Open AccessOnboard energy storage in rail transport: Review of real applications and techno‐economic assessments
Author(s) -
Fedele Emanuele,
Iannuzzi Diego,
Del Pizzo Andrea
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
iet electrical systems in transportation
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.588
H-Index - 26
eISSN - 2042-9746
pISSN - 2042-9738
DOI - 10.1049/els2.12026
Subject(s) - automotive engineering , engineering , propulsion , supercapacitor , energy storage , modular design , catenary , traction (geology) , fuel efficiency , systems engineering , transport engineering , computer science , mechanical engineering , power (physics) , chemistry , physics , electrode , quantum mechanics , electrochemistry , aerospace engineering , operating system , structural engineering
Despite low energy and fuel consumption levels in the rail sector, further improvements are being pursued by manufacturers and operators. Their primary efforts aim to reduce traction energy demand, replace diesel, and limit the impact of electrified overhead infrastructures. From a system‐level perspective, the integration of alternative energy sources on board rail vehicles has become a popular solution among rolling stock manufacturers. Surveys are made of many recent realizations of multimodal rail vehicles with onboard electrochemical batteries, supercapacitors, and hydrogen fuel cell systems. The ratings, technical features, and operating data of onboard sources are gathered for each application, and a comparison among different technologies is presented. Traction system architectures and energy‐control strategies of actual multimodal units are explored and compared with literature research. Moreover, the maturity and potential of recent technologies and alternative topologies of power converters for multimodal traction systems are discussed. Ultimately, onboard storage systems are compared with other solutions for energy‐saving and catenary‐free operation, with particular focus on their current techno‐economic attractiveness as an alternative to diesel propulsion.