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Intelligent energy conversion, highly efficient or even almost lossless: This vision drives Dr. Stefan Mönch, Junior Professor at the Institute of Electrical Energy Conversion (IEW) of the University of Stuttgart. The European Research Council (ERC) has now awarded him one of its prestigious ERC Starting Grants valued at around EUR 1.5 million for his research. The potential applications of his basic research range from electromobility and innovative heat pumps to robotics and other energy converters.
Dr. Manfred Bischoff, Vice Rector for Research and Sustainable Development at the University of Stuttgart, congratulates Junior Professor Stefan Mönch on the award and emphasizes: “The concept of almost lossless energy conversions fits in perfectly with the University of Stuttgart’s vision of ‘Intelligent systems to benefit society’. In addition, the ERC grant once again underlines our position as an internationally visible research university and strengthens our commitment to sustainable development.”
Electrifying everything with renewable energy is, for many, the best route to an emission-free future. But there are still a number of obstacles along the way. One of them is that renewable energy sources and battery storage such as in electric vehicles provide a certain voltage but many end devices require a different voltage or alternating current. On its way to the consumer, electrical energy is therefore converted by power electronics (on average four times) and each voltage conversion results in power losses.
Partial power processing to minimize energy losses
One approach to minimizing such losses is advanced topologies such as partial power processing (PPP) converters. Mönch illustrates the principle behind these partial power converters with an example from electromobility, a field in which he has conducted research as part of the Innovation Campus Future Mobility (ICM), which also paved the way for his junior professorship at the University of Stuttgart. “In order to charge a traction battery in an electric vehicle with 350 volts from an energy source with 400 volts, the full output has been converted several times and electrically isolated. This leads to high losses and is expensive. With partial power processing, by contrast, 350 volts are provided directly in this example, and only the difference of 50 volts – about one-eighth of the total – is converted by the power electronics, making the process much more efficient.” Multilevel converters, which operate at different voltage levels and are currently an emerging topic in the industry, follow a similar approach.
How many voltage levels are optimal?
Partial power conversion has already achieved electrical efficiencies of over 99%. However, there are limits to complete losslessness – partly because each additional voltage level also requires extra components and additional control circuits. More voltage levels initially lead to an increase in efficiency because of ever smaller voltage differences. However, beyond the optimum number of levels, overall system efficiency is expected to decline. Mönch and his research group plan to explore and overcome these limits in the ERC project entitled “Towards lossless electrical energy converters (TolleConverter)”. “One question is which number of levels and in which arrangement the maximum efficiency can be achieved,” explains Mönch. Another approach to be investigated is how PPP and multilevel topologies of different voltage classes can be cascaded to further improve efficiency.
Particularly efficient for charging circuits
Initially, the team plans to investigate the technology for capacitive loads, which involve alternating charging and discharging. In comparison to bidirectional charging in electromobility – where Mönch is coordinating the BMWE project “GaN4EmoBiL - GaN power semiconductors for electromobility and system integration through bidirectional charging” – the ERC project involves special energy storage devices that are recharged several times per second. This is where partial power conversion can be implemented to particular advantage. One example of this is power electronics for innovative solid-state heat pumps, which are based on the electrocaloric effect and do not require environmentally harmful refrigerants. The term electrocaloric refers to a material that reversibly changes its temperature when an electrical voltage is applied or removed. Mönch has already built up extensive expertise in this field at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Solid State Physics (IAF) in Freiburg and is continuing this research with his new research group at the University of Stuttgart in the ongoing EIC Pathfinder project “Cooling with electrocaloric polymers (COOLPOL)” .“The ERC Starting Grant will now enable us to further expand our research group and carry out more comprehensive basic research into efficient electrical energy conversion,” says Mönch.
Demonstrators also for new application scenarios
He would like to develop the findings on highly efficient power electronics for capacitive loads further into a more generally applicable approach and demonstrate them for other applications. This could benefit the control of intelligent materials (smart materials) used in actuators for soft robotic systems (soft robotics). These operate piezoelectrically or electrostatically meaning they change their shape in response to voltage. Another possible application scenario is energy harvesting. This process converts mechanical, electrical, or thermal environmental energy into electrical energy using smart materials, for example.
About Jun.-Prof. Stefan Mönch
Dr. Stefan Mönch has been a Junior Professor at the Institute of Electrical Energy Conversion (IEW) at the University of Stuttgart since December 2023 and has set up the research group “Smart Converters for Emission-free Mobility of the Future” at InnovationCampus Future Mobility (ICM). After completing his doctoral studies on gallium nitride power electronics in 2021, he continues to coordinate projects at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Solid State Physics (IAF) in Freiburg. He researches highly efficient power electronics and energy converters for electromobility and solid-state heat pumps.
ERC grants at the University of Stuttgart
ERC grants from the European Research Council are considered a hallmark of the international competitiveness of a university. They are divided into the funding lines ERC Starting Grants, ERC Consolidator Grants, ERC Advanced Grants, ERC Synergy Grants, and ERC Proof of Concept. With the ERC Starting Grant for Dr. Stefan Mönch, 16 ERC grants are now located at the University of Stuttgart.
Jun.-Prof. Stefan Mönch, University of Stuttgart, Institute of Electrical Energy Conversion (IEW), tel: +49 711 685-67840, email: stefan.moench@iew.uni-stuttgart.de
https://www.uni-stuttgart.de/en/university/news/all/ERC-Starting-Grant-for-Junio...
https://www.iew.uni-stuttgart.de/en/
https://www.icm-bw.de/en/
https://www.coolpol.eu/
https://erc.europa.eu/news-events/news/erc-2025-starting-grants-results
Stefan Mönch, ERC Starting Grant awardee, is researching intelligent, highly efficient and almost lo ...
Quelle: Jan Potente
Copyright: University of Stuttgart
The ERC project "TolleConverter" investigates how efficient energy conversion with partial power can ...
Quelle: Jan Potente
Copyright: University of Stuttgart
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Stefan Mönch, ERC Starting Grant awardee, is researching intelligent, highly efficient and almost lo ...
Quelle: Jan Potente
Copyright: University of Stuttgart
The ERC project "TolleConverter" investigates how efficient energy conversion with partial power can ...
Quelle: Jan Potente
Copyright: University of Stuttgart
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