Performance Evaluation and Control Strategy Comparison of Supercapacitors for a Hybrid Electric Vehicle

Electrification of powertrain system is a great technical progress of traditional vehicle, leading to a significant reduction of fuel consumption and emission pollution. Energy storage system (ESS) normally consisting of batteries is a key component of an electric vehicle or hybrid electric vehicle. An ESS can recover braking energy during the regenerative braking process. Currently, lithium-ion batteries are the main energy storage device due to their high energy density. However, sometimes, a sudden large increase of operation current is required during acceleration or regenerative braking processes, which will jeopardize the operation life of batteries. A supercapacitor takes advantage of high power density and can tolerate large current in a short time. Application of supercapacitor in an ESS can reduce the peak current of batteries effectively, and the life time of batteries can be extended. Meanwhile, the braking energy can also be recovered sufficiently. Supercapacitors can be used solely in some hybrid electric vehicles. In this chapter, the application of supercapacitors in electric vehicles or hybrid electric vehicles is reviewed briefly. Then, the performance of a series hybrid transit bus, which uses a compressed natural gas engine and supercapacitors as power sources, is analyzed