The biological and physical sciences division of the US space agency NASA is funding a research project at Purdue University (Indiana, USA) which aims to speed up the charging of electric vehicles by allowing them to fully restore autonomy in 5 minutes. The system has already conceptually proven to work and is being tested on the International Space Station. In fact, the recharging of electric vehicles does not only concern cars, but also future missions to the moon and to Mars. Future NASA space missions will adopt cooling systems based on “subcooled flow boiling” technology for nuclear fission power plants to be brought to the two planets. These systems could multiply the maximum amperage currently used for charging. Current average values range from 30 to 520 amps based on the type of column, while NASA has assumed a target of 1,400 amps. Current electric car charging is conditioned by two main factors: the capacity of the car batteries (measured in KWh) and the charging power of the stations (measured in kW). One of the nodes of the current charging systems concerns the cable that connects the column to the vehicle: the versions used for fast charging of the BEVs are 350 amperes and involve the use of large conductors. Achieving the desired 5 ‘threshold would require 1400 amps (775 kW), but NASA recalled that “The most advanced chargers only provide up to 520 amps of current and most of the chargers available to consumers support up to 150 amps “. So the solution might be to rely on a non-conductive coolant, pumped through the charging cable. This heat dissipation system would allow it to deliver 4.6 times the current of current high performance (520 amp) chargers on the market, removing up to 24.22 kW of heat. “Purdue’s charging cable can deliver 2400 amps, well beyond the 1400 needed to reduce the time it takes to charge an electric car to 5 minutes,” NASA said. After the experimentation on the International Space Station, a prototype (on the ground) was built respecting the appearance and dimensions of the current cables using a dielectric liquid that controls the temperature of the cable and allows to increase the amperage. The first tests of Purdue University have shown that it is possible to reach maximum values of 2,400 amperes. However, it will take at least two years of experimentation to be able to create a potential product to be launched on the market.
