An initiative funded to the tune of 4,781,008 euros by the European Union within the framework of the research and innovation programme
Horizon Europe, ‘Fastest’ has the aim of developing a fast-track hybrid testing platform for the development of battery systems, one that allows manufacturers to evaluate batteries with regard to safety, performance, reliability, and lifetime.
The Fastest project, made up of 14 partners from eight European countries, will work for 36 months on a strategy based on the development of a fast-track hybrid testing platform that uses a ‘smart Design of Experiments methodology’ for the ‘accurate and reliable’ evaluation of cell, module, and battery pack parameters by combining physical experimentation and multi-scale and multi-physics modelling tools, thereby enabling ‘an accelerated battery system research and development process.
This platform and its components, which will be demonstrated for the three representative use cases of automotive, stationary, and off-road vehicles, is aimed to be a flexible platform for any chemistry and application in these three scenarios. It will incorporate a complete set of physics-based and data-driven models designed to replace most ‘physical characterisation experiments’.
The Fastest project is expected to not only reduce the overall time and cost of battery production by at least 20-30 % but also decrease the number of physical experiments.Led by Belgium-based ABEE (Avesta Battery and Energy Engineering), Fastest comprises BMZ Germany, Comau, FEV, Flash Battery, Flanders Make, Fraunhofer Gesellschaft, Ikerlan, INEGI, Mondragon Unibertsitatea, Surrey University, Sustainable Innovations, the University of Ljubljana, and VTT.
ABEE said: “Pushed by climate change policies, the increasing scarcity and price of fossil fuels, and the need to meet with the global clean energy demand, the market and applications for lithium-ion batteries has been rising over the past years, supported by a performance improvement and a reduction of production costs. Right now, the market is entering a period in which current-generation lithium-ion cells are evolving and will eventually get to solid-state fourth-generation cells that are close to the fundamental limits of this energy storage medium.”