Closed-Loop Modeling to Evaluate the Performance of a Scaled-Up Lithium-Sulfur Battery in Electric Vehicle Applications

A closed-loop modeling method was established here to evaluate the performance of new battery technology from lab research to scaled-up developed electric vehicle (EV) applications. As an emerging energy-storage device, the lithium-sulfur battery (LSB) is a very promising candidate for the next generation of rechargeable batteries. However, it has been difficult to commercialize the LSB up to now. In this work, we designed and built a battery, EV, and driver system loop model to study the key performance parameters of LSB operation in EVs, in which the tested data from the lab were introduced into the model followed by simulating driving cycles and fast charging. A comparison with the lithium-ion batteries used in real vehicles verified the high reliability of the model. Meanwhile, the simulation results showed that the LSB needs more improvements for EV application; in particular, developments are still highly needed to overcome the high power and energy loss and sharp voltage vibration for practical applications. The novelty of this work relies on the created closed-loop modeling method to simulate lab research results for evaluating new battery technology in scaled-up EV applications in order to not only vividly predict EV operation performance and commercialization feasibility, but also thoughtfully guide researchers and developers for further optimization and problem solutions. Therefore, this method holds great promise as a powerful tool for both lab research and the industrial development of new batteries for EV applications.