Method and apparatus for creating a dynamically reconfigurable energy storage device

• US 10,074,997 B2
• Filed: 09/19/2016
• Issued: 09/11/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: GLX Power systems, Inc.
• Original Assignee: GLX Power systems, Inc.
• Inventors: Vo, Tom, Johnson, Richard, Killburn, Zachary, Kristensen, Kent
• Primary Examiner(s): Parihar, Suchin
• Application Number:
  US15/269,325
• Publication Number:
  US 20170054306A1
• Time in Patent Office: 722 Days
• Field of Search: 320103
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/4257 Smart batteries, e.g. electronic circuits inside the housing of the cells or batteries
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 2010/4271 Battery management systems including electronic circuits, e.g. control of current or voltage to keep battery in healthy state, cell balancing
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/0016 using shunting, discharge or bypass circuits
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/0024 Parallel/serial switching of connection of batteries to charge or load circuit
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/342 The other DC source being a battery actively interacting with the first one, i.e. battery to battery charging with circuits for polarity protection H02J7/0034
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 60/10 Energy storage using batteries
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/70 Energy storage systems for electromobility, e.g. batteries

Abstract

A method and apparatus of creating a dynamically reconfigurable energy source comprised of individual, isolated, controllable energy modules, supported by software to measure and manage the energy modules and facilitate the reconfiguration, where the platform consisting of hardware, based upon an inverted H-Bridge circuitry, in combination with software which allows for real-time management, control, and configuration of the modules and uses a combination of software algorithms and localized electronic switches, to achieve a performance and functionality of the invention matching, or exceeding, traditional large, heavy, and expensive power electronics-based products used for charging, energy storage management, power inverting, and motor or load control.

Claims

1. A reconfigurable energy storage system comprising:

one or more energy modules comprising;

a plurality of circuits interconnected to each other, each circuit having

at least two input/output terminals, which can function as input or output terminals;

an energy storage unit with a positive terminal and a negative terminal, either of which can be interposed between the input/output terminals;

a switch module having 2n+2 switches, where n is 0, 1 or more and is based upon the number of energy storage units connected between the two input/output terminals, connected to said energy storage unit, and where the switch module provides series, and/or bypass connectivity for and enables the ability to reverse polarity in said energy storage device; and

a control unit that monitors an operational state of the energy storage unit in the energy modules and controls the switches, to bypass, connect the energy storage unit in series, and/or change the polarity of said energy storage unit when connected with the plurality of circuits in accordance with the operational state, wherein the control unit determines a number of energy storage units available for use from the energy storage units in the plurality of circuits.

2. The reconfigurable energy storage system of claim 1 wherein the switch module comprises at least two switches and is based upon an inverted H-Bridge.

3. The reconfigurable energy storage system of claim 1 wherein the control unit monitors the state-of-charge, the state-of-health, state-of-life and the fault prediction of the energy storage system.

4. The reconfigurable energy storage system of claim 1 wherein the control unit monitors information about the state-of-charge, the state-of-health, state-of-life and the fault prediction of the energy storage system and employs said information to prioritize the usage of the energy storage units and balance the state-of-charge of the plurality of energy storage units within the energy storage system as the system is charged or discharged.

5. The reconfigurable energy storage system of claim 1 wherein each energy storage cell group is comprised of a string of energy storage unit arranged to meet a voltage output requirement.

6. The reconfigurable energy storage system of claim 1 wherein the control unit receives a voltage output requirement for a given output and configures the switch module in the plurality of energy storage circuits to form a circuit arrangement which outputs a voltage that meets the voltage output requirement for the given output.

7. The reconfigurable energy storage system of claim 1 wherein an auxiliary power source may be derived from the reconfigurable energy storage system to power control circuitry, monitoring circuitry, and other fixed voltage devices.

8. The reconfigurable energy storage system of claim 1 wherein the switch module is based upon an inverted Full- and/or Half-H-Bridge design and, when there is more than one energy module, the number of switches will be 2n or 4n, where n is the number of energy modules.

9. The reconfigurable energy storage system of claim 1 wherein the energy storage unit is selected from the group of battery cells, energy storage cells, fuel cells, and capacitors.

10. The reconfigurable energy storage system of claim 1 wherein the energy storage unit is a rechargeable system.

11. The reconfigurable energy storage system of claim 1 wherein the switch module is based upon an alternating polarity circuit having 2n and/or 2n+2 switches, where n is the number of energy storage units.

12. The reconfigurable energy storage system of claim 1 wherein the switch module is based upon an alternating polarity circuit having 2n+2 switches, where n is the number of energy storage units, there are two or more energy storage units, and the adjacent energy storage units are arranged to be of opposite polarity.

13. The reconfigurable energy storage system of claim 1 wherein the control unit configures the switch module in the plurality of energy storage circuits by determining a number of energy storage unit arranged in series are needed to meet the voltage output requirement and determining a number of energy storage unit groups which can be arranged in parallel to each other from the number of energy storage unit available for use, where each energy storage cell group is comprised of a string of energy storage units arranged in series that meet a voltage output requirement.

14. The reconfigurable energy storage system of claim 1 wherein the control unit receives a number of parallel cell groupings and configures the switch module in the plurality of energy storage circuits to form a circuit arrangement that minimizes the number of energy storage units available for use that are bypassed in the circuit arrangement.

15. The reconfigurable energy storage system of claim 1 wherein the control unit detects and isolates faults by controlling the plurality of switches to isolate the faulted cell where the fault may be caused by detected or predicted extremes including temperature, voltage, current, state of charge, state of health, state-of-life, cell expansion, off-gassing, or short or open circuit conditions where these conditions are known by the control system.

16. A power management system which incorporates the reconfigurable energy storage system of claim 1 and wherein the control system detects the charging source and arranges the plurality of cells to accommodate charging where the charging source may be of alternating or direct current variety including one or more phases at a range of voltages which spans from the equivalent voltage of a single energy storage unit up to the sum of the voltages of the series connected energy storage units.

17. A power management system which incorporates the reconfigurable energy storage system of claim 1 and wherein the control system detects the load and configures the plurality of cells to accommodate the load requirements which may be of alternating or direct current type including one or more phases at a range of voltages which spans from the equivalent voltage of a single energy storage unit up to the sum of the voltages of the series connected energy storage units.

18. A power management system which incorporates the reconfigurable energy storage system of claim 1 and wherein the charging source is selected from a group consisting of grid power systems consisting of a variety of voltages and phases, alternative energy sources including wind power, solar power, thermoelectric, or nuclear, or other wireless charging sources including inductive, resonant inductive, or radio frequency.

19. A power management system which incorporates the reconfigurable energy storage system of claim 1 and wherein the load is selected from a group consisting of applications which involve the use of secondary batteries including a plurality electric vehicles, grid and backup storage units, aerospace applications, portable equipment, and consumer electronic devices.

20. The reconfigurable battery system of claim 1 connected to one or more other reconfigurable battery systems of claim 1, wherein the control units of each system allows for co-operative energy exchange between each system.