Optimizing Lithium-Ion Battery Cycles for Maximised Lifetime and Safety

Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are crucial to support targets set by India’s Nationally Determined Contributions of about 50% from the non-fossil fuel based resources, particularly for the intermittently available renewable energy such as solar and wind power. The performance and lifespan of LIBs are limited by the irreversible degradation in the physical processes that undergo at the electrode level of each battery cell.  These are greatly influenced by the nature of charging (from renewable sources) and discharging (load demand) cycles. LIBs can also be subject to thermal runaways (causing fire safety issues). The coating and packing of the electrode material during the manufacture also plays an important role in the performance and safety of LIBs. This project aims to understand the processes at the cell level to obtain optimal charging and discharging protocols for various load demands and renewable energy production rates. This will involve multiscale modelling of the physical and chemical processes, subject to economic and safety considerations.  We will employ tools such as Discrete Element Method (DEM) and physics-assisted machine learning (PAML) and physics-informed neural networks (PINN) in an attempt to solve the problem.