From fuel cells to batteries: Synergies, scales and simulation methods

Kurzfassung

The recent years have shown a dynamic growth of battery research and development activities both in academia and industry, supported by large governmental funding initiatives throughout the world. A particular focus is being put on lithium-based battery technologies. This situation provides a stimulating environment for the fuel cell modeling community, as there are considerable synergies in the modeling and simulation methods for fuel cells and batteries. At the same time, battery modeling activities have been, and are still today, considerably weaker than fuel cell modeling activities, in particular within Europe. A strong modeling and simulation support is therefore urgently needed to push forward battery technology. This presentation discusses relevant scales and open questions in battery modeling and simulation. The state of the art is reviewed. Synergies and dissimilarities between fuel cell and battery modeling approaches are discussed. For example, while we often model fuel cell performance in terms of stationary operating points, the battery is an inherently instationary system and always requires transient simulations. Examples will be given from both, state-of-the art lithium-ion batteries, and next-generation lithiummetal systems. We furthermore present results of our own activities that are in the fields of multi-scale electrochemical and thermal models of LiFePO4-based lithium-ion batteries as well as detailed kinetic models of lithium-sulfur cells.