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Enhanced Capacitors
By | April 13, 2009
Currently, ultracapacitors can only hold a small fraction of the electrical charge that batteries can hold (about 5%), but they do have many very important advantages over their chemical cousins, such as no battery memory caused by partial discharging, no reduction in capacity with each charge (they last almost forever), and much faster charge-discharge times. If only we could improve their capacity… Well, we’re getting there. Read on!
The way to increase ultracapacitor capacity is to increase surface area inside of them.
By replacing the porous activated carbon used in ultracapacitors with tightly bunched nanotubes, Schindall believed that the ion-collecting surface area could be increased by as much as five. Since current ultracapacitors can store around 5 percent of the energy in an equivalent-size battery, the addition of nanowires could bring this up to 25 percent. “And you can also operate [the ultracapacitor] at a higher voltage with the nanotubes, and that’s about another factor of two in energy,” he says. “We are hopeful-we haven’t proven it-that we can get up somewhere between 25 and 50 percent of a battery’s energy. At that point, it becomes a compelling device for many applications.”
This would completely change the game, because batteries in hybrids and electric vehicles are never fully discharged to prolong their life. In fact, there’s only about 15% that is used, so an ultracapacitor with 25-50% of battery capacity but no restrictions on full discharge could actually provide more power and a longer range!
They’re not quite there yet. Theoretical capacity hasn’t been reached in the lab, and even after that it will probably take a few years for enough nanotube-enhanced ultracapacitor to make their way to market, but this is extremely promising (not just for cars, but maybe also as a way to store clean energy from intermittent sources). Thank you MIT!
by Michael Graham Richard, Gatineau, Canada on 03. 5.08
What’s interesting about this article it was published in March of 2008 and mentioned that it will take a few more years for this technology to develop. But here we are in 2009 with our new carbon nanotube battery ready for market, we are currently going through ULC lab testing for North American and finalizing our master distributor. Our first shipment should be in May/June. For early investement opportunity in this new battery technology just click on the investment application at the information bar on this website for more detailed information.
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