The small range of electric cars compared to cars with internal combustion engine is still one of the problems inhibiting the spread of these cars. Range extenders (RE) in general are the realistic possibility to increase the range of electric cars in the near future without the need to improve the technology of the main battery storage. This paper describes an alternative type of RE for electric cars. Its aim is to enlarge the range in special situations and not for the daily use. A study shows that a range of 100 km per day is suitable for 90 % of the daily trips of a year in Germany. The electric car MUTE is designed to work as regional used car mainly for driving to work and for shopping. Range extension for a regional used car is necessary in special situations like driving around road works or traffic jams, which is the aim of this RE. Utilizing the zincair technology as RE makes a fully electric car with zero emission feasible. Measurements on zinc air test cells were done for this contribution. Based on the results, it was possible to extrapolate the working properties of a zinc air RE from the available measured data. This contribution shows that it is possible to enlarge the total range of an electric car like MUTE by a zinc air RE having 4 kW peak power, and 4 kWh of energy content between 45 and 77 km for the standard driving cycles. This range extender includes in total 40 kg of anode material. Even at a SOC (state of charge) of the main battery less than 10 % it is possible to enlarge the total range of the car by activating the RE. The most critical driving cycle showed that at a SOC of 2.5 % it is still possible to get 7.8 km of extra range. All analysed driving cycles that make sense for MUTE show that this is possible. On the other hand, obviously there are still some open points left which have to be solved. Due to the measurements with different discharge currents, it is noteworthy that the usable energy content of zinc air batteries in practical use is much lower than expected. The advantage of higher energy density compared to lithium-ion batteries is questionable for high discharge rates of zinc air batteries. The mechanical recharge in our application was handicapped by the solid consistency of the discharged anode material. It was difficult to remove it.
Alternative range extender for electric cars zinc air batteries
2012
16 Seiten, 13 Bilder, 8 Quellen
Aufsatz (Konferenz)
Englisch
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