Applications hybrid vehicles

Test cells using the above graphite materials were evaluated in PC-based electrolytes. For this work, the hybrid pulse power characterization (HPPC) test was performed on cells with the different graphite anodes and PC-based electrolytes to evaluate their high power capabilities. These electrochemical experiments indicate that cells containing the surface-modified natural graphite can meet the power requirement set by the FreedomCar partnership for the hybrid vehicle applications. 

Austria - the Austrian Advanced Automotive Applications, or A3 program, includes PEM and hybrid vehicle demonstrations, environmentally-friendly urban bus, and product delivery traffic systems. 

ELEDRIVE participation in the thematic European network on fuel cells and their applications for electric hybrid vehicles. 

The fabrication of supercapacitors and electrochemical actuators that could be used as artificial muscles is another alternative for nanotube applications. Supercapacitors already were built on hybrid vehicles because this could provide rapid acceleration and store braking energy electrically. When using sheet electrodes with SWNT and MWNTs, it is possible to obtain specific capacitance of 180 and 102 F/g and power densities of 20 and 8kW/kg, respectively. 

Fuel cells as a technology is actually quite old. It has not been widely used yet because of speculative reasons and political problems. Present material science may soon make them a reality particularly in specialized applications. The SOFC appears to be the most promising technology for small electric power plants of over 1 kW. The DAFC appears to be the most promising battery replacement option for portable applications such as cellular phones and laptop computers. It is clear that at this moment, fuel cells will be practical for transportation applications such as automobiles and buses, but hybrid vehicles are likely to be more popular in the future in order to avoid unexpected problems. It is unclear whether hydrogen fuel will be widely used or whether a mostly electric economy will continue to exist. 

General requirements. The attributes in Table 11.20 are typical for parallel hybrid applications, and the attributes in Table 11.21 are typical for series hybrid vehicles. 

The cost dependency on a minimized cell size for Ni-MH and VRLA batteries is shown in Fig. 11.21. In these cases, VRLA is limited by life and Ni-MH is limited by power. At the energy levels required for parallel-series hybrid vehicles, it can be shown that the watt-hour life cost of Ni-MH would have to exceed 33 times that of VRLA, which is not the case even today with prototype batteries. The initial cost consideration that tipped the favour to VRLA for soft hybrids is far less impressive with parallel or series hybrids, since it can be further demonstrated that, even on an initial cost basis, VRLA is about 60% of the cost of the equivalent Ni-MH battery for the parallel-series application, well outside of the bounds where trade-off to initial cost could be considered. 

Electrical generators capable of high conversion efficiencies and extremely low exhaust emissions will no doubt power advanced hybrid vehicles and stationary power systems. Fuel cells are generally considered to be ideal devices for these applications... 

Cost is also a drawback. Lithium batteries are currently used for small applications such as laptop computers, but they will need to be less expensive before they can be routinely used in larger, more energy-demanding applications such as electric or hybrid vehicles. 

Most commercial applications for EDLCs and pseudocapacitors are for backup and pulse power sources for electronic devices. More recently, they have been explored as a power source for hybrid vehicles when used in combination with fuel cells or batteries. Their role is in load levehng, start-up, and acceleration (28). The traditional electrodes used in EDLCs are high surface area carbon (1000 m /g) which have specific capacitances around 100 F/g for a single electrode (5). Low-voltage devices (2.3 V) with capacitance values of 470, 900, and 1500 F are available commercially (29). By comparison, the specific capacitance of Ru02 electrode pseudocapacitors is in the range of 720 to 900 F/g (30-33). For the most part, ECs based on this material have yet to reach the market. 

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