Analysis and modelling of calendar ageing in second-life lithium-ion batteries from electric vehicles

Abstract

The reuse of Li-ion batteries from electric vehicles is a promising alternative to recycling nowadays. However, the technical and economic viability of these second-life (SL) batteries is not yet clear. Degradation assessment plays a key role not only to analyse the impact of ageing factors in reused batteries, but also to quantify their durability. In this context, this contribution aims to analyse calendar ageing behaviour in SL cells. 16 reused Nissan Leaf modules are aged during 750 days under three temperatures and four State of Charge (SOC), covering a State of Health range from 72.2 % to 13 %. The impact of temperature and SOC as stress factors is firstly analysed, concluding that their increase accelerates ageing. Temperature rise is found to have a major impact, accelerating up to 27 times capacity fade and almost 6 times resistance increase when compared to light ageing conditions, while increasing SOC nearly doubles ageing rates. The worst ageing case is found to be the combination of 60 ◦C and 66 % of SOC. Regarding degradation trends, they are proven to be constant during all SL lifetime. This work also proposes and validates a calendar ageing model for SL cells. Accuracy of validation results show a fitting Rsq of 0.9941 in capacity fade and 0.9557 in resistance increase, thereby tracking the heterogeneous degradation of the SL cells under calendar ageing.