Glendale-based Johnson Controls announced it has partnered with German company Fraunhofer Gesellschaft to advance the development of lithium-ion battery pack cooling systems.
Fraunhofer is the largest applied research firm in Europe. Johnson Controls will work with the organization’s Institute for Environmental, Safety and Energy Technology and Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Advanced Materials to research new thermal management techniques for lithium-ion battery packs.
The current technologies include fans, compressors and pumps using energy to pull heat out of batteries.
The work will center on the 48-Volt Micro Hybrid battery, which aims to inexpensively increase fuel and emissions efficiency while improving load management. Johnson Controls’ model has the capability of reducing fuel consumption by 15 percent, which could be a boon to car manufacturers that need to meet federal vehicle efficiency regulations.
“Optimizing the energy storage solution within the broader vehicle environment will enable Johnson Controls to design, develop and commercialize systems which not only meet our customers’ requirements, but also lead to improvements in function, package and cost,” said MaryAnn Wright, vice president of Engineering and Product Development for Johnson Controls Power Solutions.
