Electrification in the transportation industry is becoming more important to face global warming and replace fossil fuels in the future. Among the available energy sources Li-ion battery and proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) are the most promising energy sources. Therefore, employing them in fuel cell hybrid electric vehicles (FCHEVs) to combine their advantages is one of the favorable solutions. However, they still face a major challenge residing in their aging that cause the drop of system performance. On one hand, the degradation is the result of the interaction between several aging mechanisms that react differently with various operating conditions. On the other hand, a hybrid system requires an essential energy management strategy (EMS) for fuel economy and optimal power share. At the end, this EMS has an important impact on the lifetime of sources in term of reducing or favorizing the degradation. Therefore, it is important to consider the degradation in the objectives of the designed EMS. Since the degradation is usually neglected when designing an EMS, this paper tends to review the possible methods for designing a health-conscious EMS. Hence, this paper presents a summary of the main fuel cell (FC) and Li-ion battery aging mechanisms as well as the useful degradation models for state of health estimation. In addition, the existing works that consider the degradation of on-board energy sources in their approaches for increasing their durability are classified and analysed. Remaining challenges are detailed along with a discussion and outlooks about current and future trends of health-conscious EMS.

Microgrids can potentially improve security, quality, reliability and availability of electricity supply for many applications. In order to achieve these benefits when a microgrid with a substantial amount of stochastic generation operates in grid connected mode but also during islanding mode, the use of storage systems is essential. The main goal of the storage is to perform power balance during islanding mode and to avoid the effect of the renewable energy sources intermittency and load fluctuations to the grid. However, none of the currently available Energy Storage Systems (ESS) has the necessary high power and energy densities to face the effect of different disturbances coming from the load or renewable energy sources. Thus, the association of more than one storage technology in a Hybrid Energy Storage System (HESS) can be used to satisfy the above mentioned requirements. Generally, separate DC/DC converters are required to interconnect the different ESS with an inverter in order to supply the distributed system in a microgrid. The present work proposes the association of a Vanadium-Redox flow battery (VRB) with supercapacitors and a Three-level Neutral Point Clamped Inverter Interface for energy management in a microgrid. The power converter control and the energy management are also detailed. Simulation results are presented to prove the feasibility of the proposed system.

Charge time has become one of the primary issues restricting the development of electric vehicles. To counter this problem, an adapted thermal management system needs to be designed in order to reduce the internal thermal gradient, by predicting the surface and internal temperature responses of the battery. In this work, a pseudo 3D model is developed to simulate battery cell performance and its internal states under various operational scenarios such as temperature and convection conditions as well as the applied current during charge and discharge. An original mesh of the JR is proposed where heat exchanges in the three directions (radial, orthoradial and axial) are considered. The model represents one of the solutions that enable increasing the lifespan of batteries while decreasing charging time. It offers the opportunity to optimize operating parameters to extend battery life. In this paper, attention was paid not only to the core and non-core components, but also to the experiments required to parametrize the thermal and electrochemical models (heat generation). Unlike existing approaches documented in the literature, the model developed in this work achieves an impressive balance between computational efficiency and result accuracy, making it a groundbreaking contribution in the field of electric vehicle technology.

An incremental capacity parametric model for batteries is proposed. The model is based on Verhulst’s logistic equations and distributions in order to describe incremental capacity peaks. The model performance is compared with polynomial models and is demonstrated on a commercial lithium-ion cell. Experimental data features low-current discharges performed at temperatures ranging from −20 °C to 55 °C. The results demonstrate several advantages of the model compared to empirical models. The proposed model enables a clear description of the geometric features of incremental capacity peaks. It also doubles as an open circuit voltage model as the voltage curve can be fully recovered from parameterization on incremental capacity curves. The study of temperature sensitivity show that peak geometric parameters can be modelled as a function of temperature. An example of practical application is then displayed by using the model to estimate battery state-of-charge from voltage and temperature measurements. This example can expand to other practical applications for battery management systems such as state-of-health monitoring.

In contemporary vehicle applications, lithium-ion batteries have become a leading option among the diverse array of battery technologies available. This preference is attributed to their advantageous properties, which include low self-discharge rates and no memory effect. Despite these benefits, lithium-ion batteries are not without their challenges. The key issues include a restricted driving range, concerns regarding longevity, safety risks, and prolonged charging durations. Efforts aimed at minimizing the charging duration frequently entail the introduction of elevated currents into the battery, a practice that can significantly elevate its temperature and, in turn, diminish its operational lifespan. Generally, battery packs in electric vehicles are equipped with flat cooling plates located on their side or bottom surfaces, which also serve the dual purpose of providing heating in colder conditions. Nevertheless, this cooling configuration faces difficulties during fast charging and may not efficiently heat or cool the batteries. In this work, a novel thermal management approach is proposed, in which a battery module is cooled not only with a bottom cooling plate but also using another cooling plate in contact with the busbars, located on the top of the battery module. The simulations and experimental tests show that this new configuration demonstrates significant improvements. The thermal time constant is reduced by 47%, enabling faster cooling of the module. Additionally, the maximum temperature reached by the battery during charging with dual cooling is lowered by 6 °C compared to the conventional approach. In this configuration, the top cooling plate acts as a thermal bridge. This is a key advantage that promotes temperature homogenization within the battery module. As a result, it supports an even aging process of batteries, ensuring their longevity and optimal performance.