Group 6: Urmi Devi, Laila Jeremy, Haseeb, Rejuana Afrin
Writing for Engineering
Professor Davidow
5/18/2022
Technical Innovation: Written Proposal
Electric cars are essential in creating an environment that emits fewer greenhouse gasses, unlike gas cars which contribute 29% of total gas emissions. Although electric cars are beneficial for the climate, their batteries are not properly disposed of when they reach a certain lifetime. This creates havoc on the environment. Due to this issue, our implementation of manufacturing a battery that will be repaired instead of being thrown into landfills will significantly improve our atmosphere.
Landfills are a major contributor to climate change. As the organic matter from the landfill decomposes, it releases methane gas. Methane traps up to 20 times more heat in the atmosphere compared with carbon dioxide. As methane gas builds up over time, air pollution happens.
Other similar engineering innovations have been proposed to help with climate change. Some of these innovations include using batteries of an electric vehicle to repurpose for other uses such as making robots and such. In this innovation, repurposing EV batteries that are no longer in use is good for the environment, however, it isn’t as cost-effective. Not only would the old batteries have to be repaired for them to use on robots, but buying a new battery for the electric vehicle would be costly. Instead of repurposing them, reconditioning and repairing EV batteries would be the smartest choice for helping the environment and saving money. Another engineering innovation that is used for climate change would be capturing CO2 from power plants. Coal-fired power plants absorb and store CO2 via CCS. Natural gas, fertilizer, and electricity use carbon capture or separation technology. Coal, oil, and gas combustion release energy and CO2. North American, European, and Chinese power plants using finely crushed coal must remove CO2. Coal gasification may separate CO2 more readily (where coal is transformed into chemicals, natural gas, or liquids). In recent decades, some significant industrial firms have collected carbon. Power plants collect energy. A new generation of collection devices must lower energy and cost penalties. Global commercial demonstrations are needed. Carbon capture expenses will be reduced by letting students “learn by doing.”
Over the years electric cars have become more popular. Due to environmental conditions such as climate change electric cars are the next step to bettering the earth. The first automobile was created in 1886 called the Benz Patent Motor Car, it consisted of a control exhaust valve, high-voltage electrical vibrator ignition with a spark plug, and water/thermosiphon evaporation cooling (Witt, 2022). We have come a long way with the development of innovations, but over the years it has caused difficulties in our environment. Current electric vehicle batteries last up to 300,000 to 500,000 miles. Although this is a good number, over time these batteries are going to reach their lifetime. With the use of repairable batteries, this issue can be resolved and further help the environment.
The way these batteries will be manufactured is through the use of compression to put all the parts of a cell together. Currently, manufacturers use adhesive to attach all these parts which makes it really difficult to open those batteries from the inside and repair them. The use of compression makes it really easy to open them for repair.
COMPONENTS
These are the components needed for this innovation:
- Used Lithium-ion battery: Lithium-ion batteries use lithium ions to create an electrical potential between the positive (cathode) and negative (anode) sides of the battery.
- Cathode: One of the electrodes of the battery is referred to as the positive electrode because it gains electrons rather than loses them.
- Anode: A negative electrode and it’s one of the essential parts of a battery and it oxidizes which loses electrons.
- Cooling System:
- Pump: circulates the coolant through the battery cells to remove heat from the cells.
- Heat exchanger: It’s used to minimize the impact on electric vehicles in extreme conditions.
- Expansion tank: Designed to keep the engine operating at exactly the right temperature so no overheating occurs. Overheating causes damage.
- Electrolyte serves as the medium that enables the movement of only lithium ions between the cathode and anode.
- The separator ensures the safety of a battery.
Furthermore, we also have to keep in mind that batteries need to be cooled especially in Electric Vehicles because rapid charging can lead to very extreme battery temperature which can destroy the battery. Due to this, we will use a glycol-water mix which will boost the mixture’s antifreeze properties significantly. This mixture will be used to keep the battery cool. Additionally, there are also other methods to keep the battery cool such as active and passive cooling. The active air-cooling strategy uses a fan with forced air passed over the batteries to remove heat. The passive cooling system uses a thermal zone to keep the battery at a certain temperature. Active cooling is better for the battery but at the same time, it uses more energy whereas passive cooling uses less energy. (Zhao et al., 2021)
Batteries in electric vehicles cost on average about $132/kwh. This means that a battery with 250 miles of range costs about $6,600 since it can do 100 miles with 34/kwh. Adding labor costs for about $2,299.27 will bring the total to about $8,900 based on the Tesla Model S. Considering there is no engine in electric vehicles, this is a good price for the battery at this age of time. The materials that will be needed; are fuses. An electric circuit is broken by a fuse if the current reaches too high because it can only do this once, it’s also known as a sacrificial device. 3A, 5A, and 15A are some of the most commonly used fuses in electronics today. Assembly Hardware, The unity of all the parts of the inner and outer parts of the car, such as nuts and screws. Which in doing so creates the final product, the car. Lithium-ion, the electrochemistry of a lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery relies on lithium ions as a crucial component. Ionization and electron separation occur during the discharge cycle of lithium atoms in the anode.
In conclusion, This innovation will be beneficial and create more improvement within the environment. Reusable and affordable batteries will increase customers’ trust in electric vehicles which will help the electric vehicles to overtake the gas car industry. It will lessen the product of gas-running cars, in doing so this will help create a positive change for the climate as a whole.
REFERENCES
RepairSmith, 16 Oct. 2021, “Car Battery Reconditioning (a Step-by-Step Guide).” https://www.repairsmith.com/i/blog/battery-reconditioning/#5lead
Witt, J. H. (2022, April 11). Costs of Electric Car Battery Replacement. Recurrent.
Zhao, G., Wang, X., Negnevitsky, M., & Zhang, H. (2021). A review of air-cooling battery
thermal management systems for electric and Hybrid Electric Vehicles. Journal of Power
Sources, 501, 230001. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpowsour.2021.230001
