Research Projects

Pb-acid batteries (PAB) are not suitable for electric vehicles due to their poor specific energy density. Lithium ion batteries (LIB), although having much higher specific energy density, are not cost effective and thus have not replaced PAB for majority of electric vehicles in India. Also, India will have to totally depend on other countries like China for the raw materials of LIB. Sodium ion batteries (NIB) can have specific energies at par with lithium ion batteries and are significantly cheaper than LIB. Therefore the project aims to run an E-vehicle using indigenously developed NIB-supercapacitor pack. This will be achieved by(1) identification of suitable materials that can be economically manufactured in India, (2) simulation based design of NIB cells(3) fabrication of the prismatic pouch NIB/supercapacitor cells utilizing pilot facility at IIT Kharagpur, (4) design and fabrication of energy management system and (5) pack fabrication and field test.