Challenges

We spe­cial­ize in high-pre­ci­sion sim­u­la­tion soft­ware for lithi­um-ion-bat­ter­ies. For every lithi­um-ion cell, we cre­ate phys­i­cal mod­els and demon­strate glob­al valid­i­ty. We call our mod­els Bate­mo Cells. They help in solv­ing cen­tral chal­lenges of bat­tery sys­tem devel­op­ment and answer­ing typ­i­cal design ques­tions such as:

  • Which cell tech­nol­o­gy is most suit­able for a spe­cif­ic application?

  • What does an opti­mal pack design look like?

  • Which oper­a­tional strat­e­gy extends the life­time of the battery?

  • How can inno­v­a­tive fast charg­ing meth­ods be developed?

  • How can safe­ty be guar­an­teed in com­plex sys­tems, under all circumstances?

In indus­tri­al research and devel­op­ment, there is a well-estab­lished way to cope with these chal­lenges: design deci­sions and devel­op­ment process­es are based on sim­u­la­tions. This requires a com­put­er-based rep­re­sen­ta­tion of the bat­tery cell known as a mod­el or dig­i­tal twin. Today, two approach­es are usu­al­ly used for that purpose.

Equivalent Circuit Models

inaccurate and no insights

Equiv­a­lent cir­cuit mod­els (ECM) mim­ic the ter­mi­nal behav­ior of the cell using sim­ple ele­ments like resis­tors, capac­i­tors or oth­er imped­ance ele­ments. The mod­el para­me­ters are usu­al­ly mul­ti-dimen­sion­al lookup-tables obtained from var­i­ous mea­sure­ments. Because the fun­da­men­tal mod­el struc­ture does not match the cell physics and since non­lin­ear­i­ties are not prop­er­ly tak­en into account, ECMs are inac­cu­rate and do not allow an insight into the cell.

Using finite ele­ment method (FEM) tools, the microstruc­ture of the elec­trodes is recon­struct­ed and the sys­tem of par­tial dif­fer­en­tial equa­tions is solved spa­tial­ly. This approach is error-prone; para­me­ter­i­za­tion takes sev­er­al months and the mod­el valid­i­ty must be ensured by you. More­over, sim­u­la­tions will usu­al­ly take sev­er­al hours. This makes the FEM approach too com­plex and too slow for indus­tri­al development.

Battery Models based on the Finite Element Method

complex and slow

Solution

Bate­mo Cells com­bine the best of both approach­es: the easy han­dling and speed of the ECM mod­els with the phys­i­cal­i­ty and accu­ra­cy of the FEM mod­els. They are based on the fun­da­men­tal idea of pre­cise­ly describ­ing and vir­tu­al­ly repro­duc­ing all rel­e­vant process­es inside lithi­um-ion-bat­ter­ies. This is quite com­pli­cat­ed: phys­i­cal, chem­i­cal and ther­mo­dy­nam­ic process­es are cou­pled in com­plex ways, depend­ing on oper­at­ing con­di­tions and age. Every­thing hap­pens simul­ta­ne­ous­ly and runs on dif­fer­ent length and time scales: from elec­trode par­ti­cles just a few microm­e­ters in size, up to process­es in the cen­time­ter range of cell and pack size. Some process­es take just mil­lisec­onds, oth­ers need months. You will receive our Bate­mo Cells designed for the devel­op­ment envi­ron­ment you are famil­iar with. Through opti­mized para­me­ter­i­za­tion meth­ods, we eas­i­ly and quick­ly cre­ate Bate­mo Cells for your cells and demon­strate their valid­i­ty. With a flex­i­ble inter­face and sim­u­la­tion times in  a mat­ter of sec­onds, the Bate­mo Cells will seam­less­ly inte­grate into your indus­tri­al research and devel­op­ment processes.

Advantages

You can use our Bate­mo Cells as dig­i­tal twins and thus save time-con­sum­ing and lengthy mea­sure­ments. Your bat­tery sys­tem devel­op­ment becomes mod­el-based, mak­ing it faster, safer, more flex­i­ble, and lead­ing to bet­ter prod­ucts. This is how we con­tribute to your success.

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fast
charging

Fast bat­tery charg­ing is used in many appli­ca­tions, where the bat­ter­ies must not be dam­aged. You can devel­op min­i­mal-aging, fast-charg­ing meth­ods for your bat­tery packs using our Bate­mo Cells. Thus, charg­ing time can be cut by a third with­out addi­tion­al aging of the cells.

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enhance
technology

With Bate­mo Cells, the inno­va­tion poten­tial of new ideas can be eas­i­ly eval­u­at­ed and com­plex func­tions can be devel­oped much more quick­ly. This is how you can enhance your tech­no­log­i­cal leadership.

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increase
safety

You can mon­i­tor your bat­ter­ies dur­ing oper­a­tion. You can devel­op safe­ty fea­tures with Bate­mo Cells, detect crit­i­cal con­di­tions ear­ly, and design effi­cient strate­gies to ensure safe oper­a­tion under all conditions.

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cope with
complexity

Bat­tery packs are often used in a vari­ety of prod­ucts with dif­fer­ent charg­ers. Using Bate­mo Cell sim­u­la­tions, you can ensure over­all compatibility.

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increase
market share

If you are intro­duc­ing new tech­nolo­gies to the mar­ket, Bate­mo Cells will help you bring high-qual­i­ty, inno­v­a­tive ideas to the mar­ket very quick­ly. Key prod­uct fea­tures can be improved and dif­fer­en­ti­at­ed from com­peti­tors, lead­ing to increased mar­ket share.

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speed up
testing

Bate­mo Cell sim­u­la­tions are sig­nif­i­cant­ly faster than real-time lab­o­ra­to­ry tests. You can per­form com­pre­hen­sive, sim­u­la­tion-based test sce­nar­ios with sin­gle cells, bat­tery packs, or total sys­tems in a frac­tion of the time.

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minimize
risk

With Bate­mo Cells, sin­gle func­tions or sub-sys­tems can be thor­ough­ly test­ed in the ear­ly stages of the devel­op­ment process. You can thus detect design errors ear­ly on and sig­nif­i­cant­ly reduce the fail­ure rate of your design and pro­duc­tion validation.

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reduce
cost

Bate­mo Cells reduce the cost of bat­tery sys­tem devel­op­ment in many ways. For instance, you can reduce expens­es on pro­to­typ­ing, avoid per­form­ing exten­sive lab mea­sure­ments, and decrease your devel­op­ment time.

Want to use that?