Use of Super Capacitors in e-Vehicles to Increase the Life Cycle of the Battery—An Investigation
摘要
Most e-rickshaws in our country use lead acid batteries, which can be made with local raw materials, recycled easily, and at a lower cost as against lithium-ion batteries (Li-Ion), which use imported raw materials or even as cells, difficult to recycle, pose a risk to the environment, and are much more expensive. This paper is considering only of lead acid based e-Vehicles and not on Li-Ion based e-Vehicles. If the life cycle of the lead acid battery can be enhanced, there could be savings on frequent battery replacement, and thus producing a better cost/performance ratio and benefit our country’s economy. In this research, it will be investigated whether an electric vehicle with super-capacitors incorporated will result in greater battery life. In e-Vehicle, it is quite common that the battery will undergo multiple deep discharge cycles of current while the vehicle starts initially with heavy load, overtaking (speeding), or going uphill. Also if the vehicle is designed with brake energy recuperation, there could be large charge currents for short periods during braking and this could also degrade the battery faster. Thus the deep charge/discharge cycles could damage the battery’s State of Health (SoH) significantly and resulting in frequent battery replacement. A super-capacitor can be used to average the battery discharge rate at a lower depth of discharge by peak shaving or buffering the high demands.