Improvement on the Cold Cranking Capacity of Commercial Vehicle by Using Supercapacitor and Lead-Acid Battery Hybrid

Paralleling a supercapacitor with a lead-acid battery decreases the size and the capacity of the starting battery that is required for cold cranking. A simple circuit model for the hybrid power source is introduced and analyzed, showing that lower effective series resistance (ESR) gives greater effective discharge capacity. Laboratory experiments and road tests on reduced-volume batteries that are ganged with aqueous carbon-carbon (C/C) supercapacitors demonstrate practical and economic advantages. Applications to engineering are discussed.