambitious goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. However, the wide adoption of electric vehicles has been hampered by key barriers, including high prices due to the costly batteries, their limited range, and the lack of infrastructure for fast and widespread charging. Given this, there is a need to develop technological improvements in the sense of upgrading the buffer system with high power and high energy to allow fast charging. Stationary batteries represent a perfect match for fast-charging stations as they can increase the capacity of the station cost-effectively.Led by Beyonder, the HEROES consortium is formed by the Institute for Energy Technology, Siemens AG, ElringKlinger, Lithium Balance, Bestoraged, ENSO, Sustainable Innovations, European Association for Storage of Energy, and Aalborg University.
In total, more than 4 million in funding has been granted to HEROES under the European Union's research, and innovation program Horizon 2020. For their part, the Spanish partners have received more than 350,000 in total.
Source: Sustainable Innovations
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