Benjamin Klör

Ensembles of context and form for repurposing electric vehicle batteries: an exploratory study

The electric vehicle battery is the crucial component in electric vehicles. It propels the vehicle’s engine and causes around 25 % of the vehicle’s overall costs. Unfortunately, due to deterioration, the battery’s use gradually restricts the vehicle’s driving range, acceleration, and charging speed over time. Only a battery replacement restores the vehicle’s performance. Despite its deterioration, the used battery can be repurposed to serve as a battery energy storage system in less demanding second-life application scenarios. Examples are home storage solutions for energy from photovoltaic panels or larger buffer storage solutions for stabilizing energy from wind parks or solar farms. With strongly increasing numbers of electric vehicles world-wide, some hundred thousand aged batteries can be assumed to be available soon. Considering the necessity for a reliable fit of the targeted second-life application scenario (as context) and the battery energy storage solution built from aged batteries (as form), the decision for which scenario a battery should be repurposed needs to be supported by information systems. Since current research falls short of identifying and prioritizing the requirements that characterize second-life application scenarios, information system developers lack justificatory knowledge to guide and constrain the design of corresponding information systems. In an explorative multi-method study, we set out to identify the requirement categories and metrics that need to be elicited for repurposing batteries. The study (a) contributes a prioritized list of requirement categories and metrics for repurposing batteries, and (b) documents how they were instantiated respectively why they were important in an analyzed case.

A Market for Trading Used Electric Vehicle Batteries - Theoretical Foundations and Information Systems

Various automotive companies have demonstrated that used electric vehicle batteries (EVBs), after having been removed from electric vehicles (EVs) due to insufficient capacity or power, can still be repurposed as energy storage for stationary applications. If predictions on the diffusion of EVs prove true, a large amount of used EVBs will be available for repurposing until the end of this decade. As yet, the fundamental economic properties of a market for used EVBs are unexplored. Additionally, the role of information systems as enablers for second life business models and tools for trading used EVBs has not been investigated. Inspired by seminal economic theories and based on reviewing the market for used automotive parts, we offer a first conceptualization of three forms such a market might take, along with their economic properties and stakeholders. We subject these market forms to a conceptual transaction cost analysis and an empirical inquiry based on semi-structured interviews. We find that a market for used EVBs will likely emerge as an intermediary-based market that is supported by automobile companies. Against this backdrop, decision support systems seem to be a more suitable class of information systems than electronic marketplaces to enable the trading of used EVBs.

Design and evaluation of a model-driven decision support system for repurposing electric vehicle batteries

The diffusion of electric vehicles suffers from immature and expensive battery technologies. Repurposing electric vehicle batteries for second-life application scenarios may lower the vehicles’ total costs of ownership and increases their ecologic sustainability. However, identifying the best – or even a feasible – scenario for which to repurpose a battery is a complex and unresolved decision problem. In this exaptation research, we set out to design, implement, and evaluate the first decision support system that aids decision-makers in the automobile industry with repurposing electric vehicle batteries. The exaptation is done by classifying decisions on repurposing products as bipartite matching problems and designing two binary integer linear programs that identify (a) all technical feasible assignments and (b) optimal assignments of products and scenarios. Based on an empirical study and expert interviews, we parameterize both binary integer linear programs for repurposing electric vehicle batteries. In a field experiment, we show that our decision support system considerably increases the decision quality in terms of hit rate, miss rate, precision, fallout, and accuracy. While practitioners can use the implemented decision support system when repurposing electric vehicle batteries, other researchers can build on our results to design decision support systems for repurposing further products.

Extending Battery Management Systems for Making Informed Decisions on Battery Reuse

A battery management system BMS is an embedded system for monitoring and controlling complex battery systems in high-tech goods, such as electric vehicles or military communication devices. BMSs are often designed for simplicity and cost efficiency, storing few crucial data on the condition of batteries. With an increasing trend to reuse batteries, BMSs face a need to implement additional functionality to support decision-making tasks. This functionality requires rich data on the structure, usage history, and condition of a battery that is not supported by current BMS type series. Based on expert interviews and document analyses, we sketch a design theory for implementing BMSs that supply the data required for making decisions on how to best reuse battery systems.

Recommendation and Configuration of Value-Added Services for Repurposing Electric Vehicle Batteries: A Vertical Software Prototype

Due to degradation effects, electric vehicle batteries (EVBs) have a lifetime of approximately ten years in electric vehicles (EVs). Recycling EVBs is inefficient and ecologically undesirable if the batteries can be repurposed to second life scenarios. Decision support systems (DSSs) can be implemented to identify the best second life scenario for which to repurpose individual batteries. However, the properties of EVBs as used products can cause information asymmetries that challenge or even disrupt the market for used EVBs. Providing value-added services with used EVBs is one strategy to mitigate the information asymmetry. Guided by seven design principles, we develop and demonstrate a vertical software prototype for configuring energy storage solutions (ESSs), consisting of used EVBs and value-added services. Core of the system is an item-based collaborative filtering recommender system. The prototype can serve as a blueprint for a class of information systems to repurpose other used goods as customer solutions.