TU-TESL

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According to foreign media reports, a group of researchers from the University of Palermo and ICAR in Italy have developed an electric kinetic energy recovery system (e-kers) for internal combustion engine vehicles (icevs), which uses super capacitors as energy storage equipment and can be connected to the brushless motor through power converters. The researchers say the system can save 20% of energy, with a slight increase in vehicle weight (2%), and offset the total commercial cost of the system within five years due to improved fuel economy and reduced carbon dioxide emissions. The researchers believe that the system has low complexity, moderate component weight, and such components are available in the market, so the solution is suitable for introduction into the current automobile production. At present, the only kinetic energy recovery system (KERS) developed for internal combustion engine vehicles is the alternator controlled KERS, which has been put into the market by some automobile manufacturers (such as efficient dynamics). In such a system, when the vehicle is braked, the output of the alternator will increase, then part of the kinetic energy of the vehicle will be transferred to, and the energy of the battery will be used to supply power for the electronic consumer products of the vehicle, finally reducing the power absorbed by the alternator during the driving process of the vehicle. The advantage of this kind of system is that it can be directly introduced into the current production process of icev. However, because the components it uses are not dedicated, nor optimized for KERS application, the improvement of fuel economy is very limited, generally only 1% to 5%. This time, researchers proposed an electric KERS (e-kers) for internal combustion engine vehicles, which is composed of super capacitor, electric generator unit (MGU) and power converter. The supercapacitor is used as the energy storage system. The dynamo assembly can convert the kinetic energy of the vehicle into electric energy (or vice versa). The task of the power converter is to manage the energy transmission between the supercapacitor and the dynamo assembly. By charging the super capacitor, the system recovers the kinetic energy generated when the vehicle is braked, and then the energy stored by the super capacitor will be used for the vehicle by the electric generator components, and the subsequent acceleration will be carried out. The super capacitor is connected with the electric generator assembly electronically through a designed power converter, and the electric generator assembly is connected with the transmission shaft mechanically through a fixed transmission shaft ratio, so as to convert the kinetic energy of the vehicle into electric energy, or vice versa.