New Excel Modelling Kid on the Block
The Faraday Institution in the UK recently released a Cell Analysis and Modelling System to predict the energy density of experimental cell design. We had a play with it and here’s a couple of thoughts.
The Cell Analysis and Modelling System (CAMS) uses 40 widely used electrode materials and over 200 commercial cells to allow users to compare the results from their modeled cells to industry standards. It aims to “rapidly assess the potential energy density of different cell chemistries and cell formats” and is designed to be as “easy to use as possible”. You can download it here.
It’s fully open source so you can take a deep dive into the calculations if you wish.
It can model four different cell designs: cylindrical, pouch, prismatic (wound) and prismatic (Z-stacked) with five different cell chemistries of Li-ion, Na-ion, Li-sulfur, all solid state and hybrid solid state. You select the chemistry, cell type, format and dimensions before specifying cathode active material, anode, separator and electrolyte. The pink box will then produce you a cell summary.
The particular highlight of the CAMS that we enjoyed was modeling the ‘not yet commercialised’ chemistries. There are lots of papers that write about these kinds of calculations, but nothing so simple and easy to play with yet that you could model your own 18650s.
This tool is designed to be educational about the production process and also for researchers to ‘test’ their own materials at a cell level. This kind of ‘big picture’ stuff is very valuable to researchers trying to understand particular values of their material or not.
Some other handy bits in the Excel file are the GSM calculator and the Coloumbic Efficiency calculator. When one electrode is already made or bought, it’s a handy tool to quickly calculate the loading required on the counter electrode.
The inbuilt graphs are a nice touch too, allowing quick visual analysis and allowing you to input this materials you wish to compare.
Integration with BatPac?
Something we were curious about was the CAMS similarities and differences to the Argonne National Laboratory’s BatPac software. Also an Excel calculator, that model focuses on the performance and manufacturing cost of lithium-ion batteries for electric-drive vehicles.
Faraday’s CAMS is more focused on cell level, with different cell types whereas the BatPac focuses on pack level specifically for EVs with pouch cells assumed. CAMS also allows for theoretical future tech predictions, whereas the BatPac focuses on current chemistries and material cost.
We think they will probably be very complementary, with cell-level calculations on the CAMS and then plugging these into the BatPac to run the numbers for, for example, a solid-state EV pack cost and materials required.
Summary
A neat piece of free Excel modeling. It does what it says on the tin and we think you could use it in conjunction with some more complicated things to get the bigger picture.
🌞 Thanks for reading!
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