Novel Battery Module Design for Increased Resource Efficiency

The work presented focuses on a material efficient, modular design of a battery module for vehicle applications. Furthermore, the possibility of disassembly of individual components was considered. The constructive design focused on the combination of cast aluminum components, lightweight composites panels, and aluminum-foam phase-change material (PCM) composites. This led to an innovative battery module, which was finally implemented on a demonstrator level. The required cooling power of the module could be reduced by approx. 20% compared to conventional battery module setups. Furthermore, the constructive design of the module and the use of a “debonding-on-demand” technology enabled significantly faster disassembly. Die to the combination of these advantages and the possibility to give individual parts of the module a second life for new modules, the module shows a high resource efficiency as well as high CO2 savings potential.