Feasibility of Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage on Board of Ground Vehicles With Present State-of-the-Art Superconductors

Liquid storage of gaseous fuel on board of vehicles as possible alternative to high-pressure storage is receiving an increasing attention because of the higher mileage, the lower cost of the tank, and the faster refill allowable. The research effort devoted to liquid storage is also boosting the advance of cryogenics on board of vehicles, thus opening the way to the synergic use of superconductors. In such a context, superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) for regenerative braking may represent a possible alternative to electrochemical batteries or to developing technologies such as supercapacitors or flywheels. In this paper, the feasibility of SMES for regenerative braking on board of hybrid vehicles with cryogenic fuel tank is investigated. Possible application scenarios are discussed. The design of the superconducting magnet based on commercially available superconducting tapes and the cooling are addressed. The performance of the power control system is also investigated by means of a MATLAB/Simulink simulation model.