An advanced air conditioning system for Electric Vehicles

Project Information

Ellum AC System

Grant agreement ID: 807801

DOI

10.3030/807801

Project closed

EC signature date 31 January 2018

Start date 1 February 2018

End date 31 July 2018

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Smart, Green And Integrated Transport

Total cost

€ 71 429,00

EU contribution

€ 50 000,00

Coordinated by

E-WENCO SRL
Italy

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - Ellum AC System (An advanced air conditioning system for Electric Vehicles)

Reporting period: 2018-02-01 to 2018-07-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The increased uptake of EVs can play an important role in the EU’s goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80-95 % by 2050 and to move towards a low-carbon future. The principal aim of hybrid and electric vehicle makers is to increase the mileage of the vehicle per charge. To reach this scope, there are two different approaches: 1) to increase the batteries powerful; 2) to reduce the energy lost/consumption.
Automotive air conditioning (AC) consumes a large amount of energy. In conventional internal combustion engine cars, it consumes up to 30% of the fuel, while in battery electric cars, AC may reduce the battery range by up to 40% in an urban driving cycle condition. The AC system installed in the EV and hybrid vehicle is based on gas compression and it is driven by an electric compressor; Air conditioning compressors are the most common and traditional solution for any vehicles, it is hard to imagine major improvement on this topology of A/C.
Due to the ecological problems (use of refrigerants e.g. chlorofluorocarbons and hydrochlorofluorocarbons that is responsible of emission of some greenhouse gases), mechanical heat pumps will face a serious crisis in the future if a solution is not found for working fluids by heat pump and refrigeration industry. Furthermore, in the past two decades, it has been found out that traditional refrigeration systems and mechanical heat pump play an important role in the depletion of the ozone layer and global warming.
So, actually, in particular for PHEVs and EVs, the most important needs are: a) better and greener cooling way and b) low energy consumption and more efficiency solution.
E-llum A/C system is an advanced absorption air conditioning system based on the innovative E-llum technology.
The goal of the system is
to improve cooling efficiency for the electric and hybrid vehicles A/C system.
To make a more efficient use of the battery power by recycling the available and wasted heat
To have a faster and better control of the coolant generation process;
To reduce the noises of A/C components and the costs of maintenance.
E-llum A/C is a closed cycle and it is less harmful to the ozone layer (and no HFCs gases are used).
E-llum A/C, reducing the energy consumption of the battery during the warm season, could increase the range per charge and reduce the range anxiety, promoting the EV and PHEV adoption.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

"To imagine a new AC Concept, we’ve started analysing the types of thermal energy sources available in an electric car, searching for the ones useful to create a new AC AD/ABSORPTION system that decrease the use of the battery.
From a first analysis, various unused heat sources have demonstrated in the car: the atmospherically heat, the motor, the breaking plates, the car body and the environment itself. This heat needs to be dissipated but potentially could be a source that can be used in the Ellum Ac system. Exactly in our system this source will provide most of the energy required to power the cooling system while the E-llum Technology will be used for the fine control. That means, E-llum AC System could be a new class of adsorption physical/chemical reactor, that will be able to better utilize these free energies.
During these months we’ve conduit 9 technical macro-activities: Determination of the actual working condition and specification, Definition of the specification and the thermodynamic cycle, Proposal of E-llum heat pump concept, IP Management, Design of E-llum heat pump and Selection of family of coolant, Creation of a proof of concept, Test it and Re-test in stress conditions.
For the refrigerant choice we’ve analysed 2 big families of gas mixture and we’ve decide to proceed with homologue gasses filling H2 and using three different concentration (ppm) of components. This concentration choice is due to the different behaviours of the gasses during the regeneration session of the global heating exchange process. The gases have:
- Safety profile: the mixture of gasses, in use conditions (temperature and pressure), are safe, chemically stable, non-toxic, and non-explosive; it’s perfectly compatible with the actual car system;
- Green Profile: the mixture of gasses doesn’t contain any hazardous materials for environment
The most complex experimental work consisted in the definition of design and in the practical realization of the prototype of the ""E-LLUM Reactor"".
We’ve tested no. 10 particular conformations of the E-llum Reactor, that are different from composition and structure. Exactly, we’ve need a sensible system, made of E-llum rules, that is responsible for exceeding the reaction threshold that allows the cycle to start providing the necessary particular kind of energy.
So, before starting the complete tests, several partial tests have been carried out on each single component to validate its operation. In particular, has been subjected to an extensive series of validation tests on a number of different geometries each of which underwent processes of structural modification to make it responsive to the functioning according to the E-LLUM rules.
The results that emerged from the experimental tests differ, in the extreme values, of an order of magnitude and range from values comparable to a condition of non-functioning to values of absolute practical interest. This result makes it possible to state that there are configurations designed to be extremely more efficient than others in the use of this innovative configuration of absorption heat pump.
The next step will be to engineer the prototypes of the most promising solutions in order to determine the best commercial solution.
"

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The feasibility study has been to combine our secret know how, coming from our patent/patent pending and researches, with prior art focused on reactor, chemistry of the gasses, energy management and filtration.
We’ve applied E-llum rules to the standard adsorption processes and we’ve tried to create a new concept of adsorbent heating pump. After this study we’ve scheduled several experimental tests in order to acquire the best configuration of this concept.
With this solution, in the futures, overall the truck, the public transport and the refrigerant container could be use the electrical energy just for the motion and not for the comfort or working operating condition too. The idea is integrate our solution with a photovoltaic panel/system in order to minimize the combustion or battery use.
The challenge is make more efficient electric energy uses for the transport and, maybe, for the industrial/civic housing too.

Portion of E-llum AC System Reactor