Ricerc@Sapienza

A novel process is reported which produces an asymmetric supercapacitor through the complete recycling of end-of-life lithium ion batteries. The electrodic powder recovered by industrial scale mechanical treatment of spent batteries was leached and the dissolved metals were precipitated as mixed metals carbonates. Nanowires battery-type positive electrodes were produced by electrodeposition into nanoporous alumina templates from the electrolytic baths prepared by dissolution of the precipitated carbonates.

In this work, an in-depth investigation was performed on the properties of the half-bridge current-source (HBCS) bidirectional direct current (DC)-to-DC converter, used to interface two DC-link voltage sources with a high-voltage-rating mismatch. The intended implementation is particularly suitable for the interfacing of a supercapacitor (SC) module and a battery stack in a hybrid storage system(HSS) for automotive applications.

In many applications, like hospitals, the reliability of the emergency electrical supply is a critical issue, since the continuity has to be guaranteed at any time. The backup system usually consists of gensets and electrical starters (DC motors), supplied by lead-acid batteries. It is a fact that the latter are responsible for most genset cranking failures occurring in hospitals. Therefore, the reliability of the storage system should be improved to increase the Overall Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) of the whole backup system.