SUPERCAPACITOR

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?
Acapacitor(originally known ascondenser)
is
apassivetwo-terminalelectrical
componentused to storeenergyin anelectric
field.

When there is apotential difference(voltage)

across the conductors, a staticelectric
fielddevelops across the dielectric, causing
positive charge to collect on one plate and
negative charge on the other plate.Energyis
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
discharge.

rates

of

charge

and

Little degradation over hundreds of

thousands of cycles.
Good reversibility.
Low toxicity of materials used.
High cycle efficiency (95% or more).

Layman example for difference

between

Supercapacitor

More power required for

small time interval in
200 m race

Battery

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
400

254.4

$272 mln.

300
200
100

89.6

161.4

111.4
144.8
70.8

0
2006

2011

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

Factors to growth

New market opportunities like HEVs, Smart

Electronics
UPS and power tools
Grid, Alternative/Renewable Energy
Transportation
Growing ecology restrictions for competitors
Operation in a wide temperature range
Fig. 5. Annual Sales divided by segments
(Ultracapacitors - A Global Industry and Market Analysis Good prospects or a combined power supply
, 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
diesel-electric 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