The Chair of Production Engineering of E-Mobility Components (PEM) at RWTH Aachen University has successfully concluded the Fluxlicon research project, funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action. Over more than three years, the PEM team developed a stationary energy storage system for decentralized energy supply in municipalities. This system utilizes various waste batteries from electric vehicles and has a capacity exceeding one megawatt-hour.
Professor Achim Kampker, Director of PEM, noted that while most traction batteries retain around 80 percent of their residual capacity after they are no longer suitable for electric cars, they remain viable for several years of second-life use in modular energy storage systems. To harness this potential, the RWTH team collaborated with project partners such as DEKRA, the Renewable Energy Agency, and PEM Motion. Together, they developed an algorithm to control all second-life batteries within the high-voltage storage system and analyzed 144 permutations to create the optimal prototype for diverse applications.
Merlin Frank, Fluxlicon project manager at PEM, emphasized the significance of stationary storage systems in ensuring energy security for municipalities. “Every municipality has its own consumption profiles with an increasing number of power sources and different energy sinks, so stationary storage systems can play a crucial role in ensuring security of supply,” he said. One of the two developed storage systems, equipped with a grid interface for integrating renewable energy and a fast-charging option, has already been installed in Wolfenbüttel, Germany. The second system is scheduled for transport to Ludwigsburg in February.
As part of the project, DEKRA developed a Trusted Platform serving as an interface between electric vehicle battery distributors and secondary users. This platform provides all data relevant to the reuse of spent battery systems. Additionally, the PEM team delved into the economic aspects of second-life batteries, creating an index for pricing aged traction batteries. “The growing demand for electric vehicles and the increasing number of end-of-life battery systems are creating a market for used batteries,” Frank explained. “Understanding this segment and its dynamics is vital for a functioning circular battery economy.” The second-life battery price index developed by PEM increases cost transparency for lithium-ion batteries and is detailed in the open-access publication “Understanding the Economics of Aged Traction Batteries: Market Value and Dynamics.”
Further information on the project is available on the project’s official website.
Source: RWTH Aachen University
