The solution to fast charging from space?

NASA is funding a research project at Purdue University aimed at accelerating electric vehicle charging through a new cable cooling system, potentially reducing charging times to 5 minutes.

The system has demonstrated its functionality and is undergoing testing on the International Space Station. Charging electric vehicles is not only a terrestrial concern but also a critical aspect for future missions to the Moon and Mars, making it a subject of research and study.

Physics confirms that increased performance leads to higher temperatures, requiring oversized components for the entire system, including the charging cable. The goal is to reduce operating temperatures without significant side effects on the size of the infrastructure or the weight of the hardware.

The project is led by Prof. Issam Mudawar from the Mechanical Engineering department at Purdue, who has been working on this technology since 2017, in collaboration with Ford. The first version was presented in 2021, with improvements made recently, thanks to the interest of the scientific community.

How could this space technology be applied to automotive?

The current electric vehicle charging is influenced by at least two factors: the battery capacity in kilowatt-hours and the charging station power in kilowatts.

One challenge in charging systems involves the cable connecting the station to the vehicle. Fast-charging versions use 350-ampere cables with large conductors, which are impractical. To achieve the desired 5-minute threshold (an industry-wide aspiration), a current of 1400 amperes (775 kW) would be needed. However, advanced chargers currently provide only up to 520 amperes, and most consumer chargers support up to 150 amperes.

The proposed solution involves using a non-conductive cooling liquid pumped through the charging cable. This heat dissipation system could deliver 4.6 times the current of existing high-performance chargers (520 amperes) on the market, removing up to 24.22 kilowatts of heat. "Purdue's charging cable can provide 2400 amperes, well beyond the 1400 needed to reduce the time required to charge an electric car to 5 minutes," noted NASA.

It's important to highlight that this technology represents just the first step toward ultra-fast charging, as a next-generation cable would need to be accompanied by a suitable battery and power supply.