The United States Space Agency claims that a new NASA-funded program for future space missions might charge an electric car in just five minutes on Earth, paving the way for increased adoption of such vehicles.
The Flow Boiling and Condensation Experiment (FBCE) was developed by Purdue University in the United States, allowing two-phase fluid flow and heat transfer experiments to be conducted in a long-duration microgravity environment on the International Space Station.
The new "subcooled flow boiling" technique results in significantly improved heat transfer efficiency compared to other approaches, which may be utilized to control future space temperatures.
These techniques may also be used on Earth; it may make owning an electric carmore more attractive, according to researchers.
Currently, charging times vary widely, from 20 minutes at a station along a roadway to hours using an at-home charging station.
People who consider electric vehicle ownership are concerned about long-term charging times and the location of their chargers.
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An industry goal will require charging systems to provide current at 1,400A by reduced the charging time for electric vehicles to five minutes.
Advanced chargers can only deliver currents up to 520A, and most chargers are available to consumers. Currents of less than 150A are available.
Despite the fact that 1,400A charging systems will generate significantly more heat than previously thought, and improved methods to control temperature.
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Recently, the team applied the technique used in the NASA FBCE experiments to the electric vehicle charging process.
A dielectric non-electrically conducting liquid coolant is pumped through the charging cable, where it captures the heat generated by the current-carrying conductor.
Researchers claim that by removing up to 24.22kW of heat, a subcooled flow boiling allows the team to deliver 4.6 times the current of the fastest available electric vehicle chargers on the market today.
According to the researchers, the charging cable can provide a 2,400A, which is far beyond the 1,400A required to reduce the duration used to charge an electric car to five minutes.
"Application of this new technology led to unprecedented reduction in the time required to charge a vehicle, which might be eliminated as a result of the growing obstacle to worldwide adoption of electric vehicles," researchers said.