3beLiEVe held its third General Assembly (GA) in two morning sessions, one each on 17th and 18th February 2021. The meeting was held at project month 14 (M14). The two-month shift versus a customary six-month schedule allowed tasks to make important progress prior to review by the full consortium at the GA.
The project’s activities touch the gamut of topics requested under the LC-BAT-5 call – cell chemistry, sensors, and manufacturing. Accordingly, the updates at the GA covered the latest advances in slurry formulations and performances for the electrodes and showed the first small pouch cells produced with upscaled production parameters on a pilot-scale production line. Project partners also got an insight into the state of play on the individual sensors to be incorporated in- and onto the cell, as well as the status of the communication architecture to pass the acquired measurements from the sensors to the battery management system. First considerations about the use of signal data to train algorithms for state estimation were also discussed, and the consortium got a glimpse of first concepts for the mechanical engineering and cooling of the battery module. Thinking ahead to large-scale production, the first activities on modeling of the production equipment and processes for Gigafactory volumes were also presented.
Another highlight was the guest presentation by the DEFACTO project at the end of the morning session on February 17th. DEFACTO presented their work to improve the understanding of cell behavior and cell manufacturing process by means of multiscale and multiphysic modeling tools, and 3beLiEVe and DEFACTO initiated a discussion on collaboration opportunities, which we aim to continue.
While we would have wished to be able to meet in person, it was nevertheless a compact online GA filled with exciting topics from the microscopic material level through to electrical, mechanical and software levels where project partners were able to coordinate and get insights into topics also beyond those of their immediate activities.