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Experimental performance study of a hybrid compressed air‐electric vehicle prototype
Author(s) -
Evrin Reza Alizade,
Dincer Ibrahim
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
energy storage
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2578-4862
DOI - 10.1002/est2.195
Subject(s) - compressed air , automotive engineering , heat exchanger , electric vehicle , electric motor , powertrain , range (aeronautics) , liquid air , work (physics) , battery (electricity) , electric power , power (physics) , mechanical engineering , process engineering , materials science , engineering , torque , composite material , chemistry , physics , organic chemistry , quantum mechanics , thermodynamics
In this paper, the prototype of a new hybrid compressed air‐electric vehicle is developed, analyzed, built and tested. The system consists of a novel hybrid electric‐compressed air system integrated with phase change materials for energy recovery in the heat exchanger. Three different phase change materials (PCMs) of polyethylene glycol, paraffin, and alkane mix are investigated for heat recovery purposes in the prototype where the paraffin option provides better results. The experimentally investigated system is a novel, hybrid‐type pneumatic vehicle (compressed air and electric in a hybridized manner) prototype which has been built and tested in the laboratory at the Ontario Tech. University in Oshawa. The experimental tests are performed for the hybrid air system integrated with a PCM heat exchanger and a supplementary battery power of 1.68 kW (with an actual turbine work rate of 1.43 kW). The total work output by four air and electric motors is 23.12 kW which is found to be sufficient for the powertrain of a small‐size city vehicle. The energy efficiency for the system is found to be 65.0% while the exergy efficiency is 57.0% for a common driving range of 131 km which is considered a kind of acceptable driving range for commercial pneumatic vehicles. Furthermore, this type of prototype is expected to offer a good marketing opportunity with a generated shaft work of 23.12 kW, respectively.