An Integrated Super Capacitor and Li-Ion Battery-based Hybrid Energy Storage Design: An Application for Electric Vehicles

Increasing dependence on oil and gas in the 21st century has exacerbated global warming, climate change and crude oil shortages. The automotive industry has therefore intensified its research into hybrid technology suitable for everyday use. This study presents a novel fast charging system for hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) that utilizes a dual-source hybrid energy storage system (HESS) that integrates a supercapacitor and a lithium-ion battery. Unlike traditional HESS configurations that use a direct DC connection between the battery and the supercapacitor, our design ensures a consistent load profile of the battery by only activating the supercapacitor when its voltage falls below that of the batteries. Unlike traditional HESS configurations that use a direct DC connection between the battery and the supercapacitor, our design ensures a consistent load profile of the battery by only activating the supercapacitor when its voltage falls below that of the batteries. The system uses a PIC16F877A microcontroller to dynamically control charging and discharging based on vehicle demand, using fast charging technology for the lithium-ion battery and conventional constant voltage for the supercapacitor. The proposed hybrid energy storage system (HESS) reduces battery charging time by 16.7%, with the constant current (CC) method fully charging a 12V lithium-ion battery in 2.5 minutes compared to 3 minutes using the constant voltage (CV) method. Simulations confirm that the supercapacitor achieves full charge within 3 seconds. The results suggest that the proposed method significantly improves the charging efficiency and operational readiness of HEVs and potentially reduces the CO2 emissions associated with electric mobility