SUPERCAPACITOR S

By- Poorva Sharma (E.C.)

Outline questions

What is Capacitors? What are Supercapacitors? History of Supercapacitors. Advantages relative to Batteries Why they can store more energy, and why the mechanism of energy storage is so fast? Why supercapacitors? Disadvantage Applications.

What is Capacitor?
A capacitor (originally known as condenser) is a passive two-terminal electrical component used to store energy in an electric field.

When there is a potential difference (voltage) across the conductors, a static electric field develops across the dielectric, causing positive charge to collect on one plate and negative charge on the other plate. Energy is stored in the form of electrostatic field.

What is Supercapacitor
A supercapacitor or ultracapacitor is an electrochemical capacitor that has an unusually high energy density when compared to common capacitors. They are of particular interest in automotive applications for hybrid vehicles and as supplementary storage for battery electric vehicles

History
The first supercapacitor based on a double layer mechanism was developed in 1957 by General Electric using a porous carbon electrode [Becker, H.I., Low voltage electrolytic capacitor, U.S. Patent 2800616, 23 July 1957].

It was believed that the energy was stored in the carbon pores and it exhibited "exceptionally high capacitance", although the mechanism was unknown at that time. It was the Standard Oil Company, Cleveland (SOHIO) in 1966 that patented a device that stored energy in the double layer interface [Rightmire, R.A., Electrical energy storage apparatus, U.S. Patent 3288641, 29 Nov 1966.].

Advantages relative to Batteries:

Very high rates of charge and discharge. Little degradation over thousands of cycles. hundreds of

Good reversibility.
Low toxicity of materials used.

High cycle efficiency (95% or more).

Layman example for difference between

Supercapacitor

Battery

More power required for small time interval in 200 m race

Constant but less power required for large time in 20 km race

Specific power against specific energy

Ragone plot

Electrochemical double layer capacitors (EDLC)

Store energy using ion adsorption (no faradaic (redox) reaction)
High specific surface area (SSA) electrodes (carbon) 100 120 F/g (nonaqueous electrolyte) 150 300 F/g (aqueous electrolyte)

Market Opportunity
World Supercapacitors Market, $ mln.
$560 mln.
600 500 254.4 400 300 200 100 0 2006 2011 89.6 111.4 144.8 70.8 161.4

Obstacles to grow
Relatively high cost Competition with batteries well established on the market Consumer conservatism

$272 mln.

Factors to growth
New market opportunities like HEVs, Smart Grid, Alternative/Renewable Energy Growing ecology restrictions for competitors

Electronics

UPS and power tools

Transportation

Fig. 5. Annual Sales divided by segments Operation in a wide temperature range (Ultracapacitors - A Global Industry and Market Good prospects or a combined power supply Analysis, Innovative Research and Products , Inc. 2006)

Why supercapacitors?
Supercapacitors are known for over 50 years (patent of General Electric, 1957).
Supercapacitor are able to store and deliver energy at relatively high rates (beyond those accessible with batteries).
Capacitance of Earth is 0.0007 F

A specific power of 5 000 W/kg can be reached. Supercapacitor exhibit very high degree of reversibility in repetitive charge-discharge cycling. Cycle life over 500 000 cycles demonstrated.

Applications in Public Transport

China is experimenting with a new form of electric bus that runs without powerlines using power stored in large onboard supercapacitors, which are quickly recharged whenever the electric bus stops at any bus stop, and get fully charged in the terminus. A few prototypes were being tested in Shanghai in early 2005. In 2006, two commercial bus routes began to use supercapacitor buses, one of them is route 11 in Shanghai.
In 2001 and 2002, VAG, the public transport operator in Nuremburg, Germany tested a bus which used a dieselelectric drive system with supercapacitors .

 Since 2003 Mannheim Stadtbahn in Mannheim, Germany has operated an LRV (light-rail vehicle) which uses supercapacitors. In this presentation, there is additional information about that project by the builder of the Mannheim vehicle, Bombardier Transportation, and the possible application of the technology for DMUs (Diesel Multiple Unit) trains.
Other companies from the public transport manufacturing sector are developing supercapacitor technology: The Transportation Systems division of Siemens AG is developing a mobile energy storage based on double-layer capacitors called Sibac Energy Storage. The company Cegelec is also developing a supercapacitor-based energy storage system.

Features
Such energy storage has several advantages relative to batteries. Very high rates of charge and discharge. Little degradation over hundreds of thousands of cycles. Good reversibility Low toxicity of materials used. High cycle efficiency (95% or more).

Technology
Carbon nanotubes and certain conductive polymers, or carbon aerogels, are practical for supercapacitors. Carbon nanotubes have excellent nanoporosity properties, allowing tiny spaces for the polymer to sit in the tube and act as a dielectric. Some polymers (eg. polyacenes) have a redox (reduction-oxidation) storage mechanism along with a high surface area. MIT's Laboratory of Electromagnetic and Electronic Systems (LEES) is researching using carbon nanotubes [1].

Supercapacitors are also being made of carbon aerogel. Carbon aerogel is a unique material providing extremely high surface area of about 400-1000 m2/g. Small aerogel supercapacitors are being used as backup batteries in microelectronics, but applications for electric vehicles are expected.

 The electrodes of aerogel supercapacitors are usually made of non-woven paper made from carbon fibers and coated with organic aerogel, which then undergoes pyrolysis. The paper is a composite material where the carbon fibers provide structural integrity and the aerogel provides the required large surface. The capacitance of a single cell of an ultracapacitor can be as high as 2.6 kF (see photo at the beginning).

Disadvantage
The amount of energy stored per unit weight is considerably lower than that of an electrochemical battery (3-5 W.h/kg for an ultracapacitor compared to 30-40 W.h/kg for a battery). It is also only about 1/10,000th the volumetric energy density of gasoline.

The voltage varies with the energy stored. To effectively store and recover energy requires sophisticated electronic control and switching equipment. Has the highest dielectric absorption of all types of capacitors.

Applications:
Maintenance free applications

Public transportation, HEVs, Start-Stop System

Back-up and UPS systems Systems of Energy Recuperation Consumer electronics