Electrochemical Energy Storage Devices in Pulsed Power

Numerous research efforts have been undertaken to improve the feasibility of fielding compact pulsed power systems for a wide variety of applications. Each of these research efforts focuses on specific areas of pulsed power, but few papers have focused on the performance of a grid independent prime power source. This critical component is often overlooked in mobile pulsed power systems. Though not within the pulsed power community, a great deal of work has been performed by those in the electrochemical energy storage community to improve the energy density, power density, working voltage, and cycle life of electrochemical cells. This paper has helped to develop new energy storage technologies for applications such as consumer electronics, electric vehicles, and electrical grid energy storage. However, these electrochemical cells were not developed with pulsed power applications in mind. For that reason, a large amount of research is needed to understand how to effectively use electrochemical cells in pulsed power applications. In this paper, a number of different energy storage chemistries, including lithium-ion batteries, lead acid batteries, and bi-polar nickel metal hydride batteries, have been evaluated for use in pulsed power applications as a result of their high power and energy densities.