Feasibility of Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage on Board of Ground Vehicles With Present State-of-the-Art Superconductors

Abstract

Liquid storage of gaseous fuel on board of vehicles as possible alternative to high-pressure storage is receiving an increasing attention because of the higher mileage, the lower cost of the tank, and the faster refill allowable. The research effort devoted to liquid storage is also boosting the advance of cryogenics on board of vehicles, thus opening the way to the synergic use of superconductors. In such a context, superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) for regenerative braking may represent a possible alternative to electrochemical batteries or to developing technologies such as supercapacitors or flywheels. In this paper, the feasibility of SMES for regenerative braking on board of hybrid vehicles with cryogenic fuel tank is investigated. Possible application scenarios are discussed. The design of the superconducting magnet based on commercially available superconducting tapes and the cooling are addressed. The performance of the power control system is also investigated by means of a MATLAB/ Simulink simulation model. Index Terms-Dynamically Innovative BSCCO tape produced by Sumitomo, electric vehicles, hybrid vehicles, hydrogen vehicle, interior permanent magnet (IPM) motor control, regenerative braking, superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES).

Development of a compact regenerative braking system for electric vehicles

“…Other alternative architectures use the methods of superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) or flywheel energy storage (FES) to accumulate the energy harvested by the regenerative system [13]. SMES uses magnetic field to store and instantly release energy, presenting the advantages of high power density, theoretically infinite number of charge-discharge cycles and efficiency higher than 95% [14], [15]. Its high cost prevents this method to be considered as the ideal solution for shorter duration energy storage applications.…”

“…Discharging SC mode-waiting for Switch 1 to turn off q 10 Discharging SC mode-waiting for Switch 3 to turn off q 11 Discharging SC mode-waiting for Switch 2 to turn on q 12 Discharging SC mode-using SC as auxiliary power source q 13 FC power source mode-waiting for Switch 3 to turn off q 14 FC power source mode-waiting for Switch 2 to turn off q 15 FC power source mode-waiting for Switch 1 to turn on q 16 FC power source mode-FC is the main power source …”

A process integration approach for design of hybrid power systems with energy storage

“…inverter and rectifier. The loss of power due to the resistance is small because the superconductor has the ability to carry direct current without any resistance (Morandi et al 2012). Although the overall efficiency of the coil is almost 100 %, losses due to the cooling system (refrigeration losses) for the coil contribute to a significant rate of selfdischarge, which is assumed as 10 %/days (Bradbury 2010).…”

Structures and Properties of Oxide Superconductors

“…3b; Ali et al 2010), and could be cooled with liquid hydrogen (20 K). This provides the prospect for SMES systems in vehicles, especially those which would utilize liquid hydrogen storage for hydrogen-powered vehicles (Morandi et al 2012).…”