Ultracapacitors as the Key to Efficient Power Solutions

Ultracapacitors as the Key to Efficient Power Solutions

There is an obvious increasing interest in ultracapacitor (UC) technology and application all over the world but the UC market growth, in particular, in the automotive sector is still rather modest. In our opinion, the main reason for certain skepticism from automakers side is a pretty fast progress in Li-ion technology on the one hand, and rather slow progress in UC technology, on the other hand. As pure “physical” devices, which do not involve any chemical or electrochemical transformations, UC’s must demonstrate by far faster charge/discharge operations and longer cycle life than any “chemical” batteries

With such a background UC devices can provide the key to a number of efficient power solutions that are mostly related with covering peak power values and load leveling the batteries in various combined power sources. If so, UC devices must clearly demonstrate much higher power density (due to their much lower inner resistance) than Li-ion or any other batteries. This, accompanied by UC long life, wide operation temperature range and safety, will help them to clear their way to the market. Cost is another important issue, and those developing new nanosized carbon materials to be used in UC technology must bear that in mind. The low cost nanoporous carbons based on natural carbonaceous materials, e.g., bituminous coal or coconut shell were mostly used in our studies.

Detailed presentation: Ultracapacitors as the Key to Efficient Power Solutions