A research project that is working on developing an actively coupled ultracapacitor battery system for plug-in hybrid electric vehicle applications is attracting attention from a number of manufacturers.
The project is led by Argonne, Maxwell Technologies and Gold Peak Battery USA with the objective of developing a high power and high energy electrical storage system that combines the strengths of high power density for ultracapacitors with high energy storage for lithium-ion batteries. It is hoped this will provide equal or better efficiency and net cost compared to current lithium-ion batteries.
In addition the project has the goal of demonstrating reduced stress on lithium-ion batteries, developing new state of charge control strategies for ultracapacitor bank power blending and to identify component costs for net energy storage system hardware.
The project, which began in 2007, has already completed hardware proof of concept testing. The team is working on control tuning and integration as well as initiating a long-term effects study. In the future the researchers will work with a manufacturer and tier one supplier to identify the production cost and size of a DC/DC converter.
