Skeleton Technologies, AVL Deutschland and Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft joined forces to explore combinations of lithium-ion batteries and supercapacitors, showcasing enhanced efficiency and longevity in energy storage systems across various applications, from mining trucks and passenger vehicles to industrial machinery.
Lithium-ion batteries (LIB) and supercapacitors (SC) are complementary technologies, yet the widespread adoption of hybrid systems where both LIBs and supercapacitors are coupled in parallel has been stalled. The reason behind this has been the lack of data regarding the costs and benefits of incorporating supercapacitors, compared to a sole LIB-based solution.
In 2020, Skeleton joined forces with AVL Deutschland GmbH and Fraunhofer Institute for Energy Economics and Energy System Technology (IEE) and applied for an R&D grant to get quantitative answers.
As part of the research project SuKoBa funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, the consortium set out to develop cross-application methods and tools for the development and optimization of hybrid storage systems.
The overarching objective has been to open up hybrid battery systems for use in high-power applications, which has previously not been feasible. The consortium developed a software toolbox that can determine the lifetime- and cost-optimal combination of Skeleton’s supercapacitors and LIBs (e.g., NMC) for a given system design and operational scenario.
The determined combination could then be validated in a scalable demonstrator with real-life data.
