초록
Purpose: In this study, a maintenance free super-capacitor battery charging system based on the photovoltaic module, to be used in agricultural electric carriers, was developed and its charging characteristics were studied in detail. Methods: At first, the electric carrier system configuration is introduced and the electric control components are presented. The super-capacitor batteries and photovoltaic module used in the experiment are specified. Next, the developed charging system consisting of a constant current / constant voltage Buck converter as the charging device and a super-capacitor cell as a balancing device are initiated. The proposed circuit design, a developed PCB layout of each device and a proportional control to check the current and voltage during the charging process are outlined. An experiment was carried out using a developed prototype to clarify the effectiveness of the proposed system. A power analyzer was used to measure the current and voltage during charging to evaluate the efficiency of the energy storage device. Finally, the conclusions of this research are presented. Results: The experimental results show that the proposed system successfully controls the charging current and balances the battery voltage. The maximum voltage of the super-capacitor battery obtained by using the proposed battery charger is 16.2 V, and the maximum charging current is 20 A. It was found that the charging time was less than an hour through the duty ratio of 95% or more. Conclusions: The developed battery charging system was successfully implemented on the agricultural electric carriers.