Abstract
Nowadays, electric vehicles are one of the main topics in the new industrial revolution, called Industry 4.0. The transport and logistic solutions based on E-mobility, such as handling machines, are increasing in factories. Thus, electric forklifts are mostly used because no greenhouse gas is emitted when operating. However, they are usually equipped with lead-acid batteries which present bad performances and long charging time. Therefore, combining high-energy density lithium-ion batteries and high-power density supercapacitors as a hybrid energy storage system results in almost optimal performances and improves battery lifespan. The suggested solution is well suited for forklifts which continuously start, stop, lift up and lower down heavy loads. This paper presents the sizing of a lithium-ion battery/supercapacitor hybrid energy storage system for a forklift vehicle, using the normalized Verein Deutscher Ingenieure (VDI) drive cycle. To evaluate the performance of the lithium-ion battery/supercapacitor hybrid energy storage system, different sizing simulations are carried out. The suggested solution allows us to successfully optimize the system in terms of efficiency, volume and mass, in regard to the battery, supercapacitors technology and the energy management strategy chosen.
Highlights
Industry 4.0 is part of the fourth industrial revolution [1]
The sizing of a hybrid energy storage system using a lithium-ion battery and a supercapacitor for a forklift application has been presented in this study
Unlike automotive applications, where the weight of the battery is designed to be as light as possible, the weight of the overall forklift must be high enough to allow the counterbalance effect during lifting operations
Summary
Industry 4.0 is part of the fourth industrial revolution [1]. With the rise of numerical technologies, sensors have become cheaper, smaller, more connected and have an increased memory storage capacity. Lithium-ion battery price has been decreasing [16], and this technology still presents better performances than lead-acid batteries in terms of energy density, power discharge, cycle life, efficiency, and charging operations [17,18]. Manufacturers such as Jungheinrich or EP Equipment offer forklifts equipped with lithium-ion batteries with quick charging time (2.5 h instead of 10 h with lead-acid batteries). The remainder of the paper is organized as follows: Section 2 describes the driving cycle studied, Section 3 illustrates the principle of a lithium-ion battery/supercapacitor sizing, Section 4 presents simulation results and Section 5 offers conclusions
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