Signal Hill’s solar energy company ReJoule is once again in the national spotlight after being selected as a winner in a United States Department of Energy (DOE) innovative competition.
The DOE’s Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office chose ReJoule as one of the winners of its Re-X Before Recycling Prize for phase one of the competition. The competition recognizes companies achieving innovative ways to extend the lifetimes of products by reusing, repairing or repurposing them.
ReJoule received $50,000 for its work on Vehicle Grading Technology (VGT). For the past four years, the Signal Hill company has been working on its method to test electric vehicle batteries. Its method aims to be “much simpler and affordable” than the methods currently used in the industry, said Tobias Hecht, program manager for ReJoule.
Their VGT also placed due to its “substantial environmental and community benefits,” according to the DOE’s website.
Once completed, VGT will allow companies to accurately test the remaining life and receive other data from an electric vehicle battery through the vehicle’s charging port, without having to remove it from the car.
Currently, car dealerships and manufacturers must remove an electric vehicle’s battery and test it through a cycling machine. It can take a team of technicians up to four hours to remove the battery, and up to 10 hours for a cycling machine to retrieve its data.
“You’d never see these [cycling machines] in an auto center. They’re too expensive and you need an experienced engineer to run it,” Hecht said. “With VGT, if you can change the oil in a car you’ll have no problem using this technology.”
Companies can also use the internal battery testing technology through the car’s database, but Hecht said these are often given “incomplete and not entirely accurate” readings.
ReJoule has moved into its early demonstration phase of VGT, as it spent the last four years conceptualizing the process and testing single cells in the battery, then the modules made up of those cells. The company is now able to test full batteries and is in the process of demonstrating this on Tesla 3 models.
“No one else has done this on a whole pack [battery], so that’s what’s really novel about this process,” Hecht said.
ReJoule Co-Founder Zora Chung shows parts for the next generation version of their device that will allow for battery testing directly from the vehicles charging port rather than having to remove the battery pack. (Richard H. Grant | Signal Tribune) 
A circuit board is seen on a table in the lab of ReJoule. It will be used to test used electric vehicle batteries on Oct. 4, 2023. (Richard H. Grant | Signal Tribune) 
Dozens of green UPS delivery vehicle battery packs are stacked together while they await testing at ReJoule on Oct. 4, 2023. (Richard H. Grant | Signal Tribune) 
An employee at ReJoule inspects one of the recently received extra large lithium-ion battery packs that will be tested in the high voltage area of their lab on Oct. 4, 2023. (Richard H. Grant | Signal Tribune)
ReJoule isn’t just simplifying the battery testing process. The company has been finding ways to take decommissioned electric vehicle batteries and use them to store solar energy.
Car manufacturers will recycle its electric vehicle battery once it dips below 70%. ReJoule can instead use those same batteries to store enough energy to take an entire home off the power grid.
“It’s a great example of a technology that’s not only impactful in establishing a circular supply chain … it can also affect homes and other technological sectors,” said Chris Saldaña, director of the Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office. “This small focus can have a great impact in their community.”
Saldaña said this new competition from the DOE is part of the department’s attempts to invest in communities, universities and small businesses to “decarbonize the economy.”
This isn’t the first time the DOE has invested in Signal Hill. In September of last year, ReJoule was awarded a $10 million grant to take its solar energy storage system and expand it to a massive scale. The company is in the process of designing plans to power multiple low-income housing projects through its repurposed electric vehicle batteries.
ReJoule is now preparing for the second round of the Re-X competition with the chance to win $100,000 towards its VGT. Hecht said their plan is to show the DOE that they can accurately test electric vehicle batteries through the charging port, starting with the Tesla Model 3.
If ReJoule is successful, they will move onto other electric vehicle models, with the goal of developing a database for over 30 vehicles. Hecht said they will have to create a different profile for each vehicle since their batteries have different components.
Phase two of the Re-X competition will take place in October. If ReJoule places again, they can enter phase three with the chance to win $500,000.
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