THE SETTLERS OF E

"The future belongs to electric cars" – that was how German Chancellor Angela Merkel commented on the second progress report of the national electromobility platform in May 2011 and identified battery production as one of two major challenges to catch up with the Asian market to become a lead market in the field of electromobility. A goal for which Prof. Horst Hahn, Ph. D. Andreas Gutsch and PH. D. Olaf Wollersheim from KIT can offer solutions: as founders, leaders, networkers and coordinators of "Competence E".

The large-scale project not only aims to answer fundamental questions about the design and cost-effective manufacture of batteries and electric motors, but is also trying a new dimension of cooperation between science and industry.

61.7 million cars were sold worldwide in 2010, with one in five cars coming from German production. "In order for German manufacturers to become lead suppliers for electromobility, the research institutions in Germany must create the necessary foundations and infrastructure," says Olaf Wollersheim for the Competence E project. Research into materials for lithium-ion batteries, battery management systems or production technologies is taking place in several places in scientific institutions, he says. However, there is a lack of interdisciplinary links between basic researchers from different disciplines and engineers for product development and production research in order to arrive at systemically optimal solutions for the powertrain that can then also be manufactured cost-effectively.

"At KIT, we make excellent research for application and not for the drawer."

Ph. D. Andreas Gutsch

In January 2011, Andreas Gutsch, the project coordinator with industrial experience, therefore started to identify and link all competences in the field of electromobility at KIT. As on a strategic game board, resources can now be combined to develop technologies and bring them to market. In practical terms, this means that 300 scientists from 26 scientific institutes are included in a "know-how pool". Technological challenges are no longer traditionally investigated in disciplinary homogeneous working groups with their own focus. Solutions are developed across disciplines by electrical engineers, chemists, physicists, materials scientists or mechanical engineers: "We don't think in terms of cathode or anode, we think directly about the cell and the overall powertrain system in the vehicle," explains Prof. Horst Hahn, Director of the Institute of Nanotechnology at KIT.

The development of novel, cost-effective, powerful and at the same time reliable energy storage systems is realistic. The technological and economic requirements for energy storage systems for mobile applications are extremely ambitious. However, considerable efforts will be required to develop them in the coming years.

From the German government's national electromobility development plan

Institute director Hahn and the then managing director of the battery manufacturer Li-Tec Gutsch are the intellectual fathers of Competence E. With his knowledge of the problems in industry, Gutsch recognized the potential of an invention by Ph. D. Wilhelm Pfleging and his team for the automotive industry during a visit at KIT. The physicist is primarily involved in laser process technology, surface functionalization and the generation of tiny micro- and nanostructures – the application areas are hard to count, but often intangible in detail for scientists.

Gutsch knew that in battery production, a lot of time and effort has been spent so far on drawing the electrolyte down to the smallest pore as possible to maximize battery performance. Pfleging, a physicist, has provided a process for this: "We didn't know until then how fundamental changing this could be for battery production as well." Microstructuring draws the electrolyte into the smallest pores of the electrodes, as in an extremely absorbent sponge – much more quickly and cost-effectively than it has been up to date. Manufacturers could use the technology to minimize reject rates and production times. Wollersheim, Gutsch and Pfleging are now jointly seeking industrial partners for the step from pure potential to production process. With good arguments: "KIT is the only location in Germany where electromobility can be tackled at a system level and this is a necessary prerequisite for developing realistic manufacturing processes for the near future," says chemical engineer Gutsch.

With the team around Wilhelm Pfleging, only the first of a series of projects is to be implemented that will change the view of the motor vehicles of the future: "At KIT, we are doing excellent research for application and not for the drawer."

Facts and figures of electromobility

Value Quantity
Sales of electric cars in Germany in 2011 ~ 2,000 units*
Federal government sales target for 2020 in Germany 1 million units**
Sales of electric cars 2011 worldwide worldwide ~ 50,000***
Number of electric filling stations in Germany approx. 2,000
First electric car 1830
Car manufacturers already offering e-cars 10
Potential efficiency of an electric motor up to 99 percent
Potential efficiency of an internal combustion engine up to 30 percent

* Source: Study by the Center Automotive Research (CAR) at the University of Duisburg-Essen
** Source: Second report of the National Platform for Electric Mobility
*** Source: Study by the Center Automotive Research (CAR) of the University of Duisburg-Essen

Diese Seite nutzt Website-Tracking-Technologien von Dritten, um ihre Dienste anzubieten. Ich bin damit einverstanden und kann meine Einwilligung jederzeit mit Wirkung für die Zukunft widerrufen oder ändern.

Alle akzeptieren Einstellungen Nur notwendige akzeptierenImpressumDatenschutz