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How Should We Replace Car Batteries?

Posted August 17, 2010 7:49 AM

Supercapacitors are ideal for automotive and transportation applications. Their quick charging and discharging and the vehicle acceleration that they can achieve could considerably reduce size and cost of hybrid car batteries. A variant, the pseudocapacitor, relies on metal oxide or conducting polymer electrodes instead of carbon-based ones, but exhibits a shorter life. Will supercapacitors replace batteries one day? What applications or application sectors would be better served by pseudocapacitors? How will the pseudocapacitor compete with the traditional supercapacitors?

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tcmtech
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Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: South of Minot North Dakota
Posts: 8376
Good Answers: 775
#1

Re: How Should We Replace Car Batteries?

08/18/2010 11:15 PM

I am not sure how you came to the conclusion super capacitors are ideal for vehicles. the biggest super capacitors out ther still get their buts handed to them on the cost per volume and power to size ratios when compared to battery's of any form.

Until they design a super capacitor that is the same size as a vehicle battery and holds the same energy as a battery there is no comparison.

A 12 volt 100Ah battery would be the equivalent of a 360,000 Farad capacitor. The biggest commercially available super capacitors are still in the tens to low hundreds of farads range and can cost just as much as a common 12 volt 100 Ah battery.

As far as I know the super capacitor industry has not made a 1000x jump in capacity while lowering the cost per farad 1000x at the same time all while greatly reducing the total volume per unit to boot.
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Re: How Should We Replace Car Batteries?

08/28/2010 7:46 AM

Hello

I thought I bring you up to date on supercapacitors size and price availability.

I found on ebay 3000 farads capacitors at less than $0.018/Farad.

This might just prove your point but it shows they are getting there.

Here is the link:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Maxwell-3000-Farad-Ultracapacitor-Supercapacitor-Qty-15-/300453595800?pt=PCA_UPS&hash=item45f46e0a98

Cheers

Art
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tcmtech
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Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: South of Minot North Dakota
Posts: 8376
Good Answers: 775
#3
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Re: How Should We Replace Car Batteries?

08/29/2010 6:04 AM

The only thing I could find in the 3000 F range on eBay at that price is a 2.7 volt unit. To work on a standard automotive electrical system they would need to be stacked in sets of six in series which would drop them to around 500 Farads per stack.

to get to the 360,000 Farad point I would still need 720 stacks of six or a total of 4320 of those 3000 F 2.7 volt super caps. At $54 a piece thats still a $233,280 equivalent to a common 12 volt 100 Ah battery I can buy for around $100!

Oh and the theoretical 360,000 F 16.2 volt super cap battery dimensions are roughly the size of a large sedans trunk and would weigh about half of what most cars do!

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