Earlier this September, a group of scientists from Trinity’s School of Engineering won a prize of €1.25 million. This was part of the inaugural National 2025 Challenge Fund, a major government funded competition. Team DRIVE, headed by Trinity’s Dr. Séamus O’Shaughnessy and Dr. Daniel Trimble, was able to innovate a device that successfully manages the temperature of batteries in electric vehicles using direct liquid cooling. The grant will fund the team’s next steps in developing and refining thermal management in electric vehicles.
Established under the government’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), and implemented by the Science Foundation of Ireland, The National Challenge Fund aims to engage researchers in collaborative, hands-on projects in order to deliver real world impact in the efficient energy sector. A total of 90 teams were tasked with innovating solutions that would accelerate Ireland’s transition to a “climate-resilient, biodiversity-rich, environmentally sustainable and climate-neutral economy,” according to the Science Foundation Ireland. The researchers received funding, training, and mentorship to develop and refine their ideas before competing for grants from €1-2 million to continue their research. This EU funded challenge is a testament not only to Ireland’s dedication to renewable energy, but the larger European commitment to becoming carbon neutral by 2025.
Team DRIVE chose to tackle the issue of thermal runaway – the process in which electrical discharge rapidly increases the temperature in a battery pack – in EV lithium ion batteries. By directly controlling the temperature of each cell in a battery pack via a dielectric coolant, they were able to effectively increase the efficiency of the battery, prolong its lifespan, and increase the safety of electric cars.
Dr. Séamus O’Shaughnessy spoke on the implication of their win, saying: “The support from Research Ireland over the next two years will enable us to further develop and industrialise our novel lithium-ion battery thermal management solution to meet the needs of current and next generation battery applications, in particular electric vehicles.”
“For the past three academic years, many talented undergraduate, MSc, and PhD students have pursued related research projects under my supervision and much of that work has fed into DRIVE, collectively taking us forwards. This I consider one of our project’s great strengths, so I would like to thank those students for their hard work.”
Contributing members of team DRIVE include Dr Séamus O’Shaughnessy, Dr Daniel Trimble, Dr Karl Brown, and David Salter, Kantharuphan Annathurai, Dr Rajesh Nimmagadda, and Justin Madueke.
