LIBERTY for sustainable electromobility: Diehl Controls contributes its expertise in the field of electronics

The LIBERTY project comprises a consortium of 16 companies which aims at jointly developing an efficient and durable traction battery for its first and also second life. Diehl Controls contributes its expert knowledge for the development, industrialization and production of electronics.

Diehl Controls

The LIBERTY project comprises a consortium of 16 companies which aims at jointly developing an efficient and durable traction battery for its first and also second life. Diehl Controls contributes its expert knowledge for the development, industrialization and production of electronics.

„LIghtweight Battery system for Extended Range at improved safeTY“. In its capacity as high-voltage battery, the lightweight battery system is supposed to increase the range for cars to 500 kilometers per charge at least and to achieve an operational life of 300,000 kilometers. Other features include improved safety standards as well as efficient further use and recycling of the traction battery, in the so-called second life. The primary objective of LIBERTY is, to elaborate eco-friendly standards and concepts with the help of which an efficient, durable and sustainable traction battery for electric vehicles can be developed. Sustainability not only applies to recycling and reuse in second life, but also to the use of eco-friendly materials. The project is supposed to be realized by the year 2024.

Diehl Controls is one of 16 partners
16 companies – including Diehl Controls – have teamed up in order to achieve the ambitious goals of the LIBERTY project. The partners, among them companies such as Fraunhofer IISB, Mercedes-Benz, Valeo, NXP or Infineon, share the technical development tasks according to their core competences. The tasks range from a compact and safe structure with high energy density to an electronic battery management system (BMS) with short charging time to easy recycling of the battery. The design of the traction battery should be created in such a way that at the end of its first life cycle, the first life, it is suitable for a secondary use, in second life, without major effort. IKERLAN is acting as central coordinator of the consortium and the center for applied research is headquartered in the Basque city Arrasate (Spanish Mondragón).

Two central functions for one battery
Within LIBERTY, Diehl Controls primarily takes the responsibility for two tasks: Firstly, the company is in charge of the choice of the hardware components and the industrialization of a cost-optimized electronic system. The second main task of Diehl Controls consists in the integration of electronics into the battery system. In order to attain improved performance and increased safety, a development of cell-to-pack solutions with optimized thermal management (immersion cooling) and additional sensor technology is required. The objective is to achieve quick charging times with envisaged charging time reductions of up to 50 percent.

BMS is crucial for quality
Within LIBERTY, the point for Diehl Controls is to design electronic solution proposals for the monitoring, control and protection of accumulators in the first step. The BMS along with thermal management decides on the durability of the high-voltage battery because it prevents critical overcharging or deep discharges of rechargeable cells.

Patricular attention is paid to the development of a modular and flexible system. Batteries and their components in second life use can become more reliable by means of additional and more precise data, such as information regarding the battery's status in combination with new and safe methods for data storage. First and foremost, the focus of the aimed second life use is on industrial application.

Efficient production and recycling
The topics "production" and "reuse for second life" are of crucial importance in the LIBERTY project. It must be ensured that the sensor system of BMS can easily be integrated into the overall electric system. When selecting the single components and integration technologies, high recycling requirements have to be met. In addition, Diehl Controls has the task to develop a modular and reusable system in compliance with the standards for automotive as well as industrial applications together with the partners.

"LIBERTY is a great motivation for us to contribute our technology know-how in the field of electronic control engineering and to develop a traction battery that will also offer added value in other energy storage systems," says Carsten Wolff, President of the Diehl Controls Division Board. "Exactly the fact to develop a battery for an easy further use, represents an exciting task that we will approach with a lot of passion."