Fast charging of electric vehicles has always been a difficult demand for new energy vehicles, and innovative cooling methods are expected to greatly increase the charging power.
Recently, it has been reported that many advanced technologies developed by NASA for space missions can already be used on Earth.
Currently, “temperature control technology” can increase charging power levels by enabling more efficient heat transfer capabilities, allowing EVs to charge faster.
Many NASA space missions, complex systems that must maintain specific temperatures to operate, such as nuclear fission power systems and vapor compression heat pumps that will be used to support missions to the moon and Mars, require advanced heat transfer capabilities.
A NASA-sponsored research team is developing a new technique, the Flowing Boiling and Condensing Experiment (FBCE), that will dramatically reduce the size and weight of cooling equipment, with real-world implications for high-power DC charging stations.
The FBCE technology was delivered to the International Space Station in August 2021 and began providing microgravity flow boiling data in early 2022. Recently, the R&D team will apply the principle of FBCE to the charging process of electric vehicles.
The new technology’s non-conductive liquid coolant is pumped through the charging cable, where it captures the heat generated by the current-carrying conductors, and subcooled flow boiling enables the device to remove up to 24.22kW of heat.
The team says its charging system can deliver up to 2400A. This is an order of magnitude higher than the 350kW or 400kW charging units currently available from passenger car CCS chargers. If the charging system can be rolled out in the commercial field, it will be on the same level of importance as the megawatt charging system.
It is reported that the megawatt charging system (MCS) is designed to provide a maximum current of 3000 amps at voltages up to 1250V , and its potential charging peak power is about 3750kW (3.75MW). And in a demonstration in June 2022, the output of the MCS prototype test charging unit exceeded 1 megawatt.
