PCM's Advantage
Over the years AllCell has built up a strong expertise in customizing solutions to address thermal management issues in lithium-ion batteries. Our passive solution, based on a phase change material (PCM), enhances the safety of your battery pack by limiting thermal runaway propagation (and the subsequent fire hazard) as well as by increasing the durability and efficiency of the pack. Your product will benefit from a unique, efficient, and environmentally sustainable technology.
In comparison to air, liquid, and refrigerant-based (i.e. Freon) thermal management systems, AllCell's PCM technology provides a superior solution.
Air cooling has been used successfully in vehicles, such as current hybrid electric cars, that utilize nickel metal hydride batteries. These batteries have modest cooling requirements that can be met by circulating compartment cooled air across the battery. However, air cooling is not adequate for Li-ion batteries in high energy applications, such as plug-in hybrids (PHEV), where the heat generated from the battery may be up to 20 times higher. In addition to requiring unrealistic volumes of airflow, temperature variation across the battery pack leads to early degradation and decreased cell life. Air cooling will also not solve the thermal runaway safety problem.
Liquid cooling systems possess high amounts of complexity (pumps, radiator, thermostat, and flow channels), weight, volume, and cost. The complexity and bulk present a significant challenge to automotive vehicle designers. These systems are very cumbersome to fit into a design and greatly restrict the use of space. Also, it negates many of the advantages of a LEV (compact design, light weight) and is thus completely unrealistic for light electric vehicle use. However, liquid cooling has a better chance of maintaining a constant temperature across the pack.
Refrigerant-based systems (i.e. Freon) are similar to liquid cooling in that they suffer from the disadvantages of complexity, high volume, heavy weight, and place additional demands on the battery to power the system. They are more effective than liquid cooling systems in preventing thermal runaway, however, these still require maintenance and add more engineering requirements to the vehicle’s design.
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