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| UQTR professor Loïc Boulon spent a year at the University of Bordeaux to acquire skills that will help Trois-Rivières. Photo: CBC / Josée Duchame |
Loïc Boulon's work focuses on a topic that is of great interest in the research and industry community: how to make batteries more reliable and more efficient. For a year, the professor from the University of Quebec at Trois-Rivières works in a laboratory in Bordeaux highly recognized in the field, with the aim of deepening his knowledge and benefiting UQTR.
A text by Marilyn Marceau
In what looks like big freezers, researchers at the National Polytechnic Institute (INP) in Bordeaux have stored batteries. Some will stay there for 10,000 hours.
Batteries are subject to different conditions in this laboratory, especially cold. The evolution of their condition is monitored and analyzed very closely.
The laboratory is also closely watched. It is forbidden to cut electricity, which would jeopardize months of research.
And do not go in there who wants. The expertise developed here is valuable and is of interest to many giants in the automotive and aerospace industries.
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| The Canada Research Chair in Energy Sources for Vehicles of the Future Loïc Boulon is studying the performance and reliability of batteries at the Institut national polytechnique de Bordeaux. Photo: CBC / Josée Duchame |
Get to know the batteries better to use them
The Laboratory of Material Integration System (IMS) is recognized for its research on battery reliability, as researcher Jean-Michel Vinassa explains.
"Modeling the aging of batteries, [the] prediction of their lifetime, [the] determination of the state of health of the batteries: that's what we finally look for. It is to know in which state of health is a battery to know if one can count on it or not, in the transport, in particular. It's one of the things that's very difficult to know precisely", he says.
"We are working so that batteries are cheaper and their environmental cost is lower", says Jean-Michel Vinassa, responsible for welcoming Loïc Boulon during his year at the National Polytechnic Institute of Bordeaux.
Loïc Boulon, who holds the Canada Research Chair in Energy Sources for Vehicles of the Future at UQTR, is already immersed in the world of energy storage and battery aging, but integrates Bordeaux a team with knowledge and protocols that will benefit UQTR.
- "Typically, my work aims to improve the energy performance of clean vehicles, thus including the battery electric vehicle. This means that, for a given autonomy, there will be, thanks to my works, less batteries needed and therefore the environmental impact will be reduced." Loïc Boulon, Canada Research Chair in Energy Sources for Future Vehicles at UQTR
Loïc Boulon will also take the opportunity to develop its expertise in aeronautics.
"One of our big industrial players in Quebec is Bombardier, and come looking for information on the constraints and objectives of energy storage in the aerospace application, for me, that makes a lot of sense, because it's an extension of my current work."
It is not uncommon for companies to use academics to solve some of their problems. For educational institutions, it's a way to get subsidies.
IMS, a recognized laboratory
- The Laboratory of Material Integration System (IMS) is affiliated to the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and the University of Bordeaux. It is recognized on a European scale.
- IMS collaborates with major players in the industry, such as Renaud, Peugot, Valeo and Airbus.
"Extra strike force"
Whether it is to save money, reduce dependence on gas or reduce greenhouse gas emissions, many companies are interested in this issue. The laboratory does not lack work.
"There is no lack of funding, indeed, says Jean-Michel Vinassa. What we miss most are arms, so having someone come to help is good. When we say arms in search, we also say brains, he says."
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| Jean-Michel Vinassa, researcher at the IMS laboratory and professor at the Institut national polytechnique de Bordeaux (left), is responsible for welcoming Loïc Boulon (right). Photo: CBC / Josée Duchame |
Although he is French by origin, Loïc Boulon lugges with him, in Bordeaux, his Quebec baggage.
Jean-Michel Vinassa appreciates his knowledge of the Quebec winter.
"Much work is being done on transport programs, particularly [in] aeronautics where we "address" very important temperature ranges; therefore, cold is one of the concerns we can have in energy storage. So we had common scientific interests at the research level", he said.
For him, the Trifluvian is an "additional strike force".
What Loïc Boulon is happy to find in France?
"What I like here in Bordeaux and what I'm happy to finally find when I come back to live in France is all this gastronomy. With bread and bakery neighborhood close to home, and for example have cheese more affordable than Quebec. "
What is missing from Quebec?
"Something that pleases me particularly in Quebec and I'm starting to miss it today is a quality of life that is not necessarily in France. In the sense that there is a lot of space, people live much less on each other and tight, and there is a quality of life in the daily schedule and family life that loses a little in France where finally everything goes faster all the time, even in Bordeaux. "
