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Supercapacitor enhanced electric power systems for personnel transport systems.

Book Contribution - Book Chapter Conference Contribution

As energy efficiency becomes one of the key points in the design of most of today's power hungry applications, new and energy efficient approaches and associated technologies find their way towards the customer. Electric double layer capacitors, also known as supercapacitors, are one of these new and interesting products creating new possibilities and solutions to some of today's questions concerning energy efficiency in certain applications. This paper will have a look at the implementation of supercapacitors as peak power unit and energy reservoir in personnel transport system applications, particularly elevator applications. Elevators were and still are built with an energy dissipating resistor to convert the electric braking energy into heat. In the present energy saving economy, this sounds as an inappropriate loss of energy requiring an alternative.
Current research involves the use of supercapacitors in elevators to replace this energy dissipating resistor and store the energy in supercapacitors. The saved and stored energy can then be reused to power the elevator (e.g. smooth power peaks) or to send energy back to the main power net. This paper presents a basic simulation model along with comments on the supercapacitor pack dimensioning. A cost-benefit analysis, based on the rudimentary model and measurements, concludes the paper.
Book: EVS 24
Series: EVS24 International Battery, Hybrid and Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle Symposium
Publication year:2009
Keywords:EDLC, regenerative braking, energy recovery, electric drive
  • Scopus Id: 84868601034