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maltatoday | SUNDAY • 24 OCTOBER 2021 15 COMMERCIAL Novel EVAporative Cooled battery technology developed by local researchers and industry provides a solution to overheating batteries A novel technology which cools Lithium ion batteries through evaporation has been developed by local researchers and indus- try. The cooling technology de- veloped in project NEVAC will overcome limitations posed by overheating batteries caused by fast charging and discharging through high current applica- tions. Project NEVAC is a collabo- ration between the Institute of Aerospace Technologies at the Universtiy of Malta, and Aber- tax Kemtronics. NEVAC was fi- nanced by the Malta Council for Science & Technology, through the FUSION: R&I Technolo- gy Development Programme. The consortium received circa 200,000 Euro funding for this re- search project. Lithium ion batteries are con- sidered as a key enabling com- ponent which can power mo- bile phones, laptops and electric vehicles. However, these suffer from thermal limitations. The behaviour of the battery is tem- perature dependent and there- fore effective thermal manage- ment is very important. Project NEVAC developed a self-sus- tained cooling mechanism, that can allow to charge and dis- charge the batteries at a higher rate. NEVAC exploits the con- cept of boiling, having multiple advantages such as the entire battery pack maintaining a single temperature, and the latent heat can extract a higher magnitude of heat from the battery cells. Dr Robert Camilleri, NEVAC's Project Leader within the insti- tute of Aerospace Technology stated that: "It is becoming more obvious that we need to move towards electric transportation. However, there are still concerns about vehicle range and the abil- ity for fast charging. Battery heating is one of the main limi- tations for fast charging because high current input generates ex- cessive heat in battery cells, and presents risks for thermal runa- way. Project NEVAC addresses this limitation by developing a novel technology that is able to cool battery cells effectively and therefore unlocking the ability for fast charging." Technical Presentations were delivered by the project team and a panel discussion led by Dr Robert Camilleri, took place around the field. The event was live streamed and may be followed: HYPER- LINK "https://fb.watch/8Km- 9MuC2rt/" Book review Running is believing I have two distinct images of Jonathan Balzan – or are they two images merged into one? I have flashes of him racing through the village streets, red faced, through Dr Nicola Zam- mit Street in Siġġiewi, for exam- ple, where I grew up, and I also remember him during poetry evenings, during which both of us read our own poems. But I have another image of him: that of a successful athlete, winning marathons, breaking records, and making a name for himself as an athlete locally and be- yond. Althoguh I have very fond memories of our friendship, here I would like to share some thoughts about Jonathan's po- etry – a subject ultimately wid- er, less frivolous, and therefore more humane than any illusion that we humans could ever en- tertain about ourselves. What exactly happens when we surreptitiously enter the unique world of a poet-athlete? Or, let me rephrase the ques- tion: what happens when poet- ry wants to run against us, or inside us? Is this a book about athletics engaged in poetry, or is this poetry about athletics? Not easy questions at all be- cause they are closely linked to a major issue: poetics as a ref- uge from what is yet unknown. These poems engage in prayer – they contain the poetics of prayer. In them one can per- ceive a faith grounded in the very act of praying. But don't be deceived – Balzan's prayer, although anx- ious, is not a prayer of petition. Kultant, Mulej, for example, is a most assertive and dynam- ic prayer; it is a prayer unsure about its ending, but fully aware of its starting point and all its meanderings until it becomes able to utter the words gaping at us from the pages of this book. Perhaps it is an athletic prayer too, because very often, as in Hi, there are sequences in which the rhythmic beat of the verse is closely synchronized with the heartbeats – as when an athlete pauses to check his running heart rate and the dis- tance covered, and ultimately finds in them a grammar that actually spells his own existen- tial self. In this sense, the verse outruns the body, albeit by just a nanosecond. Often, the rhythm in which Balzan structures his experi- ence is short and open, almost detached. These are indeed poems enlivened by the heart- beat while practising sport, but it is exactly here that out of his athletic heartbeats Balzan carves out an allegory of his life. Moreover, out of this pain- ful effort he begets a close rela- tionship with his soul's labour pains, as constant, at least, as the pace of marathons. Faith and sport: at times Balzan's poetry is an athlete, other times it is an acrobat. In both instances, however, this is poetry that glorifies agility. Often it also allows for mo- ments of slowness within that agility, or rather it reveals the agility's potential to be a space that is profoundly thoughtful. As we read Balzan's appeal for a sacred alter ego, for example, or as we follow the consistent rhythm in which he expresses the meaning of contemporary life which is, as Theodor Ador- no wrote, "damaged" in diverse ways, we find the meaning of this agility that contempora- neously refutes the hecticness that the present imposes on us. The poetics of the movement therefore proposes itself as an alternative to the problem of a restless present. Faith's ma- jor themes – forgiveness, the spiritual journey, hope, and the perseverance – of the sports- man as well as of the believing poet constitute the conscience of the athletic soul. This is a conscience that builds: the acrobat builds movement, the athlete builds time. Poet- ry itself, then, seeks to "build death" as our life's continuous endeavour, as Michel de Mon- taigne aptly wrote. We discover these on reading poems such as Lejn l-Addolo- rata. In other poems, as in Fuq spallejja, Balzan writes that "Meta ħsieb il-mewt / jagħfas fuq spallejja / nifhem li nkun fil-qrib / tal-ispjegazzjoni / be- jn l-imġarrab u l-mistur." The loneliness that emanates from this interposition is also man's condemnation – and ours too – when we often discover that we are running by our- selves. Balzan, however, uses such abandonement purposely so that, as a poet, he will not abandon us. Indeed, what Balzan proposes is some sort of a living refuge – in the knowledge that in the warm-up itself there already is the basic dynamic of faith. This means that when our race will finish we shall find poetry beckoning us. By Dr Norbert Bugeja, Sen- ior Lecturer, University of Malta