Smartville Is Giving Used Automotive Batteries A Second Life

Smartville emerged because the product of of the College of San Diego, California, on account of the analysis of co-founders Antoni Tong and Mike Ferry. They realized the necessity for and the chance to construct a enterprise round triaging and repurposing second life electrical car batteries.

Ferry is the Director of Vitality Storage & Techniques on the college and Tong was a analysis scientist and as a part of their work on the college, they developed what would grow to be the constructing blocks of an organization that will ultimately grow to be Smartville.

One Software To Rule Them All

The chance to place used EV batteries to make use of as stationary power storage techniques has been talked about for ages, however as with most issues, constructing a product from the imaginative and prescient is way tougher to do. The key sauce at Smartville doesn’t begin with the batteries, complicated chemistries, a novel recycling course of, and even battery cell administration, however quite, within the digital realm with a software program resolution. Tong and Ferry constructed a instrument to shortly assess the well being of automotive batteries with a two step triage course of.

First, they join their briefcase-sized evaluation instrument to a battery pack to find out if it’s wholesome or not. This fast triage is a excessive stage check to find out the well being of the battery cells themselves, the battery administration system (BMS), thermal administration techniques, and communications techniques of the pack. Their compact instrument is exclusive in that it’s virtually purpose-built to work in salvage operations to shortly decide if the battery is ready to be despatched again to the automotive market as a used however serviceable substitute battery, utilized in Smartville’s second life power storage options, or damaged down totally for bottom-up recycling.

Smartville co-founders Mike Ferry and Antoni Tong. Picture courtesy: Smartville

It’s nonetheless early days in terms of processing huge portions of used EV batteries, however with EVs representing an ever rising proportion of recent automotive gross sales, the necessity is already rising. At present, the primary battery packs in EVs that make it to salvage yards are thought-about dangerous and potential hearth hazards. The battery well being evaluation instrument from Smartville may doubtlessly be invaluable for salvage yards and the secondhand automotive market as a complete. It in a short time permits operators to find out if a pack is secure or not and whether it is, what the worth of the pack is. Figuring out the worth of salvage car parts is foundational to the salvage enterprise.

Triaging the battery upfront additionally eliminates unnecessarily transferring it round. Transport round heavy battery packs is dear and sophisticated as they’re prone to be storing a ton of power in them nonetheless. Figuring out the perfect downstream outlet for a battery pack ensures it goes to the outlet almost certainly to derive the highest worth from it and decrease the variety of occasions it must be shipped.

A number of Downstream Channels

Primarily based on what they’ve seen to this point, Smartville estimates that roughly 70% of the battery packs in salvage yards are in adequate situation to be put again into use as spares and substitute packs for EVs. That’s encouraging, as reusing the packs in different electrical autos places the complete pack again into use with the least waste.

Smartville’s containerized power storage options repurpose the complete automotive battery pack. Picture courtesy: Smartville

Persevering with down the road, they estimate that round 10% of second life EV packs are broken or in any other case not viable as donors for both a used car substitute or to be repurposed as stationary storage. These packs could possibly be vulnerable to thermal runaway and ought to be despatched off for bottom-up recycling. Being broken, they current the very best danger for inflicting fires and related thermal points.

The ultimate 20% of the packs are the place Smartville performs. These are the packs that Smartville is on the lookout for and that they are going to finally procure because the feedstock for his or her second life battery power storage techniques.

Constructing a Smartville Battery System

With the perfect packs for his or her techniques recognized, it’s time to combine them into Smartville’s containerized power storage options. Earlier than placing them to make use of, they do a second spherical of research, diving deeper into the pack to make sure it’s as much as the duty.

Smartville’s power storage techniques are much like the containerized power storage techniques offered by the large names within the battery trade like CATL and BYD, with the noticeable distinction that Smartville doesn’t break down the battery packs into their constituent cells, however quite, repurposes the total automotive battery pack of their containers.

Picture courtesy: Smartville

They construct the packs into containerized items, ideally bundling related chemistries for simplicity, although this isn’t required. Their resolution is ready to steadiness the pack voltage throughout totally different chemistries, and since they’re actually solely working with the output of the automotive pack with all of its bodily integrity, thermal administration, and BMS intact, the method is simplified.

That’s proper, they’re shoving full automotive battery packs into their containers, and that is half two of Smartville’s secret sauce. You see, they’re not merely utilizing the battery cells from the pack. Fairly, Smartville jacks into the packs by way of the communications system and places them right into a simulation a la The Matrix.

This strategy maintains the integrity of the pack and all of its techniques, which maximizes the sturdiness and longevity of the pack. In any case, if it was designed and constructed to face up to make use of in a automotive, operating inside a stationary container designed to assist batteries ought to be a stroll within the park.

Picture courtesy: Smartville

Scaling from a single automotive pack as much as what may qualify as a containerized battery power storage resolution is the place issues get actually fascinating. Smartville’s workforce of engineers manipulate the automotive packs with software program by way of their native communications channels to make them assume they’re truly driving alongside the highway to get them to supply the output wanted.

Operating the containerized packs in a simulation permits Smartville to regulate the ability being put out from every pack within the array to get what they want from the system. From there, the ability flows into specifically designed energy electronics which step the voltage up from regardless of the automotive pack voltage is, whether or not at 400 or 800 volts, as much as a typical output voltage of a battery power storage system of round 1,600 volts.

Smartville remains to be within the early days of its startup journey, however what it has completed within the first 4 years is spectacular. The corporate is way past merely having a imaginative and prescient and has already constructed a number of monetizable merchandise to deliver its imaginative and prescient into actuality.

To study extra about Smartville, head over to the web site.