The Electrified Skies: Battery Design Challenges for Electric Aircraft

[music] Hello there everyone.

Welcome to episode number 664 of this here electronic engineering podcast called Amelia's Weekly Fish Fry.

Brought to you by ejournal.com and written, produced, and hosted by yours truly, Amelia Dalton. How should

we start off this 2026 season of Fish Fry? Talking about my all-time favorite

Fry? Talking about my all-time favorite topic, electric aircraft. This week, we are investigating the challenges of designing batteries for electric

aircraft with my guest Dr. Graham Dudgeon from Math Works. Graham has some really great insights on how modeling

and simulation are helping aerospace engineers tackle the thermal, electrical, and mechanical complexities

of these cuttingedge power systems. Graham and I also chat about how computational tools map to the technology development cycle and why

simulating abnormal conditions is crucial for meeting strict aerospace safety requirements.

Also this week I check out a new breakthrough in lithium recycling that could turn battery waste into new

lithium feed stock.

So without further ado, please welcome Graham to Fish Fry. Hi Graham, thank you so much for joining me.

Thank you for having me Amelia.

Absolutely. Okay, so first, how does mapping computational tools to the technology development cycles help engineers make better decisions at these

different stages of development?

Yeah. So if we look at the development of a technology specifically an innovative technology like electric aircraft or you know EV tall electric

vertical takeoff and landing because they're highly innovative you are asking different questions at different stages and one of the most fundamental

questions you ask is is this technology feasible so down at the earliest stages you're looking at the feasibility and the questions you're asking there Amelia

for relatively high level. How much

energy do I need to move this piece of equipment from point A to point B? What

types of losses might I expect? And how

might that have a bearing on the energy in the system? Because I have to carry that energy with me if I'm moving through the air from point A to point B.

It's an enclosed system. We can't

refuel. And so we're looking at the energy. Energy is fundamentally

energy. Energy is fundamentally important. And when we've answered those

important. And when we've answered those feasibility questions, we then start moving to more detailed technical design. And as we're moving through that

design. And as we're moving through that development cycle, different engineers are coming to bear and they're asking different questions. So for example,

different questions. So for example, we're thinking about the motor drives that are powering the propellers. We're

looking at the selection of the motor.

Is it a permanent magnet synchronous machine? Is it an induction motor? And

machine? Is it an induction motor? And

that has a bearing as well on the control strategies. So you really want

control strategies. So you really want to do as you move through this technology development cycle is get the fidelity of your simulation correct so

that you can answer those questions as effectively as you can at each stage.

So Graham, specific for aerospace engineers, how do these engineers bring together thermal, electrical, and mechanical systems all into one single

model?

Right. So you've touched upon one of the the core values of what math works offers engineers in terms of tools to

develop technology. We call this

develop technology. We call this modelbased design. So number one is to

modelbased design. So number one is to provide an environment upon which you can model your system in a single environment with all the appropriate

technology aspects. You know and as you

technology aspects. You know and as you point out thermal the heat generated is an important aspect. The electrical

aspect of course for electrical aircraft and the mechanical systems the the motors themselves are driving the propellers. And so at MathWorks, we

propellers. And so at MathWorks, we offer what we call physical modeling tools which enable engineers to model those different elements depending on,

you know, the aspect of the design they're involved in. But then most importantly, you can bring it together into that single model. That single

model then becomes your source of truth.

Amelia, it's the foundation of your technology development cycle. And you're

sharing that model between the teams and those teams are interacting with that model doing what they need to do. And

because you have that fully integrated simulation model, everyone is on the same page and everyone is ultimately working towards the end goal of that technology.

That makes sense. So Graham, why is it important to measure overall energy needs when designing new aerospace equipment?

Energy is fundamental when you are moving an aircraft from point A to point B, particularly an electric aircraft because you have to carry the energy

source with you through that flight cycle. And there's no refueling option

cycle. And there's no refueling option either. And so when you're looking at

either. And so when you're looking at the full system, you need to account for every jewel in the system, whether it's mechanical friction, whether it's

electrical heat on the cables, whether it's um switching losses on your power electronics. Every time they turn on and

electronics. Every time they turn on and off, there's heat being generated. You

need to know exactly what that energy is. The energy to actually lift the

is. The energy to actually lift the aircraft itself. I'll give you a quick

aircraft itself. I'll give you a quick rundown of what it looks like for an electric veto vertical takeoff and landing Amelia. So what typically

landing Amelia. So what typically happens is hovering is very energy intensive and so when you take off vertically you're expending a great deal

of energy and many of the EV tall systems will then go to so-called wingborne mode. you know, they might

wingborne mode. you know, they might tilt their rotors, they'll have wings, and that's typically much more efficient. But then when you land, you

efficient. But then when you land, you are then again in hover mode, which is incredibly energyintensive. So you have

incredibly energyintensive. So you have these two peaks at the start and at the end of your flight cycle, and you need to know where every jewel goes because

you need to size that battery correctly so that you can go from point A to B as safely as you can. Can you explain how

modeling helps with battery sizing and battery thermal management especially in these aerospace systems?

Yeah, absolutely. It goes back to like the simple example I gave of the takeoff, the flight and the landing.

When we're looking at that as engineers, one simulation is not enough. You must

simulate as many of those scenarios as you can. And when you are doing that,

you can. And when you are doing that, Amelia, then with the appropriate level of fidelity in your battery model, which would be electrical and thermal, you're

seeing a number of attributes of operation. You're seeing how the battery

operation. You're seeing how the battery is draining. You're seeing voltage and

is draining. You're seeing voltage and current levels. You're seeing the heat,

current levels. You're seeing the heat, the heat that's being generated. And so

by simulating many scenarios, you get this broad view on the overall design space that you're interested in. And

when you have that broad view, you can then optimize your system so that it's the best it can be.

Why do you think aerospace engineers need to simulate both normal and abnormal operating conditions?

Safety is paramount, Amelia. So, you

know, if we think again about those flight cycles, you're taking off, you have a destination in mind, you're flying towards it, you know, you come into land. Now, a normal scenario is

into land. Now, a normal scenario is where everything works perfectly. An

abnormal scenario is where something less expected happens. It may be a motor failure. It may be a degradation in some

failure. It may be a degradation in some other component. Something that causes

other component. Something that causes you to change the nature of that flight profile. So it could be you have to land

profile. So it could be you have to land early and if you need to land early perhaps on a diminished capacity on your motors, you have to simulate that as you

design the system. You need to go through those contingencies. Maybe you

turn around and go back to where you started. There's a number of different

started. There's a number of different abnormal scenarios that you can check.

And the key here with a simulation model is to check as many of them as you can, if not all of them. Because if you're

able to check all anticipated abnormal scenarios, then you know that you've improved the overall safety of your system.

So how does this type of testing help identify or address aerospace safety requirements? So there are a number of

requirements? So there are a number of uh safety requirements of course with safety critical systems which um aerospace systems are and with math

works there's two aspects to this with a simulation model. There's the safety

simulation model. There's the safety aspects associated with the flight profiles itself and anticipated failure modes. So you can simulate those. So

modes. So you can simulate those. So

that's the overall operational aspects of that entire system. But another

aspect is the safety of the software and the software that you're developing, the algorithms you develop to control your aircraft, does that comply with the

relevant safety standards as well? And

so the code itself must also comply. And

so there's two aspects. We offer tools that help the engineers test the code in a rigorous fashion as per requirements

for safety. And you can also evaluate

for safety. And you can also evaluate the operation of your full system. So

you can look at both the normal and abnormal situations. So simulation prior

abnormal situations. So simulation prior to deployment of the actual vehicle for flight testing. So prior to that,

flight testing. So prior to that, there's an awful lot you can do with simulation to improve your overall system design and build your confidence that you're going to have a capable and

performant technology.

Fantastic. All right, Graham, it's time for your off-the-cuff question before I let you go. So, Graham, if you could have a meal with one person, alive or

dead, today, who would it be?

Always my wife. Always.

I love that. That's cute. All right.

Well, Graham, I think that's all I have time for today. Thank you so much for joining me, Amelia. It's a great pleasure as always.

Amelia. It's a great pleasure as always.

Thank you.

Have you heard about the new breakthrough in lithium recycling?

Okay, so we all know that lithium, a key component in just about everything these days, is expensive to mine and refine.

And even further, most existing recycling processes require substantial energy and chemicals. And then what you

get from that process is typically lithium carbonate, which then needs even more processing to become the reusable lithium hydroxide.

But if we're talking about lithium and dealing with lithium ion batteries, we also need to address black mass. So yes,

that does sound like a heavy metal album, but in this case, black mass is the powdery mix of materials that is created during the lithium ion recycling

process. Now, since lithium is in such

process. Now, since lithium is in such short supply, we need to get all of the lithium out of that black mass as

possible. And recently, engineers at

possible. And recently, engineers at Rice University have devised a cleaner method for recycling black mass. Rather

than using strong acids to smelt or dissolve the cathode materials, their novel approach involves recharging the

waste. So, the system developed at Rice

waste. So, the system developed at Rice University uses the same mechanism that charges a working battery, pulling

lithium ions out of the cathode to recover valuable materials from waste cathode substances.

The process is remarkably simple.

Lithium ions migrate across a thin membrane into a flowing water stream.

Simultaneously, a reaction at the counter electrode splits water to generate hydroxide. The lithium and

generate hydroxide. The lithium and hydroxide then combine in the water stream to form lithium hydroxide,

eliminating the need for harsh acids or additional chemicals. And get this, the

additional chemicals. And get this, the lithium hydroxide produced by this process was more than 99%

pure, which is clean enough to feed directly back into manufacturing. It was

also proved to be highly energy efficient and also showed both durability and scalability.

This process maintained an average lithium recovery rate of over 90% over 1,000 hours of continuous

operation. How Shang Wang, associate

operation. How Shang Wang, associate professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering and the co-corresponding author of this study explains the impact

of their study like this. Directly

producing high purity lithium hydroxide shortens the path back to new batteries.

That means fewer processing steps, lower waste, and a more resilient supply chain. From here, this research team's

chain. From here, this research team's immediate steps include scaling up the technology. This includes developing

technology. This includes developing higher area stacks, increasing the loading of the black mass and designing

more selective hydrophobic membranes.

And the overall goal with these improvements is to sustain high efficiency even at greater concentrations of lithium hydroxide.

Sibani Lisa Biswell, chair of Rice University's Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and the senior author of this study, says this about

the future of their research. We've made

lithium extraction cleaner and simpler.

Now we can see the next bottleneck clearly, tackle concentration, and you unlock even better sustainability.

Super cool, right? So, if you'd like even more information about the stories covered in today's show, I have posted several links below the player on this

week's fish frying page on eejournal.com and in the description for this week's YouTube episode as well. Hey, have you

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Libbyy's Lab. And of course, you can subscribe to our EEJ Journal YouTube channel as well. Thank you everyone for tuning in. If you know of any cool new

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or post a comment on [music] our forums on ejournal. for the week of January

on ejournal. for the week of January 9th 2026.

I'm Amelia Dalton and you've been fried.