Mazda uses capacitor for brake energy recovery

Appearing from next year, the i-ELOOP (for ‘intelligent energy loop’) system uses a capacitor, which can quickly – but only temporarily - store large volumes of electricity.

The system captures the kinetic energy as the car decelerates or in braking, and converts it into electricity that can be used to run airconditioning and other electrical components.

It means that non-electric cars can use brake energy recovery in the same way as electric and hybrid cars, where the recovery is achieved through the electric motor.

Mazda’s i-ELOOP features a 12-25V variable voltage alternator that sends the charge to a low-resistance electric double layer capacitor – which can be charged in seconds -- following which a DC/DC converter steps it down to 12V before relaying to the car’s battery and powered features.

Mazda says that by reducing the need for the engine to burn extra fuel to generate electricity, i-ELOOP can reduce fuel consumption by around 10 per cent.