HYSTOR: Controlling a High Density Energy Storage System for Hybrid Vehicles

Completed

Energy Efficiency(Transport)
Other Power and Storage Technologies(Energy storage)

Basic and strategic applied research

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (Mechanical, Aeronautical and Manufacturing Engineering)

Not Cross-cutting

Professor PRN Childs
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Imperial College London

Standard

EPSRC

01 May 2005

31 October 2008

42 months

£469,456

Systems engineering

London

Systems -- Materials, Mechanical and Medical Eng

Professor PRN Childs, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Imperial College London

Dr C. A. Long, Engineering and Design, University of Sussex
Dr P Morrell, Engineering and Design, University of Sussex
Professor R K Stobart, Aeronautical and Automotive Engineering, Loughborough University
Dr TC Yang, Engineering and Design, University of Sussex

Project Contact, Spirax Sarco UK
Project Contact, Menard Engineering Ltd

Hybrid vehicles are considered as the solution to the requirement to enhance the efficiency of the road vehicle fleet. Hybrid vehicles have begun to appear in a commercial form, but progress to a widely acceptable technical solution is painfully slow. The hybrid vehicle is dogged by the need for a heavy, expensive and underperforming battery pack. Mechanical storage has proved difficult to engineer. While batteries and regenerative fuel cell stacks remain a long term objective, there is a needfor radical solutions which are more accessible.Thermal storage of energy using water has the advantage of cleanliness and efficiency, but while the approach looks feasible there is no significant science base to support its development. Initial investigations show that the store is compact and outperforms batteries comfortably. The control of steam flow and the design requirements of a small steam engine are not understood and require new engineering principles to be established. The overallcontrol of the vehicle's thermal processes are a further area of research since the inclusion of such a system in a vehicle will force changes in other systems. The proposed programme includes an investigation of system aspects of thermal storage and the control requirements for storage and recovery of energy. The design and operation of the steam engine itself forms a large part of the investigations. The final step is a practical demonstration

01/01/07