Supercapacitor Regen Bank ?

[flippy]

There are numerous studies showing the usefulness of supercapacitor banks to recover brake power in automotive transport. The idea is pretty simple: brake power come in short bursts which cannot be stored in batteries, but supercaps can.

In general, I think resizing batteries and/or choosing the right battery specs are an easier way to accomplish this. The electronics to selectively route energy to supercaps rather than batteries is fairly complex, and supercaps have their own issues (i.e. voltage range.)

This.

If you need to think about using caps to store energy you are working towards problems as you should solve the basic problem: the battery is not properly sized for the application. Having a proper sized battery usually solves many other issues you might get along the way like voltage sag, regen absorpsion and lifespan.

Just look at a average tesla: 50kW regen and capable of delivering 500+kW without going out of spec for the cells and a lifespan measured in decades.

 

[qwerkus]

Thank you very much for sharing your experience; those numbers are very helpful. Now it's up to me to measure things experimentally - will post back in this thread once the motor has arrived, and numbers become available.

 

[eCue]

Its sounding like caps aren't necessary for full regen. I like the idea of using a geared hub motor for regen. Have thought about this in the not so distant past and deduced it would work good. I assume if you block the clutch off from engaging it would regen when ever the throttle is released.

 

[billvon]

Its sounding like caps aren't necessary for full regen. I like the idea of using a geared hub motor for regen. Have thought about this in the not so distant past and deduced it would work good. I assume if you block the clutch off from engaging it would regen when ever the throttle is released.

If the controller supports regen, of course. If not you will only regen when you exceed base speed.