Ultracapacitor/Supercapacitor for electric vehicles

[baris]

Hello All,

We are trying to make an electric vehicle and we want to use ultracapasitor.
Is there anyone who has experiences and what is differences these capasitors from others?

 

[berkeman]

The supercaps that I'm aware of are for low-current, long life applications. Not for high peak current applications like a car. Panasonic makes some supercaps, so you could check their website. You're also not going to get the energy density out of a capacitor that you can out of storing the energy in the chemical reaction of a battery.

Have you considered using a fuel cell instead?

 

[ranger]

The only major difference that I'm aware of is that supercaps have a much higher energy density when compared to "regular" capacitors. If you need it for the purposes of vehicles, you'll need a supercap in excess of 2500F! I've never seen an electric vehicle powered by only a supercap. These kinds of capacitors would be best if it could get assistance from an internal combustion engine.

 

[Stingray]

Maxwell Technologies makes some very heavy duty capacitors. They're great for huge power densities, but batteries are better for energy density. These caps also have a high self-discharge rate. I think that a car could best use these devices to take better advantage of regenerative braking. They can be charged much more quickly than batteries.

 

[baris]

Yes we will use in a hydrogen car.We try to design like this

fuelcell---supercap---motordriver---motor

we don't want use a converter before motor driver because efficiency more importand for us.We want to regulate voltage after fuelcell with these supercaps

 

[berkeman]

I just ran across an interesting article about applications of supercaps, including electric vehicle use. Interesting:

http://powerelectronics.com/passive_components_packaging_interconnects/capacitors/power_ultracapacitor_technology_powers/?cid=top-articles