Panasonic develops Battery Management Technology to evaluate residual value of lithium-ion batteries

Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic) announced that it has developed a new battery management technology that measures a battery’s electro

This technology is expected to be applied to various devices that use lithium-ion battery modules with many battery cells stacked in series and to future vehicles. Panasonic has developed this technology in collaboration with Professor Masahiro Fukui of Ritsumeikan University. Panasonic developed a new battery monitoring IC (BMIC) test chip, measurement algorithm, and software, while Ritsumeikan University evaluated the performance using actual batteries.

Current applications of lithium-ion batteries are expanding to the field of industrial devices and mobility, and the importance of reuse and recycling is also increasing. The newly developed battery management technology makes it possible to measure electrochemical impedance using the AC current excitation method for lithium-ion stacked battery modules that are installed in operating devices.

Furthermore, this technology aims to enable the evaluation of residual value by way of a deterioration diagnosis and failure estimation based on an analysis of acquired measurement data. This will contribute to the realisation of a sustainable society where future lithium-ion batteries can be reused and recycled.

Conventional BMIC measures the individual battery voltage of 6 to 14 lithium-ion battery cells stacked in series. By using multiple BMICs, BMS acquires battery cell voltage data from several up to 200 cells connected in series, monitors the battery, and ensures its safe use. In addition, BMS calculates the remaining driving range and usable time by estimating the state of charge (SOC) and the state of health (SOH).

The newly developed BMIC test chip has a built-in electrochemical impedance measurement function using the AC current excitation method in addition to these conventional functions. The electrochemical impedance measurement is achieved by 15 fully parallel analog/digital converters and an AC current excitation circuit with pulse modulation from 0.1 Hz to 5 KHz and a complex voltage/complex current conversion circuit built in the BMIC. Therefore, the BMIC chip can measure the electrochemical impedance of a battery in operation without significantly changing the configuration of the current BMS installed in the battery.

State estimation by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy is performed by measuring the Cole-Cole diagram drawn with complex impedance. Ritsumeikan University measured cylindrical lithium-ion battery cells using BMIC and measurement software developed by Panasonic. As a result, it was confirmed that the Cole-Cole diagram can be measured in the frequency range from 1 Hz to 5 KHz with the same accuracy as the standard measuring instrument used in the industry.

The electrochemical impedance of lithium-ion batteries is very sensitive to temperature changes. For this reason, measurements using dedicated measuring instruments in the laboratory are performed by placing the battery in a thermostatic chamber that maintains a constant temperature.

The battery module in operation could not achieve a stable measurement of electrochemical impedance because the environmental temperature changed. Therefore, Ritsumeikan University and Panasonic developed a temperature correction technology that measures the temperature of the lithium-ion battery during the electrochemical impedance measurement, corrects the temperature change of the impedance to the standard temperature, and draws it on the Cole-Cole diagram.

This makes it possible to accumulate Cole-Cole diagrams normalised to the standard temperature in the database even when the environmental temperature varies depending on the season and time.

Conventional electrochemical impedance spectroscopy is widely used as a non-destructive method of evaluating lithium-ion batteries. This measurement method requires an application specific measuring instrument and a large thermostatic chamber that keeps the temperature of the battery constant, and it was necessary to measure each cell in the laboratory.

Devices and vehicles that use multi-cell stacked lithium-ion batteries include electric bikes, LSVs (Low-Speed Vehicles), construction and logistics machinery, etc. In the future, they will also be used in electric vehicles, large-capacity storage batteries.