TECHNOLOGY STRATEGY

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. YUNASKO is developing technology to allow ultracapacitors to gain much more market share in 2-3 years.

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.

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, safety and cost reduction will help them to clear their way to the market.

As was mentioned above, another important issue is the cost of materials that are used in ultracapacitor technology. In particular, organic electrolytes and nanoporous carbon powders, which are typically used as electrode materials, contribute significantly to the total cost. The cost of electrolytes will be reduced due to scaling their production, while the cost of carbons depends strongly on precursor materials and treatment methods. In our technology we normally use low cost precursors and treatment to produce electrode materials with the pore size distribution needed. As a result low cost nanoporous carbon can be produced that meet the UC technology cost requirements.

We also pay significant attention to the manufacturability aspects of our newly developed technologies. It gives us the path towards the successful commercialization and correct planning for the large scale manufacture plant which will be able to supply the range of UC products starting from 2012-13.