Project

Electrical energy storage is a key technology and a prerequisite for the transformation of the energy supply. This applies in particular to future mobility and stationary energy storage as applications that cannot be implemented without high-performance storage solutions. For this purpose, the development, production, operation and finally also the recycling of electrochemical energy storage systems (especially lithium-ion batteries) must be advanced under high time pressure.

Like all high-tech applications, batteries have a very complex structure.  The materials used, such as lithium, cobalt, nickel, etc., are critical raw materials with a high recycling requirement in terms of their availability, the properties of the materials and components are adjusted in the course of battery production in the form of the internal structure, the materials used and the conditioning, and furthermore the battery changes in the course of use and must be continuously evaluated in terms of its performance and service life. The information about the life cycle has so far been insufficiently recorded, not compiled, evaluated and only used to a limited extent, and thus innovation potentials and development times are lost. Up to now, there has been a lack of consistent data collection and utilisation via a profound data space.

With the support of digital tools, this enormous task should be accomplished more efficiently, smarter and faster. However, these tools require an extensive database. The creation of an overarching data, information and knowledge platform with regard to digitalisation in battery technology can accelerate battery development with many actors and partners, make battery production more resource-efficient, effective and enable safe battery use and effective recycling. With the goal of "data, knowledge and application must become one", a complete data space is to be created under the term BatteryDigital to enable the prediction of structure-property relationships, the control and automation of processes and the acceleration of development loops with digital tools. 

Battery Digital Data Space (BDDS)

In the project BatteryDigital the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft is therefore addressing the challenges and opportunities of establishing a federated data space across the entire development and life cycle of electrical battery storage systems (today mainly lithium-ion batteries LIB). A federated data space here means a system of decentrally (jointly) organised databases whose data stock is made accessible by metadata and semantically linked (via a knowledge graph). Data sovereignty always remains with the owners of the data and digital tools (e.g. algorithms), whose use and exchange is negotiated among the actors.

The project BatteryDigital pursues three focal points in particular: the bundling of existing Fraunhofer competencies in battery technology, the identification of methodological and legal options for action in terms of the development of a Battery Digital Data Space (BDDS) and the advancement of future, data-based business models in the context of building a data economy. In the course of implementation, the application-related data, simulations and AI models from development, production and application are to be semantically structured and made available for joint use as digital products.

As a large research organization, Fraunhofer can offer unique cross-institutional data-based research services for industry partners through a self-developed ontology and digital FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Re-usable) infrastructure. Furthermore, Fraunhofer helps industry and research partners to digitise by offering workshops, hackathons, training and access to comprehensive highly networked research data via partners. The battery-related data sets and digital tools of the Fraunhofer institutes are to be made available in the data room and supplemented according to the needs of the users in the data room.

In future, the research data and standardised metadata from machines, simulations or central facilities such as the workshop will be transferred directly to a central laboratory information management system (LIMS) and linked there so that subsequent use is possible (FAIR).

Start 2022 (ongoing)

• Fraunhofer Institute for Mechanics of Materials IWM
• Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Advanced Materials IFAM
• Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems IKTS
• Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Mathematics ITWM
• Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology IPT
• Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISI
• Fraunhofer Research Institution for Battery Cell Production FFB
• Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung e. V.