A new technology funded by NASA for future space missions can charge an electric car in just five minutes on Earth, paving the way for increased adoption, the US space agency said. these vehicles.
Researchers at Purdue University, USA have developed the Flow Boiling and Condensation Experiment (FBCE) to enable two-phase fluid flow and heat transfer experiments to be performed in microgravity in real time. long time on International Space Station (ISS).
The new “subcooling flow boiling” technique leads to significantly improved heat transfer efficiency compared to other approaches and can be used to control the temperature of systems in space. future.
This technology may also have applications on The earth: It can make owning a tram more attractive, the researchers said.
Currently, charging times vary widely, from 20 minutes at a station along the way to hours using a home charging station.
Extended charging times and charging locations are both considered major concerns by those considering owning an electric vehicle.
Reducing charging times for electric vehicles to five minutes – an industry goal – would require a charging system that delivers 1,400A of current.
Currently, advanced chargers only provide currents up to 520A, and most chargers available to consumers support currents less than 150A.
However, a charging system that delivers 1,400A will generate significantly more heat than current systems, and will require improved methods for temperature control.
Recently, the team applied the technique learned from NASA FBCE experiments on electric vehicle charging.
Using this new technology, the dielectric liquid coolant – which is not conductive – is pumped through the charging cable, where it captures the heat generated by the current-carrying conductor.
Boiling the flow under the cooling layer allows the team to deliver 4.6 times more current than the fastest electric vehicle chargers currently on the market by removing up to 24 hours of heat, the researchers say. .22kWs, the researchers said.
The charging cable can deliver 2,400A, far beyond the 1,400A needed to reduce the time it takes to charge an electric car to five minutes, they said.
“The adoption of this new technology results in unprecedented reductions in vehicle charging times and could remove one of the key barriers to worldwide EV adoption,” the researchers added.
