A Flexible Three-in-One Microsensor for Real-Time Monitoring of Internal Temperature, Voltage and Current of Lithium Batteries

Building Smarter Aqueous Batteries

Amidst the global trend of advancing renewable energies toward carbon neutrality, energy storage becomes increasingly critical due to the intermittency of renewables. As an alternative to lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), aqueous batteries have received growing attention for large-scale energy storage due to their economical and safe features. Despite the fruitful achievements at the material level, the reliability and lifetime of aqueous batteries are still far from satisfactory. Alike LIBs, integrating smartness is essential for more reliable and long-life aqueous batteries via operando monitoring and automatic response to extreme abuses. In this review, recent advances in sensing techniques and multifunctional battery-sensor systems together with self-healing methods in aqueous batteries is summarized. The significant role of artificial intelligence in designing and optimizing aqueous batteries with high efficiency is also highlighted. Ultimately, it is extrapolated toward the future and present the humble perspective for building smarter aqueous batteries.

Distributed Intelligent Battery Management System Using a Real-World Cloud Computing System

In this work, a decentralized but synchronized real-world system for smart battery management was designed by using a general controller with cloud computing capability, four charge regulators, and a set of sensorized battery monitors with networking and Bluetooth capabilities. Currently, for real-world applications, battery management systems (BMSs) can be used in the form of distributed control systems where general controllers, charge regulators, and smart monitors and sensors are integrated, such as those proposed in this work, which allow more precise estimations of a large set of important parameters, such as the state of charge (SOC), state of health (SOH), current, voltage, and temperature, seeking the safety and the extension of the useful life of energy storage systems based on battery banks. The system used is a paradigmatic real-world example of the so-called intelligent battery management systems. One of the contributions made in this work is the realization of a distributed design of a BMS, which adds the benefit of increased system security compared to a fully centralized BMS structure. Another research contribution made in this work is the development of a methodical modeling procedure based on Petri Nets, which establishes, in a visible, organized, and precise way, the set of conditions that will determine the operation of the BMS. If this modeling is not carried out, the threshold values and their conditions remain scattered, not very transparent, and difficult to deal with in an aggregate way.

Electrode-Integrated Textile-Based Sensors for In Situ Temperature and Relative Humidity Monitoring in Electrochemical Cells

Temperature and humidity measurements in electrochemical energy devices are essential for maximizing their overall performance under different operating conditions and avoiding hazardous consequences that may arise from the malfunction of these systems. Using sensors for in situ measurements of temperature and relative humidity (RH) is a promising approach for continuous monitoring and management of electrochemical power sources. Here, we report on the feasibility of using thread-based sensors for in situ measurements of temperature and RH in proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) as an example of electrochemical energy devices. Commodity threads are low-cost and flexible materials that hold great promise for the creation of complex three-dimensional (3D) circuits using well-established textile methods such as weaving, braiding, and embroidering. Ex situ and in situ characterization show that threads can be introduced in the gas diffusion layer (GDL) structure to inscribe water highways within the GDL with minimal impact on the GDL microstructure and transport properties. Fluorinated ethylene propylene (FEP) is coated on thread-based sensors to decouple the response to temperature and humidity; the resulting threads achieve a linear change of resistance with temperature (-0.31%/°C), while RH is monitored with a second thread coated with poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS). The combination of both threads allows for minimally invasive and dynamically responsive monitoring of local temperature and RH within the electrode of PEMFCs.

Marine NMEA 2000 Smart Sensors for Ship Batteries Supervision and Predictive Fault Diagnosis

In this paper, an application for the management, supervision and failure forecast of a ship's energy storage system is developed through a National Marine Electronics Association (NMEA) 2000 smart sensor network. Here, the NMEA 2000 network sensor devices for the measurement and supervision of the parameters inherent to energy storage and energy supply are reviewed. The importance of energy storage systems in ships, the causes and models of battery aging, types of failures, and predictive diagnosis techniques for valve-regulated lead-acid (VRLA) batteries used for assisted and safe navigation are discussed. In ships, battery banks are installed in chambers that normally do not have temperature regulation and therefore are significantly conditioned by the outside temperature. A specific method based on the analysis of the time-series data of random and seasonal factors is proposed for the comparative trend analyses of both the battery internal temperature and the battery installation chamber temperature. The objective is to apply predictive fault diagnosis to detect any undesirable increase in battery temperature using prior indicators of heat dissipation process failure-to avoid the development of the most frequent and dangerous failure modes of VRLA batteries such as dry out and thermal runaway. It is concluded that these failure modes can be conveniently diagnosed by easily recognized patterns, obtained by performing comparative trend analyses to the variables measured onboard by NMEA sensors.

Application of Flexible Four-In-One Microsensor to Internal Real-Time Monitoring of Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell

In recent years, the development of green energy sources, such as fuel cell, biomass energy, solar energy, and tidal energy, has become a popular research subject. This study aims at a flexible four-in-one microsensor, which can be embedded in the proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) for real-time microscopic diagnosis so as to assist in developing and improving the technology of the fuel cell. Therefore, this study uses micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) technology to integrate a micro humidity sensor, micro pH sensor, micro temperature sensor, and micro voltage sensor into a flexible four-in-one microsensor. This flexible four-in-one microsensor has four functions and is favorably characterized by small size, good acid resistance and temperature resistance, quick response, and real-time measurement. The goal was to be able to put the four-in-one microsensor in any place for measurement without affecting the performance of the fuel cell.

Hardware/Software Data Acquisition System for Real Time Cell Temperature Monitoring in Air-Cooled Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells

This work presents a hardware/software data acquisition system developed for monitoring the temperature in real time of the cells in Air-Cooled Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells (AC-PEFC). These fuel cells are of great interest because they can carry out, in a single operation, the processes of oxidation and refrigeration. This allows reduction of weight, volume, cost and complexity of the control system in the AC-PEFC. In this type of PEFC (and in general in any PEFC), the reliable monitoring of temperature along the entire surface of the stack is fundamental, since a suitable temperature and a regular distribution thereof, are key for a better performance of the stack and a longer lifetime under the best operating conditions. The developed data acquisition (DAQ) system can perform non-intrusive temperature measurements of each individual cell of an AC-PEFC stack of any power (from watts to kilowatts). The stack power is related to the temperature gradient; i.e., a higher power corresponds to a higher stack surface, and consequently higher temperature difference between the coldest and the hottest point. The developed DAQ system has been implemented with the low-cost open-source platform Arduino, and it is completed with a modular virtual instrument that has been developed using NI LabVIEW. Temperature vs time evolution of all the cells of an AC-PEFC both together and individually can be registered and supervised. The paper explains comprehensively the developed DAQ system together with experimental results that demonstrate the suitability of the system.