Big advance in Super Caps (12x)

[markdansie]

For all the fans of batteries and supercapacitor


http://revolution-green.com/2013/08/02/graphene-based-super-capacitor-breakthrough/


Kind Regards
Mark

[lancaIV]

Good enough to be included:
http://www.csiro.au/en/Outcomes/Energy/Storing-renewable-energy/Ultra-Battery.aspx


Sincerely
              CdL

[MileHigh]

Better super capacitors sounds very promising.  I am just not sure in the sense that there is an endless stream of press releases about solar cell, battery, and capacitor breakthroughs.  Will this be the 'breakthrough' breakthrough?

You can imagine electric vehicles that have a robotic umbilical probe underneath the the chassis for finding juice.  When you get to a red light the the probe inserts itself into a power outlet embedded the street intersection and it sucks up power.  It could make driving an electric vehicle in the city very friendly, you would never have to "fill it up."  Alternatively for a charging station, you just drive up to it and the umbilical probe taps into the power outlet embedded into the ground and 25 seconds later you are back on the road.  The transaction is either fully automated through your smartphone or you pay on the spot through your smartphone.

With respect to the link for the "ultrabattery," I don't believe it.  That looks like a 'breakthrough' that never makes it to fruition.  There is no real rational reason to mate a lead-acid battery to a super capacitor.

[Magluvin]

With respect to the link for the "ultrabattery," I don't believe it.  That looks like a 'breakthrough' that never makes it to fruition.  There is no real rational reason to mate a lead-acid battery to a super capacitor.

Sure there is. If you combine a battery with a super cap, you end up with a battery source that has more energy per weight(even size) ratio, while each greatly relieves the other of stress of heavy loads, but with the advantages of both.  Lasersaber has a couple vids using just super caps as a car battery. Pretty small compared to the original battery.  Some DIY guys are adding supercaps to their electric cars. 

Mags

[MileHigh]

The article that Mark linked to says that today's super caps have approximately one-twelfth the energy density by volume compared to lead-acid batteries.  So your statement about more energy per unit volume is wrong.  Taking away lead-acid battery volume and replacing it with super cap volume gives you less total stored energy.

The tech is 10 years old now.  There are misleading statements that don't make sense in the main article that's linked to.  After 10 years there is no battery performance data, and they don't even state anything about how they integrate the lead-acid battery with the super cap inside the case of their finished battery.  The only recent news is about using the battery in a hybrid vehicle and making a claim for the mileage they have gotten "out of the battery."  That barely makes any sense and I would think a hybrid vehicle runs mostly on gas anyways.  They compare their battery technology with NiMH battery technology but NiMH is yesterday's news.  The battery tech to beat is LI.  A Google search clearly shows there is no meat on the bone for this one.  The whole thing smells like a dead end that will never see the light of day as a commercial product.