It is a great success for the Graz University of Technology (TU Graz) and proof of the outstanding expertise of its researchers in the future-oriented field of battery technology: the Austrian Research Promotion Agency FFG has approved the application for the new COMET-K1 center “Battery4Life”. Together with international partners from science and industry, a team led by Christian Ellersdorfer from the Institute for Vehicle Safety will conduct research into improving the safety, service life and sustainability of batteries. The FFG is funding the project with a total of around 6.5 million euros, the province of Styria is contributing 2.6 million euros and Upper Austria 0.6 million euros. In addition, the corporate partners from the automotive and electronics industries are investing around nine million euros over the planned duration of four years.

With the approval of the Battery4Life K1 center, TU Graz is further expanding its position as Austria’s most successful university in the FFG’s COMET program. “I am particularly pleased about the funding for Battery4Life,” says TU Graz Rector Horst Bischof. “It demonstrates the outstanding expertise in battery research that we have built up at TU Graz together with industrial partners over many years. Together with the hydrogen research center HyCentA, we have now united the concentrated energy storage technology at the Inffeld campus.”

Safe battery operation over the entire life cycle

Driven by the expansion of e-mobility, the demand for batteries is growing rapidly, with large sums of money being invested in research projects worldwide to increase battery capacity and develop new storage materials. “In view of the large number of battery types, there is a growing need for research into safe operation in a wide range of applications and over their entire life cycle,” says Christian Ellersdorfer. The COMET Center Battery4Life builds on the COMET project SafeLIB in its work and can also draw on a test center in the field of battery safety (Battery Safety Center Graz) at TU Graz-Campus Inffeldgasse. Here, the Institute for Vehicle Safety has developed new experimental approaches and virtual processes. The researchers want to further optimize these in Battery4Life and expand them to include artificial intelligence approaches in order to achieve even more precise predictions with a smaller number of experiments and less computing power.

Reuse of used batteries

The competence center is also researching methods to reliably assess the safety status of used batteries in particular. Suitable discarded batteries, for example from electric cars, could thus be reused as stationary electricity storage units and would not have to be disposed of, which would make a significant contribution to greater sustainability. When developing the evaluation methods, the researchers will take into account not only technical aspects but also economic efficiency and legal issues relating to data protection, warranty and liability.

Partners from eight countries

The scientific partners include numerous institutes of Graz University of Technology as well as universities and research institutions from Austria, Germany, Belgium, France, Switzerland and the USA. Corporate partners include AVL List, AVL DiTEST, Infineon, Fronius, Magna Steyr, Audi, BMW and Porsche.

Two further COMET centers with TU Graz participation receive funding approval

In addition to Battery4Life, two existing COMET K1 centers with TU Graz participation under company law have been awarded funding for a further four years: Pro2Future and the Polymer Competence Center Leoben.