Accelerating charging dynamics in sub-nanometer pores

Having smaller energy density than batteries, supercapacitors have exceptional power density and cyclability. Their energy density can be increased using ionic liquids and electrodes with sub-nanometer pores, but this tends to reduce their power density and compromise the key advantage of supercapacitors. To help address this issue through material optimization, here we unravel the mechanisms of charging sub-nanometer pores with ionic liquids using molecular simulations, navigated by a phenomenological model. We show that charging of ionophilic pores is a diffusive process, often accompanied by overfilling followed by de-filling. In sharp contrast to conventional expectations, charging is fast because ion diffusion during charging can be an order of magnitude faster than in bulk, and charging itself is accelerated by the onset of collective modes. Further acceleration can be achieved using ionophobic pores by eliminating overfilling/de-filling and thus leading to charging behavior qualitatively different from that in conventional, ionophilic pores

Study of the pulse power supply unit for the four-horn system of the CERN to Frejus neutrino super beam

The power supply studies for the four-horn system for the CERN to Fr\'ejus neutrino Super Beam oscillation experiment are discussed here. The power supply is being studied to meet the physics potential and the mega-watt (MW) power requirements of the proton driver of the Super Beam. A one-half sinusoid current waveform with a 350 kA maximum current and pulse length of 100 \mu s at 50 Hz frequency is generated and distributed to four-horns. In order to provide the necessary current needed to focus the charged mesons producing the neutrino beam, a bench of capacitors is charged at 50 Hz frequency to a +12 kV reference voltage and then discharged through a large switch to each horn via a set of strip-lines at the same rate. A current recovery stage allows to invert rapidly the negative voltage of the capacitor after the discharging stage in order to recuperate large part of the injected energy and thus to limit the power consuption. The energy recovery efficiency of that system is very high at 97%. For feasibility reasons, a modular architecture has been adopted with 8 modules connected in parallel to deliver 44 kA peak currents into the four-horn system.Comment: latex options change

Spin-chain model of a many-body quantum battery

Recently, it has been shown that energy can be deposited on a collection of quantum systems at a rate that scales super-extensively. Some of these schemes for `quantum batteries' rely on the use of global many-body interactions that take the batteries through a correlated short cut in state space. Here, we extend the notion of a quantum battery from a collection of a priori isolated systems to a many-body quantum system with intrinsic interactions. Specifically, we consider a one-dimensional spin chain with physically realistic two-body interactions. We find that the spin-spin interactions can yield an advantage in charging power over the non-interacting case, and we demonstrate that this advantage can grow super-extensively when the interactions are long ranged. However, we show that, unlike in previous work, this advantage is a mean-field interaction effect that does not involve correlations and that relies on the interactions being intrinsic to the battery.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figure

Electric Power Allocation in a Network of Fast Charging Stations

In order to increase the penetration of electric vehicles, a network of fast charging stations that can provide drivers with a certain level of quality of service (QoS) is needed. However, given the strain that such a network can exert on the power grid, and the mobility of loads represented by electric vehicles, operating it efficiently is a challenging problem. In this paper, we examine a network of charging stations equipped with an energy storage device and propose a scheme that allocates power to them from the grid, as well as routes customers. We examine three scenarios, gradually increasing their complexity. In the first one, all stations have identical charging capabilities and energy storage devices, draw constant power from the grid and no routing decisions of customers are considered. It represents the current state of affairs and serves as a baseline for evaluating the performance of the proposed scheme. In the second scenario, power to the stations is allocated in an optimal manner from the grid and in addition a certain percentage of customers can be routed to nearby stations. In the final scenario, optimal allocation of both power from the grid and customers to stations is considered. The three scenarios are evaluated using real traffic traces corresponding to weekday rush hour from a large metropolitan area in the US. The results indicate that the proposed scheme offers substantial improvements of performance compared to the current mode of operation; namely, more customers can be served with the same amount of power, thus enabling the station operators to increase their profitability. Further, the scheme provides guarantees to customers in terms of the probability of being blocked by the closest charging station. Overall, the paper addresses key issues related to the efficient operation of a network of charging stations.Comment: Published in IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications July 201

Active distribution power system with multi-terminal DC links

A fast power restoration operational scheme and relevant stabilizing control is proposed for active distribution power systems with multi-terminal DC network in replacement of the conventional normal open switches. A 9-feeder benchmark distribution power system is established with a 4-terminal medium power DC system injected. The proposed power restoration scheme is based on the coordination among distributed control among relays, load switches, voltage source converters and autonomous operation of multi-terminal DC system. A DC stabilizer is proposed with virtual impedance method to damp out potential oscillation caused by constant power load terminals. The proposed system and controls are validated by frequency domain state space model and time domain case study with Matlab/Simulink