Oak Ridge Today

ORNL demonstrates 120-kilowatt wireless charging for vehicles

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Researchers demonstrated a 120-kilowatt wireless power transfer at the National Transportation Research Center, a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science User facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. From left to right above are ORNL’s Saeed Anwar, Burak Ozpineci, Gui-Jia Su, and David Smith; DOE Vehicle Technology Program’s Lee Slezak; and ORNL’s Veda Galigekere, Omer Onar, and Jason Pries. (Photo courtesy ORNL)

Researchers demonstrated a 120-kilowatt wireless power transfer at the National Transportation Research Center, a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science User facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. From left to right above are ORNL’s Saeed Anwar, Burak Ozpineci, Gui-Jia Su, and David Smith; DOE Vehicle Technology Program’s Lee Slezak; and ORNL’s Veda Galigekere, Omer Onar, and Jason Pries. (Photo courtesy ORNL)

 

By Stephanie Seay/ORNL

Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory have demonstrated a 120-kilowatt wireless charging system for vehicles—providing six times the power of previous ORNL technology and a big step toward charging times that rival the speed and convenience of a gas station fill-up.

The wireless system transfers 120 kilowatts of power with 97 percent efficiency, which is comparable to conventional, wired high-power fast chargers. In the laboratory demonstration, power was transferred across a six-inch air gap between two magnetic coils and charged a battery pack.

ORNL researchers created and demonstrated the world’s first 20-kilowatt wireless charging system, which is being modified for applications such as commercial delivery trucks.

“It was important to maintain the same or smaller footprint as the previous demonstration to encourage commercial adoption,” said project lead Veda Galigekere of ORNL’s Power Electronics and Electric Machinery Group. [Read more…]

Wireless electric charging: The future of plug-in electric vehicles is going cordless

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ORNL-Wireless-Vehicle-Charging

Researchers from Oak Ridge National Laboratory test a wireless charger on the fully-electric Toyota Scion iQ at a demonstration site. (Photo courtesy Oak Ridge National Laboratory)

 

By Nay Chehab

What if charging your plug-in electric vehicle was as easy as parking it? No need for cords or cards. Just as Wi-Fi has freed consumers of wires when accessing the Internet, wireless charging technology may soon be as widespread, thanks to research supported by the U.S. Department of Energy.

With support from the Vehicle Technologies Office, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Hyundai America Technical Center Inc. have been working since 2012 to demonstrate wireless charging on a variety of vehicles. ORNL is working with a mix of Toyota vehicles, including models of the all-electric RAV 4, plug-in hybrid electric Prius, and all-electric Scion iQ, while Hyundai America Technical Center Inc. is testing its technology on five all-electric Kia Souls.

The technology behind wireless charging creates a connection between a transmitting pad on the ground (such as in a garage) and a receiving pad integrated on the bottom of the vehicle. In the projects ORNL is leading, the transmitting pad is connected to a 240-volt outlet and generates a magnetic field of a certain frequency. When the coil in the receiving pad is tuned to oscillate at the same frequency, the magnetic field will generate a current in the receiving coil, charging the vehicle’s battery. [Read more…]

Rubber meets the road with new ORNL carbon, battery technologies

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Recycled Tire Battery Schematics

ORNL researchers’ goal is to scale up the recovery process and demonstrate applications as anodes for lithium-ion batteries in large-format pouch cells. (Image courtesy ORNL)

 

Recycled tires could see new life in lithium-ion batteries that provide power to plug-in electric vehicles and store energy produced by wind and solar, say researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

By modifying the microstructural characteristics of carbon black, a substance recovered from discarded tires, a team led by Parans Paranthaman and Amit Naskar is developing a better anode for lithium-ion batteries. An anode is a negatively charged electrode used as a host for storing lithium during charging.

The method, outlined in a paper published in the journal RSC Advances, has numerous advantages over conventional approaches to making anodes for lithium-ion batteries.

“Using waste tires for products such as energy storage is very attractive not only from the carbon materials recovery perspective but also for controlling environmental hazards caused by waste tire stock piles,” Paranthaman said.

The ORNL technique uses a proprietary pretreatment to recover pyrolytic carbon black material, which is similar to graphite but man-made. When used in anodes of lithium-ion batteries, researchers produced a small, laboratory-scale battery with a reversible capacity that is higher than what is possible with commercial graphite materials. [Read more…]

Alexander unveils his four principles for clean, cheap, reliable energy

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U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander

Lamar Alexander

It’s been five years since U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander called for a new Manhattan Project for energy independence, and during a Wednesday update, the senator said four “grand principles” should guide America’s energy policy.

The senator said his principles—which include research and development, free market forces, and cheaper, clean energy—would “end an obsession with taxpayer subsidies and strategies for expensive energy.” They would instead focus on “doubling research and allowing marketplace solutions to create an abundance of clean, cheap, reliable energy,” Alexander said during a Wednesday afternoon speech at the Tennessee Valley Corridor Summit in Oak Ridge.

The senator called for doubling research funding and ending long-term subsidies for “big oil” and “big wind.” [Read more…]