Whitepaper The technology for solar photovoltaic battery charge controllers has advanced dramatically over the past 5 years (1995-2000). The most exciting new technology, PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) charging, has become very popular. Some Frequently Asked Questions about PWM battery charging are addressed here.

A new type of rechargeable Mg battery is demonstrated, which achieves charge transfer through simultaneous transport of Mg(2+) cations and halogen anions during electrochemical cycling. The novel Mg/AgCl battery shows remarkable rate capability up to 10 C and excellent cyclability at high rates, with a flat plateau at 2 V.

⎯ A thermoelectric energy scavenging microsystem is proposed, optimized to convert the small thermal power available in human-body applications. A Lithium solid-state thin-film battery is integrated in the same device as well as the ultra low-power electronics to charge battery and perform DC-DC conversion.

M any features of modern portable electronic devices—such as high-speed processors, colorful displays, opti-cal/magnetic storage drives, and wireless network interfaces—carry a significant energy cost. However, advances in battery technology have not kept pace with rapidly growing energy demands. Most laptops, handheld PCs, and cell phones use rechargeable electrochemical batteries—typically, l...

In the field of state of charge (SOC) estimation, the Kalman filter has been widely used for many years, although its performance strongly depends on the accuracy of the battery model as well as the noise covariance. The Kalman gain determines the confidence coefficient of the battery model by adjusting the weight of open circuit voltage (OCV) correction, and has a strong correlation with the m...

An accurate state of charge (SOC) estimation is of great importance for the battery management systems of electric vehicles. To improve the accuracy and robustness of SOC estimation, lithium-ion battery SOC is estimated using an adaptive square root unscented Kalman filter (ASRUKF) method. The square roots of the variance matrices of the SOC and noise can be calculated directly by the ASRUKF al...

Is it possible to exceed the lithium redox potential in electrochemical systems? It seems impossible to exceed the lithium potential because the redox potential of the elemental lithium is the lowest among all the elements, which contributes to the high voltage characteristics of the widely used lithium ion battery. However, it should be possible when we use a molecule-based ion which is not re...

In modern heavy duty trucks the battery is a central component. Its traditional role as an energy source for engine cranking has been extended to include powering a number of electrical components on the truck, both during driving and during standstill. As a consequence of this it is important to know how much a battery in use has aged and lost in terms of capacity and power output. The difficu...

As part of the Challenge X competition, the University of Tennessee has chosen a hybrid electric powertrain architecture for conversion of a 2005 Chevrolet Equinox SUV to a more fuel efficient and environmentally responsible vehicle. A brief overview of the powertrain configuration is presented, as well as the corresponding supervisory control system architecture. The methodology for developing...