A regenerative braking system for internal combustion engine vehicles using supercapacitors as energy storage elements - Part 1: System analysis and modelling

In this two-part work, an electric kinetic energy recovery system (e-KERS) for internal combustion engine vehicle (ICEV) is presented, and its performance evaluated through numerical simulations. The KERS proposed is based on the use of a supercapacitor as energy storage, interfaced to a brushless machine through a properly designed power converter. In part 1, the system is described and analysed, and the mathematical model used for the simulations is presented. For each component of the KERS, the real efficiency, and the power or energy limitations are adequately considered. In part 2, the energetic and economic advantages attainable by the proposed KERS are evaluated using MATLAB Simulink, considering a widely diffused passenger car and two reference driving cycles (ECE-15 and Artemis Urban). Energy savings of the order of 20% were found, with a slight increase in vehicle weight (+2%) and with an overall commercial cost that would be compensated in 5 years thanks to the fuel economy improvement, to which corresponds an equal reduction of CO2 emissions. The low complexity of the system, never proposed for ICEV, the moderate weight of its components, and their availability on the market, make the solution presented ready for the introduction in current vehicle production.