Automotive battery packs used for electromobility applications consist of a large number of individual battery cells that are interconnected. Interconnection of the battery cells creates an ...electrical and mechanical connection, which can be realised by means of different joining technologies. The adaption of different joining technologies greatly influences the central characteristics of the battery pack in terms of battery performance, capacity and lifetime. Selection of a suitable joining technology, therefore, involves several considerations regarding electrical and mechanical properties and an assessment of production and operational conditions. Particularly, during the operation of an electric vehicle, challenges and mutual dependencies of the electrical and mechanical system emerge. The present work provides an overview of interdisciplinary challenges occurring at joints which are exposed to electrical current with a strong focus on interconnecting batteries for electric cars. It summarizes common quality criteria for the joining technologies and recombines those with criteria deduced from an electrical engineering point of view. Scientific literature concerning different joining technologies in the field of battery manufacturing is discussed based on those criteria. The most common joining techniques are ultrasonic welding, wire bonding, force fitting, soldering, laser beam welding, and resistance welding. Besides those, friction stir welding, tungsten inert gas welding, joining by forming and adhesive bonding are presented.
The scientific work presents a concrete research carried out by the authors in order to implement some concepts of a technical and economic nature so that the readers can become aware of a certain ...way of presenting the problems regarding knowledge and management knowledge in road transport organizations. It proposes a study, carried out from a managerial point of view with engineering nuances, so that the concept of sustainable development in the addressed field can be viewed in a global context. The work as a whole is intended to be a theoretical approach with correlations in the field of engineering and management, essentially aiming at the sustainable development of road transport. Finally, some conclusions and further research directions in this direction are presented. .
Electrically assisted bicycles are anticipated to become an effective tool to limit not only the use of cars in cities but also their negative impact on health, the environment, and passenger ...transportation in cities. In this paper, we examine the effects of implementing the first fully electric bike (e-bike) sharing system in the Metropolitan Area of Gdańsk–Gdynia–Sopot in Northern Poland, where no other bike sharing system had been introduced before. The aims of this article were to determine the impact of the new e-bike sharing system on the modal choice of citizens, identify barriers to its usage, and find differences between the usage of the system in the core of the metropolitan area and in the suburbs. We used two primary data sets: the survey data collected using the computer-assisted personal interviewing technique (CAPI technique) and the data automatically acquired from the website that monitored the system activities. We performed the analysis by using nonparametric tests and correspondence analysis. We found no evidence suggesting that e-bike sharing can replace large number of private car trips, but we found it likely to be competitive to carsharing, moped, and taxi services. E-bike sharing competes also with public transportation services, but it is also used as the first/last mile of the transportation supplementing public transport system. The major barrier to using this system in central cities of the metropolitan area was the lack of available public bikes, and possession of private bicycles, whereas for residents of the suburbs, the obstacles were the need to transport children, the high price of the bicycle rental/subscription, and the long distance to the docking stations.
The trend in the development of maritime and river propulsion systems is to make a transition from hydrocarbon to more environmentally friendly solutions. This contributes positively to the solution ...of the problems identified by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) regarding the high emissions of polluting gases emitted by maritime transportation. Currently, there is a wide variety of systems available due to the development of mobility technologies focused on decarbonization. This paper presents an analysis of technological alternatives for boats with electromobility applications and propulsion systems in the waterway field. First, a description of the operation of boats with electric motors, the different energy sources, and the alternative propulsion options is presented. Then, the electromobility technologies are characterized, analyzing the different configurations between the power source and the propulsion system. The results show a comparative table of technologies and their advantages and disadvantages. In addition, the most environmentally friendly technologies present significant challenges for large-scale implementation due to their recent development. In the short term, hybrid systems technologies present advantages over the others, as current systems are available, with the addition of equipment with higher efficiency and lower environmental impact.
Against the background of the growing market share of electric vehicles worldwide, the recycling of used vehicle batteries needs to be further investigated. In this paper, two recycling processes for ...pyrolyzed black mass from end-of-life lithium-ion batteries, a pyrometallurgical route and a hydrometallurgical route with precedent early-stage lithium recovery, are techno-economically evaluated using a total cost of ownership approach. From a technical point of view, this approach thus focuses on maximizing the recycling efficiency achieved by pyrolysis treatment of the battery scrap to pre-separate copper and aluminum. A scenario analysis of the future development of material prices and the market share of cell chemistries is performed to determine the influence of these variables on the profitability of the recycling processes. In general, current trends in cell chemistry pose challenges to profitable LIB recycling. The hydrometallurgical recycling route was found to be less susceptible to price fluctuations and changes in cell chemistry than the pyrometallurgical recycling route and is therefore expected to be more profitable than the pyrometallurgical recycling route when scaled up, especially considering the trend towards decreasing cobalt content in lithium-ion batteries.
•Consideration of new method for early-stage lithium recovery before hydrometallurgy.•Current LIB cell chemistries pose challenges to profitable LIB recycling.•Main factors affecting economic feasibility are material and energy prices.•Hydrometallurgy found to be more robust against changing boundary conditions.•Upscaling of mass throughput is expected to increase profitability of processes.
Vehicle-to-grid (V2G) is increasingly recognized as a concept that uses battery electric vehicles (BEVs) as flexible storage options, enabling both charging and discharging of vehicle batteries. ...Applications of V2G aim towards technical and economic benefits from the system and end-user perspectives. Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) on BEVs indicate that charging strategies potentially reduce operational emissions. Besides evaluating environmental effects on the ‘technology level’, the literature recommends considering impacts on the ‘system level’ caused by a diffusion of the investigated technology. Since the future electricity mix per hour of (dis)charging is decisive for the impact of BEVs, systemic effects include repercussions of charging strategies on hourly electricity generation. When analyzing future scenarios, a prospective LCA (pLCA) allows us to consider technological developments. To assess the impact of charging strategies, the literature lacks a consistent framework that applies a pLCA approach and considers repercussions on the hourly greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of electricity. The contribution of this article is the consolidation of the system and technology point of view when assessing V2G services. First, we present a framework that combines energy system modeling and a comparative pLCA to assess medium and long-term effects. To prove its suitability, the framework is exemplarily applied to evaluate two cost-minimized climate policy scenarios of Germany, i.e., with and without the option of V2G charging. The article outlines repercussions on the electricity system from 2025 to 2045 in an hourly resolution. This allows determining the impact per charging strategy on the technology level compared to conventional passenger cars in the second part of the study. Despite the insignificant effects on total GHG emissions by 2045, V2G charging accelerates decarbonizing electricity generation in the medium-term (2030–2035). When assessing the impact on BEVs, V2G causes substantial reductions. By 2030, operational emissions decrease between −50% and almost −200% compared to uncontrolled charging (144 kgCO2e/BEV). These potentials depend on the allocation of GHG savings reached through the secondary purpose of BEVs, i.e., a storage option for the energy system. With the ongoing decarbonization of electricity, however, the potential of V2G to reduce operational GHG emissions decreases, and the production phase gains importance. Regarding long-term contributions, substituting 117 GWh of stationary batteries indicates a reduction in raw material demands. Overall, combining the system and technology levels in a prospective assessment enhances the understanding of environmental effects caused by a large-scale diffusion of V2G charging. Researchers can further apply the outlined method for assessing use cases in other geographical scopes and time frames.
•Vehicle-to-grid (V2G) accelerates the integration of fluctuating renewable energies•In the medium-term, V2G reduces systemic emissions and electric vehicle impacts•From 2040 onwards, the effects on emissions decrease from both perspectives•BEV batteries as systemic storage options substitute 117 GWh of stationary batteries
Laser Welding of dissimilar & non-ferrous alloys for joining powertrain components in e-vehicles has been well-established in the automotive industry. Despite the advantages that provides compared to ...other joining methods, the use of Laser welding cannot eliminate the likelihood of having defective and out-of-spec products. To this end, online quality assessment has been widely adopted for welding applications, but it is implemented based on model performance criteria. In this study, the authors are attempting to undertake an explainable featured engineering approach to extract physics semantics from infrared imaging data and link them to holes and insufficient penetration of Al-Cu joints.
Due to more and more stringent environmental regulations, the automotive industry is increasingly turning to the production of electric cars. The rate of their introduction onto the market will be ...influenced by the opinion of potential buyers. In our research, consumers' views on electric cars in Slovenia, which influence the purchase probability of their buyers' decisions, were investigated. A quantitative research method and an online survey were used. The analysis of the obtained results established the understanding of electric cars among potential consumers and what expectations they have of them, assessed the importance of various features of such cars and determined which ones are more or less important to consumers when buying something. The paper studied how long consumers plan to make a purchase and determined their views on the overall environmental impact of electric cars compared to conventional fossil fuel cars.
Safety related issues, regarding the use of hydrogen technologies have raised great concern in the industry, especially in mining, due to confined places where hydrogen leaks can accumulate and ...eventually cause a fire hazard or explosion. Currently, there are no sufficiently robust regulations or experiences regarding the use of hydrogen in mining, which must be resolved to design safety models, pertinent regulations and a strategy to guide the use of hydrogen. This article qualitatively and quantitatively analyzes the risks of a HFCV pilot project, identifying these risks to determine how they are involved in mining operations and evaluates how dangerous these are in this environment. This is achieved through a HAZOP study and using the F&EI, where the results contribute to the knowledge of hydrogen technologies. One of the strongest results obtained by using the F&EI, shows that a vehicle fueled by hydrogen (5 kg at 700 bar) in full operation presents an index of 153.0, a vehicle of similar characteristics fueled with natural gas (20 kg at 200 bar) will present a value of 197.1. Therefore, if the use of natural gas is authorized in underground mining, hydrogen that can be an even safer alternative, should be authorized too. Moreover, the results show that there is a similar probability with diesel (60 kg at 1 bar) of causing a potential incident, in addition, the HAZOP indicates that as long as hydrogen leaks are kept under control with adequate ventilation and appropriate vehicle design, the system becomes even more robust, which would be achieved by including additional infrastructure security measures to mitigate events of fire and explosion.
•HAZOP is an inductive risk identification technique based on the premise that accidents occur due to a process deviation.•The Fire and Explosion Index (F&EI) quantify the potential fire and explosion risk of a process unit and its content.•Regarding F&EI risk, while vehicles are in operation, NG displayed an index value of 197.1, surpassing the H2 value of 153.0
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