Electrochemical modeling and performance evaluation of a new ammonia-based battery thermal management system for electric and hybrid electric vehicles

The operating temperatures of lithium ion battery packs in electrical vehicles and hybrid electrical vehicles need to be maintained in an optimum range for better performance and longer battery life. This paper proposes a new battery pack cooling system that utilizes the low saturation temperature of the fuel in ammonia based future hybrid electric vehicles. In the proposed cooling system, the batteries are partially submerged in to the liquid ammonia, and the liquid ammonia cools the battery by absorbing the heat and evaporating and the ammonia vapor cools the part of the battery not covered by liquid ammonia. The relationships between the performance of the battery cooling system and the maximum temperature (and the temperature distribution) in the battery are investigated for practical applications. The effect of the length of the battery that is submerged in to the liquid ammonia on the thermal performance of battery is studied and evaluated. The present results show that the proposed ammonia based cooling system offers a unique opportunity to maintain the operating temperature of the battery in an optimum range for consecutive charging and discharging phases at a high rate of 7.5C.