Principal Investigator: Matthieu Dubarry
News Announcements
PakaLi Battery Laboratory
Main Areas of Research:
- Testing of batteries under representative conditions to assess durability in the field,
- Battery diagnosis and prognosis using non-invasive and deployable techniques,
- Battery packs modeling taking into consideration cell-to-cell variations and inhomogeneities,
- Deployed systems state of charge and state of health monitoring,
- Battery prototyping and electrode formulation optimization,
- Transfer of knowledge from laboratory to real-life applications to facilitate battery engineering, cost estimate, control strategy, and decisions.
Partnerships & Funding:
PBL has been a partner with various research institutions in government, industry, and academia, in the US and abroad. Current and past funding sources include the Office of Naval Research, SAFT Batteries, the US DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (through the Idaho National Laboratory), the Department of Transportation (via the Electric Vehicle Transportation Center), the Air Force Research Laboratory (through the Hawai‘i Center for Advanced Transportation Technologies), and the Hawai‘i Renewable Energy Development Venture funds.


Equipment:
PBL is well equipped for electrode preparation and assembly for different types of half-cells (coin cells, swageloks, PAT-cells) with 30 independent channels for testing. For larger full cells, the laboratory has more than 80 channels available with temperature chambers and state-of-the art safety procedures. Material characterization including x-ray diffraction as well as scanning and transmission electron microscopy, will be done in collaboration with the UHM Material Science Consortium for Research and Education.
Battery Testers
- ARBIN BT-5HC 40 channels 5V 25A
- ARBIN BT-5HC 20 channels 5V 100A
- ARBIN BT-5HC 2 channels 60V 100A
- Biologic BCS-815 24 channels 5V 15A
- Biologic VMP3 16 channels 12V 0.4A
- MACCOR 4300 4 channels 2x 5V, 2x 15V 2x 5A, 2 x 25A
Temperature Chambers
- AMEREX IC500-R -5°C-65°C, 17.7 cu ft
- AMEREX IC500-R -5°C-65°C, 17.7 cu ft
- AMEREX IC500-R -5°C-65°C, 17.7 cu ft
- AMEREX IC150-R -5°C-65°C, 5.3 cu ft
- AMEREX IC80 25°C-65°C, 2.8 cu ft
- AMEREX IC80 25°C-65°C, 2.8 cu ft
- ESTEC BTZ475 -70 to 180°C, 4 cu ft
- Sanyo MIR253 25°C-65°C, 8 cu ft
- AES LHE-6 -20°C to +94°C, 5 cu ft
- CSZ MCB 1.2-.33-.33 H/AC -70°+190°C, 1.2 cu ft
- CSZ MCB 1.2-.33-.33 H/AC -70°+190°C, 1.2 cu ft
Glove Box
- VAC NX1-100300-0123
Staff & Past Staff:
- George Baure, Jr.
- David Beck
- Arnaud Devie
- Victor Evrard
Current Projects
- Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) – Battery Durability & Reliability
Understand the degradation of batteries in grid deployed systems, which will inform best practices to improve durability and safety of large batteries deployed on the electric grid. (ONR) - Path Dependence of Battery Degradation, EV Batteries for Grid Support
Characterize the impact of fast charging and grid-vehicle interactions on the performance and durability of Li-ion batteries in electric vehicles. (DOT, ONR) - Battery Diagnosis and Prognosis
Development of tools, protocols, and new approaches to improve batteries diagnosis and prognosis via non-invasive in-operando techniques. (ONR, SAFT) - Battery Electrode Optimization
Optimization of battery electrodes to improve performance by tuning architecture. (ONR, Trevi Systems, University of Montreal, University of Nantes)
Past Projects
- Evaluation of Commercial Li-ion Cells Based on Composite Electrode for Plug-In Electric Vehicles (2008-2013)
Degradation assessment of commercial blended Li-ion batteries for plug-in electric vehicle applications at different temperatures using non-invasive characterizations. (DOE, Idaho National Laboratory) - Support of HCATT’s Electric and Hybrid Vehicle Demonstration Program (2000-2011)
Development of a sophisticated database and graphical user interface (GUI) to allow data collection and fuzzy logic based analysis of a fleet of electric vehicles during operation. (HCATT)
Key Publications
- 2020, M. Dubarry, G. Baure, Perspective on Commercial Li-ion Battery Testing, Best Practices for Simple and Effective Protocols, Electronics, Vol. 9, Issue 1, Paper 152. (Open Access: PDF)
- 2019, A. Barai, K. Uddin, M. Dubarry, L. Somerville, A. McGordon, P. Jennings, I. Bloom, A comparison of methodologies for the non-invasive characterisation of commercial Li-ion cells, Progress in Energy and Combustion Science, Vol. 72, pp. 1-32. (Open Access: PDF)
- 2019, M. Dubarry, G. Baure, C. Pastor-Fernández, T.F. Yu, W.D. Widanage, J. Marco, Battery energy storage system modeling: A combined comprehensive approach, Journal of Energy Storage, Vol. 21, pp. 172-185. (Open Access: PDF)
- 2018, K. Uddin, M. Dubarry, M.B. Glick, The viability of vehicle-to-grid operations from a battery technology and policy perspective, Energy Policy, Vol. 113, pp. 342-347. (Open Access: PDF)
- 2017, M. Dubarry, A. Devie, K. Stein, M. Tun, M. Matsuura, R. Rocheleau, Battery Energy Storage System battery durability and reliability under electric utility grid operations: Analysis of 3 years of real usage, Journal of Power Sources, Vol. 338, pp. 65-73.
- 2017, M. Dubarry, M. Berecibar, A. Devie, D. Ansean, N. Omar, I. Villarreal, State of Health Battery Estimator Enabling Degradation Diagnosis: Model and Algorithm Description, Journal of Power Sources, Vol. 360, pp. 59-69.
- 2012, M. Dubarry, C. Truchot, B.Y. Liaw, Synthesize battery degradation modes via a diagnostic and prognostic model, Journal of Power Sources, Vol. 219, pp. 204-216.