CIE Components in Electronics
Maxwell Ultracapacitors (Electric Double Layer Capacitor) have the ability to store vast amounts of energy during a short period of time and discharge or release this energy as a power demand during short periods or long periods of time without the degradation in performance that affect batteries. To use Ultracapacitors as an alternative to a battery as a discharge device the capacitor will most likely require feeding the load via a DC-DC converter. This ensures that as the Ultracapacitor discharges and the terminal voltage reduces the voltage seen by the load remains constant. This concept can be scaled from small 1W designs to large power hungry systems requiring multiple of kWatts.
One such application used six Maxwell BMOD0165P048 modules connected as pairs in series and three such pairs in parallel. This gave a capacitor bank of 247.5 Farad and a 96V charged system capable of storing 1140480 Joules of energy. This system was fitted into the transport gondola of the Middlesbrough Transporter Bridge as a remote power source replacement for the 100 year old continuous 300Vdc feed rail system the bridge had been designed with. The gondola’s power system had to power the lighting, PA system, telemetry and communications and warning beacons while carrying the cars and passengers across the river Tees and back. The lighting systems were changed to LEDs and the entire Gondola’s dc power was changed to 24V. The Ultracapacitors could now feed 24V DC-DC converters with 96V input discharging down to 48V and provide up to 1500W for the 6 minutes required to cross the river and return. This discharge regime requires 540kJ from the Ultracapacitors which when docked could be recharged in 90 seconds from the 6kW three phase charger. The Ultracapacitor solution was chosen due to the high reliability of the technology, the lack of performance degradation with the system expecting to perform well over 1 million charge/discharge cycles or 20 years assuming 150 return trips per day.
Young Electronics Group has over 10 years experience of working with customers to deliver energy efficient, cost effective solutions utilising Ultracapacitor technology and are Maxwell Technologies Inc. longest UK distribution partner offering design in and logistics support. To find out more about our services and to view the entire Maxwell range, visit our dedicated Ultracapacitors website at www.yegultracapacitors.co.uk or talk to us on 01494 753500 email: paul.geering@youngelectronics.com
Young Electronics Group is an authorised distributor for Maxwell Technologies Ultracapacitors in the UK and more information can be found on the companies website at: http://www.yegultracapacitors.co.uk/
Contact:
Paul Geering – Divisional Manager
Tel: 01494 753500
