Technique developed by NASA and used for use in space could help provide fast charging for electric vehicles. This enables five times faster charging, which, if implemented effectively in the charging infrastructure, will solve many of the problems of electric mobility.

Considering it only takes a few minutes to fill up a car with petrol or diesel fuel, at charging stations today, the fastest quick charge charges an electric car up to 80% in twenty-odd minutes. Of course, there are “slow” fast chargers that take 2-3 hours to charge the car.

If there were fast chargers with NASA know-how, charging times would automatically be reduced, minimizing problems on highways. On the other hand, it will help unload those points on the central road arteries, where during charging the driver will have to wait several times for other cars ahead of him to charge. This fast charging could reduce the need for home charging infrastructure, provided that public charging is competitive and widely available.

So where does this decision come from? Literally from space. Not so long ago, engineers from the US National Space Agency NASA developed technology for use on the International Space Station. This is a sophisticated cooling method that helps some electrical systems in space maintain extremely low temperature levels. At these temperatures, electrical systems can produce nearly five times more electricity than state-of-the-art electric vehicle chargers. The technology, called Flow Subcooling Boiling, can cool cables carrying high loads, which can then allow power to flow faster without the risk of components overheating.

NASA developed this technique to provide fast energy, especially when planning long-range missions, such as to Mars. Applying this technology to EV charging will result in an unprecedented reduction in the time it takes to charge a vehicle and could remove one of the major barriers to electrification, providing an additional incentive to purchase EVs.

Source: RES – OIE