Innovative approach for increasing reliability in electronic cranking in two wheelers

One of the most essential requirements of an automobile is the battery which is required for starting the engine by providing the starter power to turn the crankshaft of the internal combustion engine. Batteries used for this requires continuous maintenance and have a general life of 3 years after which they need to be replaced. Batteries can be replaced with supercapacitor which is a pulse current device and doesn't require regular maintenance apart from this it has long life. Generally, a supercapacitor has a life span of 20 years which is sufficient for an automobile. But the major problem with the supercapacitors is that they are new in the market and not much research has happened on them with respect to its use with its current drawbacks. Especially on the application side in problem is self-discharge due to impurities in the electrodes and electrolytes. This drawback of an supercapacitor has made it unsuitable to replace battery in an automobile which requires a general voltage of 12V to start its engine. In order to circumvent this problem a voltage booster is required which can boost the voltage level of the supercapacitor bank in order to provide enough voltage to start the engine. After the engine starts, the alternator can take over the power supply requirement of the engines. This paper presents implementation of a scheme to boost voltage output connected to starter motor under heavy self-discharge state of supercapacitor to improve the reliability of the system.