I-Corps: A Life-Prolonging Management System for Lithium-Sulfur Battery Packs

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The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the development of an electronic management system for lithium-sulfur (Li-S) battery packs. This proposed battery management system has the potential to enable the prognostics, health management, and life-prolonging control of Li-S batteries, thereby accelerating the safe commercial deployment of this chemistry. From a commercial perspective, Li-S batteries are appealing because they can store a significant amount of energy per unit weight, which is important for cost-effective electrification in the aerospace, drone, robotics, transportation, and grid industries. The abundance of sulfur in the earth’s crust is also attractive from a sustainability, cost, supply chain perspective, and societal perspective. A battery management system optimized for emerging chemistries, such as the proposed Li-S chemistry, also has the potential to maximize overall system performance, safety, and longevity, leading to both societal benefits from safer energy storage and potential commercial benefits, including improved insurability. This I-Corps project is based on the development of a reconfigurable model-based battery management system for the prognostics, health management, and health-conscious control of lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries. Li-S batteries have a theoretical energy density of around 2600 Wh/kg, substantially higher than typical Li-ion batteries. Instead of requiring expensive, rare raw materials such as cobalt, Li-S batteries use sulfur, the most abundant material in the earth’s crust, as their main cathode material. Therefore, from the perspectives of energy density, environmental friendliness, and economics, Li-S technology may offer advantages over lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries. The project builds on earlier research exploring the development of computer simulation models of Li-S batteries, the fitting and validation of these models versus laboratory test data, and the development of algorithms for estimating the current state of charge in Li-S batteries. Together, these innovations open the door to the potential development of a cohesive battery management system that provides monitoring and control functionalities, including the ability to balance the states of charge of different Li-S cells to prevent over-charge and over-discharge.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.