Only a transparent battery is a green battery

"A battery that wants to be green must provide transparent information about where it comes from, what it contains and what it is still good for," explains Dr. Shahin Jamali from Fraunhofer IEG, coordinator of the Base project. "The digital battery passport that we are developing makes this possible."

A digital battery passport should not only store static data, but also store current operating data that influences the future use of the battery in an easily accessible way. Typical entries could include the year of manufacture, material composition, dismantling and recycling instructions, operating parameters or safety instructions, as well as operating hours, temperature curves, charging cycles or error codes during operation. The Base project uses distributed ledger technology (DLT), commonly known as blockchain, as a tool for the digital battery passport. This allows users to record data securely, transparently and in a distributed manner and at the same time update it continuously throughout the battery's life cycle. The project will demonstrate and validate the concept of the digital battery passport and in particular highlight the aspects of functionality, data traceability and value creation. It will also develop analytics and AI techniques to estimate battery performance and safety indicators, circular economy indicators by taking into account the 4Rs (Reduce, Repair, Reuse and Recycle) and harmonized environmental, social, governance and economic (ESGE) impact indicators based on the data in the battery passport. The digital battery passport is intended to promote the circular economy in the battery value chain. Four pilot cases demonstrate the applicability of the concept being developed:

Automotive: In the eCitaro electric bus from Mercedes-Benz Türkiye, the battery management system data is stored appropriately in the battery passport.

Automotive: The battery pass should also work for the highly flexible electric vehicle platforms from Ford Otosan, which will serve as the basis for many end customer models.

Shipping: Electric tugs use a large number of batteries at the same time, the status and life expectancy of which is constantly monitored.

Stationary: 2nd-life electric storage systems can still develop considerable economic benefits for the electricity grid, which will be further increased by automated battery pass processes.

Shahin Jamali and his team from the Competence Center "Monitoring and Artificial Intelligence" at Fraunhofer IEG not only coordinate Base: "We bring many years of experience in the field of innovative AI and monitoring methods for energy infrastructures." They develop and use AI-based methods for analyzing large data sets, feature extraction, automatic pattern recognition, anomaly detection and predictive analytics.

The project

"BASE" stands for "Battery Passport for Resilient Supply Chain and Implementation of Circular Economy". The main objective of the project is to develop, validate and implement a functioning digital battery passport (DBP) as required by the EU Battery Regulation (EU REGULATION (EU) 2023/1542).