ELECTROCHEMICAL ENERGY ACCUMULATOR AND BALANCING METHOD

• US 20160329725A1
• Filed: 12/30/2014
• Published: 11/10/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 01/10/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Robert Bosch GmbH
• Original Assignee: Robert Bosch GmbH
• Inventors: Butzmann, Stefan
• Granted Patent: US 10,193,356 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 58/12 responding to state of charge [SoC]
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 58/18 of two or more battery modules
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 58/22 Balancing the charge of battery modules
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/425 Structural combination with electronic components, e.g. electronic circuits integrated to the outside of the casing printed circuits H05K1/00
• 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: H01M 2220/20 Batteries in motive systems, e.g. vehicle, ship, plane
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/0014 Circuits for equalisation of charge between batteries
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/0016 using shunting, discharge or bypass circuits
• 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

An electrochemical energy accumulator (100) and a method for balancing a multiplicity of sections (S1, S2, S3) of electrochemical accumulator modules (10) connected in parallel with one another by means of at least one UniBB module are proposed. In this context, the following steps are carried out: detecting (S 100) a first state of charge (I) of a first accumulator module (M1), detecting (S200) a second state of charge (II) of a second accumulator module (M2), wherein the second accumulator module (M2) is a UniBB module, and operating (S300) the second accumulator module (M2) as a power source in order to adapt the first stage of charge (I) and the second state of charge (II) to one another.

Claims

1. A method for balancing a multiplicity of strings of electrochemical storage modules (10) connected in parallel with one another by means of at least one UniBB module, comprising the following steps:

identifying (S100) a first state of charge (I) of a first storage module (M1),

identifying (S200) a second state of charge (II) of a second storage module (M2), wherein the second storage module (M2) is a UniBB module, and

operating (S300) the second storage module (M2) as current source in order to adapt the first state of charge (I) and the second state of charge (II) to one another.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first storage module (M1) is also a UniBB module (M), and is operated as a voltage source during the balancing.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the second state of charge (II) is lower than the first state of charge (I).

4. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein

the first storage module (M1) is operated in a first operating mode selected from the group consisting of “

regulated”

, “

unregulated”

, “

buck”

, and “

boost”

, and

the second storage module (M2) is operated in a second operating mode selected from the group consisting of “

regulated”

, “

unregulated”

, “

buck”

, and “

boost”

.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first storage module (M1) is operated unregulated and the second storage module (M2) is operated in the boost current source operating mode, or the first storage module (M1) is operated in the buck charging mode and the second storage module (M2) is operated in the current source mode.

6. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the multiplicity of storage modules (M1, M2, Mn) comprises further electrochemical storage modules which are put into a blocking mode if they belong to strings (S0) not involved in the balancing, electrochemical storage modules which are put into a bypass mode if they belong to strings (S1, S3) involved in the balancing, or both.

7. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein

if any one storage module (M1, M2, Mn) is contained per string (S1, S2, S3), a storage module (M1, M2, Mn) having a highest state of charge (I) is operated as a voltage source and the other electrochemical storage modules not put into a blocking mode are operated in a current source mode, and

if more than one storage module (M1, M2, Mn) is contained per string (S1, S2, S3), a storage module (M1, M2, Mn) having a highest state of charge (I) is operated in a current source mode and the other electrochemical storage modules not put into a blocking mode or bypass mode are operated in a voltage source mode.

8. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein a charging current impressed into the multiplicity of electrochemical storage modules (10) is controlled depending on a respective state of charge of the storage modules (10) such that a predefined, complete state of charge of the storage modules is substantially attained at an identical point in time.

9. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein electrochemical storage modules (10) which have attained a predefined maximum voltage are put into a blocking mode.

10. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the strings (S1, S2, S3), depending on their respective average state of charge, are involved in a total current to be supplied of the multiplicity of electrochemical storage modules (10) in order to assume a substantially identical state of charge.

11. An electrochemical energy store (100) comprising

a multiplicity of strings (S1, S2, S3) of electrochemical storage modules (M1, M2, Mn) connected in parallel with one another, and

processing unit, wherein the processing unit is designed to carry out a method as claimed in claim 1.