Ultra Capacitators
Originally created on November 12 2007
[~Jan~~15~]
An interesting application of ultra capacitors explained and applied in the AFS Trinity Power system presented in Detroit, considering similar draws in a marine environment such as the high battery drain of such applications as electric winches, windlass and starter motors, it appears that untracapacitators could be ideal recipients of solar, wind and regenerative sailing sources to meet such punctual needs.
[~Nov~~12~]
Battery to Introduce Hybrid Energy Storage Solutions
Maxwell Technologies and Tianjin Lishen Battery, China’s leading producer of rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, announced an alliance through which they plan to manufacture and market novel “hybrid” energy storage products combining the companies’ respective ultracapacitor and li-ion battery technologies.
David Schramm, Maxwell’s president and chief executive officer, said that the companies see a large market opportunity for products that leverage the complementary strengths of double layer capacitor and li-ion battery technologies.
“We believe that the products we envision will give end-users the best of both worlds in terms of the long cycle life, rapid charge/discharge characteristics and low temperature performance of ultracapacitors and the large energy storage capacity of lithium-ion batteries,” Schramm said. “We also plan to move some of our BOOSTCAP product assembly to Lishen in order to leverage our joint process engineering capabilities, and Lishen will conduct development and qualification testing on battery electrode material produced through Maxwell’s proprietary dry process, so we see this as a deep and strategically important alliance for both companies.”
Lishen currently produces more than 130 million li-ion batteries annually in its state-of-the-art, 860,000 square-foot, production facility, located in Tianjin, China, supplying rechargeable batteries to multiple cellular telephone manufacturers, including Motorola and Samsung, and numerous consumer electronics manufacturers, including Apple for devices such as MP3 players. Qin Xing-cai, Lishen’s President, said, “When we determined that we wanted to market hybrid energy storage products, we identified Maxwell as the ultracapacitor technology leader, so we are very excited about joining forces for this collaboration.”
The companies have identified a number of initial target applications for the new products, ranging from quick-charge cordless tools to electric vehicles, and anticipate production and delivery of initial product samples in early 2008.
So, what Are Ultra Capacitors and what role can they contribute to hybrid propulsion
A capacitor is simply a device that stores electricity, or more accurately electrons. You can be a capacitor when sliding your feet while walking across a carpet to increase your charge. Touch something with a lower static charge and you will discharge your electrons. Capacitors offer a wide range of uses like filtering, signal processing, motor starting and motor running which is becoming a key interest.
Transport motors are going to need to start often and run at various speeds. A capacitor answers these conditions nicely. By offering a big dose of electrons instantly the capacitor fills the gap that comes when a battery needs to do its (relatively slow) chemical reaction to get electrons flowing. Positioned between a battery and a motor the startup can be full on from the capacitor as the battery reacts for running.
Whee the capacitor bcomes even more interesting is that it can also accumulate charging from regenerative sailing allowing the natural resistance of batteries to be managed and to hold an extra energy charge for restarts. Capacitors offer a much better performance scale for all kinds of electric motor operations.
Super capacitors offer even more. They are designed with cycle lives measured in the millions. Very low impedance that optimizes the load handling ability when used with a battery. Quick charging that can take place in minutes or seconds with simple chargers as they charge to full and simply don’t take on more electrons..
Substantial research and development is under way with blue sky claims that even pretend to replace the battery (EEStor is such a case). Looking at the Maxell Tienshin joint venture it appears there could be a much deeper integration of battery technology and super capacitors very soon. That would add a lot of benefits to both the “drivability” and the charge-discharge techniques. Over time its fair to anticipate that the integration will become more capacitor and less battery as the research and engineering improve the knowledge base for designs.
University R&D for example “North Carolina State University physicists have recently deduced a way to improve high-energy-density capacitors so that they can store up to seven times as much energy per unit volume than the common capacitor http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/07/070702150050.htm
These efforts are being driven by the automotive sector’ effort to develop hybrid propulsion systems, currently the hybrid drivetrain is engineered so that the petrol or diesel power plant takes over for the electric motor under certain conditions. Which means the car has a complete drive train for the gasoline drive and an ancillary drive for the electric side. A super capacitor offers the designer the choice to eliminate the gasoline drive train and simply directly charge the super capacitor and the battery. That would leave the car with only an electric drive train. Saves a lot of weight and simplifies things enormously. Having adequate capacitor electron inventory allows the driver to have the kind of energy release needed for sudden acceleration. The gasoline engine would only run to charge the capacitor and battery, thus could be engineered for optimum efficiency.
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