Age Estimation of a Hybrid Energy Storage System for Vehicular Start–Stop

Ultracapacitors are energy storage devices that have shown outstanding capability in a vast spectrum of applications, mainly in energy storage systems required to deliver short bursts of electrical energy. Ultracapacitors possess high power density while batteries possess high energy density. In this paper, a hybrid energy storage device comprising a lithium-ion ultracapacitor module and a lead acid battery was modeled, built, and tested for vehicular start–stop application, which requires a much larger number of engine cranking events than conventional vehicles. The combination of a lead acid battery with Li-ion ultracapacitors was chosen due to the fact that the vast majority of vehicles utilize lead acid batteries to crank the internal combustion engine. This allows retrofitting this hybrid setup in conventional vehicles along with the start–stop feature without inflicting damage to the already installed lead acid battery. The start–stop feature puts high stress on the lead acid battery, contributing to its faster aging. This feature is commonly found in hybrid vehicles to save the unnecessarily burned fuel during idling. This paper discusses aging of the lead acid battery as a result of being used in hybrid vehicles equipped with start–stop when used alone versus when used in the hybrid setup. The paper shows cranking tests performed on a number of cars to obtain voltage, current, power, and energy requirements for combustion engine cranking. Mathematical derivation, analysis, and an energy storage age estimation method are also presented. A set of cranking events followed by capacity checks performed on two automobile energy storage systems, one being a lead acid battery alone and the other being the proposed hybrid module, show the advantage of integrating the ultracapacitor module with the lead acid battery to extend its life span almost fivefold in a hybrid automobile.