Supercapacitor

Researchers at Drexel University are developing an electrochemical flow capacitor (EFC) that combines the storage capabilities of batteries with the much longer cycle life and power output of supercapacitors. The team's goal is to improve the stability of the energy grid and ease the integration of renewable energy sources.  Read More

Toyota Motorsport is hoping for a spectacular few months in the middle of 2012, most notably with the race debut for the TS030 HYBRID in the Le Mans 24 hour and now for an EV assault on Pikes Peak. Not content with challenging the all-conquering Audi Team Joest with its hybrid 3400 cc V8 and supercapacitor energy storage system, the company has unveiled a new development of its TMG EV P001 car (which set a very respectable EV lap record at the Nürburgring Nordschleife in 2011) dubbed the P002 with which it will compete in the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb in Colorado on July 8.  Read More

The wonders of graphene seem to know no bounds. Not only is it one of the strongest materials known, is both highly conductive and piezoelectric, it can generate electricity from flowing water and now it is being used to make better supercapacitors. Using a DVD writer, a team of UCLA researchers has invented a new process for making high quality graphene electrodes and used these electrodes to make a new species of supercapacitor. Though the work is in the early stages of development, it could lay a foundation for supercapacitor-based energy storage systems suitable for flexible portable electronic devices.  Read More

Capacitors are able to charge and discharge more quickly than batteries, and can do so hundreds of thousands of times. Batteries, on the other hand, are able to store more energy than capacitors. There are also electric double-layer capacitors (EDLCs), otherwise known as supercapacitors, that can hold battery-like amounts of energy while retaining the charge/discharge speed of regular capacitors. EDLCs incorporate liquid or gel-like electrolytes, however, which can break down under hot or cold conditions. Now, a new solid-state supercapacitor developed at Houston’s Rice University is using nanotechnology to get around that limitation.  Read More

A breakthrough in supercapacitor performance has been achieved with the development of a device that can store as much energy as a battery while recharging in seconds. The graphene-based supercapacitor being developed in the U.S. by researchers at Nanotek Instruments can store as much energy per unit mass as nickel metal hydride batteries and could one day be used to help deliver almost instant charging to recharge mobile phones, digital cameras or micro electric vehicles.  Read More

Research into capacitors for use in hybrid vehicles, EVs, computer power supplies and pacemakers has been given a boost in the order of US$2.25 million. Professor Gerhard Welsch, who began patenting his designs for capacitors a decade ago, will use the grant to complete development of a small, light, powerful and reliable capacitor that promises a 10-fold or higher increase in energy density over current models.  Read More

Supercapacitors, also called electric double layer capacitors (EDLCs) or ultracapacitors, are electrochemical capacitors that have an unusually high energy density when compared to common capacitors. They bridge the gap between batteries, which offer high energy densities but are slow, and “conventional” electrolytic capacitors, which are fast but have low energy densities. An international team of researchers are reporting the development of a mirco-supercapacitor with remarkable properties that has the potential to power mobile electronics, wireless sensor networks, biomedical implants, RFID tags and embedded microsensors, among other devices.  Read More

As part of its research into the public transport of tomorrow, researchers at Fraunhofer have developed the AutoTram – a vehicle as long as a streetcar and as agile as a bus. Combining the best of both vehicles it has no need for rails or overhead contact lines, instead the “bustrolley” rolls on rubber tires and follows a simple white line on the road surface. It was constructed to serve as a research platform in the institute’s “Fraunhofer System Research on Electric-Powered Mobility” project – a large-scale research cooperative involving 33 Fraunhofer institutes that focuses on developing mobility solutions for the future.  Read More

A few days ago, I managed to get up close and personal in Shanghai with one of the most interesting concept cars the world has yet seen. SAIC's Yez concept car is the first automobile, concept or otherwise, that's ever been conceived to have a negative carbon footprint. That is, it removes more pollution than it creates.  Read More