As battery-powered industries continue to grow, manufacturers and fleet operators are seeking new ways to extend battery life, reduce waste, and improve the economics of battery ownership. At Pulsenics, we work with customers to help unlock greater value from battery assets through advanced diagnostic technology that enables faster, data-driven decision making. One example is our collaboration with Plug Power, where AccelaGrade supports the company's battery remanufacturing initiative.
Plug Power, based in Slingerlands, New York, makes a unique hybrid power solution for indoor forklifts. They combine a hydrogen fuel cell with an automotive-grade battery to offer lifting power, quick refueling times, and clean indoor air to some of the world’s largest logistics companies. Logistics organizations, such as big manufacturing and e-commerce companies, dearly value equipment uptime. As part of supporting its installed customer base, Plug Power sought new ways to evaluate used battery cells more efficiently during battery remanufacturing. According to Plug Power, traditional battery capacity testing using conventional cyclers can require several hours per cell, creating a significant bottleneck in the remanufacturing process.
Noel Fredericks, Senior Director of Manufacturing Operations at Plug Power, commented, “We asked ourselves, what if, instead of buying a whole new pack, we took the old pack apart and just replaced the bad cells? Remanufacturing could be a lot cheaper and a lot more sustainable. And we took the view that this wouldn’t just be an internal initiative, but something we would treat like a value-generating business line.”
According to Plug’s operations and battery development engineering teams, the company was looking for a solution capable of evaluating battery cells significantly faster than traditional capacity testing methods. Traditionally, used battery cells are tested for capacity in a cycler. Cyclers, which charge and discharge many times to gather electrical data, can take up to eight hours to qualify a battery cell. Plug decided that the economics of remanufacturing wouldn’t work at that speed. The company was looking for a solution capable of evaluating battery cells significantly faster than traditional capacity testing methods.
Pulsenics AccelaGrade uses a unique combination of partial cycling, temperature readings, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) to create an integrated dataset. Pulsenics software then translates that data into a capacity reading. Each tested battery cell is assigned a letter grade based on remaining capacity, and binned with cells of similar health to allow technicians to make remanufacturing decisions.
Pulsenics AccelaGrade can test cells simultaneously. It is chemistry-agnostic and can be designed to any battery form factor. Most battery cells receive their letter grade in less than 30 minutes.
Pulsenics co-Founder and CTO Ben Maxwell commented, “As an industry, we’re probably sending too many battery packs to recycling. It’s very common that a handful of degraded, or defective, cells will disproportionately impact pack performance. We built AccelaGrade to quickly find the bad apples and get the rest of the battery back in the field.”
Pulsenics is proud to support Plug Power's efforts to improve battery remanufacturing efficiency and extend the useful life of battery assets through faster qualification technology.