Combining Ultracapacitors in Parallel w/ Batteries

Brian Westenhaus takes an intriguing look at an ultracapacitor kit from Ioxus for forklifts, which combines ultracapacitors in parallel with the lead acid storage batteries for superior performance and much longer battery life.

The effect is that the battery set can run 30% longer and avoids a deep discharge, an enemy to lead acid cells life expectancy. If not in a deep freeze ware house customers can reduce the total battery set size by 15% or so.

...This gets more interesting when considering a regenerative braking system. The charging effect is magnified in a fast braking effort. A lot of energy is suddenly loaded into a system – a reverse of the discharge. As readers know, the battery chemistries don’t like those fast charges and discharges. The Ioxus design does just what is needed for those fast cycles. _NewEnergyandFuel

Some very interesting speculation on how to apply this technology, and what the future may hold. Brian goes right to the core of the electric vehicle problem: how to achieve excellent power density and energy density, plus long component life and low cost.

Ultracapacitors provide high power density with rapid charge and discharge. Batteries provide high energy density for long cycling. Combined in parallel, they provide reasonable power density and energy density, plus longer life for the expensive batteries. Not as good as internal combustion engines, but getting there slowly but surely (and with better torque).