EEStor Update

Tyler, the Clean Break publisher is also a technology reporter and columnist for the Toronto Star.  In one of his recent columns in the Star he reported on EEStor's ultracapacitor and found a few previously unreported items about the company. His lead "A much-shrouded idea could give portable power a real charge, for a change — and change, well, everything" was one of the main themes of the column. The item I found most exciting was the following:

The company, sources say, is weeks away from seeking independent verification of the product's performance, which will be conducted by the University of Texas at Austin or a U.S. army facility. If all goes well, EEStor could be in preproduction this year and full production in 2007. During this time, potential customers — from automakers and military contractors to tool and electronics makers — will get a closer look at the product.

One of the experts he quoted was Richard Baxter author of the book on Energy Storage that The Energy Blog recently reviewed. 

The most One hang up that many, not Tyler, have on the technology is that it would require enormous bursts of power to charge the ultracapacitor in the short recharge times that are referred to when discussing this technology. 1) the short recharge time is essential to increasing the efficiency of energy recovery from braking that present batteries can't do. 2) most charging should be done overnight in the owners garage. 3) "filling stations" will need to charge some sort of energy storage system, such as more ultracapacitors or more likely flow batteries or other energy storage systems. (I'm not expert enough to know which technology is best) using off peak power if available, or during lulls in activity at the filling station, rather than imposing a extremely high demand on the grid for the short bursts of power that would be required for "refueling". Whatever method is used it will be quite a bit more expensive to buy electricity from filling stations rather than recharging overnight at home or in the parking lot at your workplace.

Technorati tags: ultracapacitors, energy storage, energy, technology

The Energy Blog: EEStor Update

Comments

[jcwinnie]

The question, Jim, is whether there will be a market for quick charging pumps, especially for high usage? And, one possible answer is how much cheaper it will be than switching to combustible fuel to stop at the Stop 'N Shop for milk, bread, and some joules.

[Engineer-Poet]

There will always be a market, used by people who need to drive distances beyond the single-charge range of their vehicles.  Commuters who can charge at work won't need them, but folks on the highway will.

A charging station will resemble a CNG station; energy comes in steadily via wire (vs. pipeline), is stored (batteries, flywheels or ultracaps vs. high-pressure tanks) and is transferred quickly to the vehicles.  One difference is that the station can make money by selling regulation and load-levelling services to the grid operators as well as electricity to vehicles.

[JesseJenkins]

"One difference is that the station can make money by selling regulation and load-levelling services to the grid operators as well as electricity to vehicles."

Good point, E-P, and that improves the economics of an electric 'filling station'. Still, I'm not sure which would make more sense, electric filling stations for an all-electric fleet, or electric dominant plug-in hybrids with the liquid fuel for those highway trips coming from cellulosic ethanol.

[Michael Cain]

Someone over at the Motley Fool provided a number for the published patent app, which can be downloaded a page at a time from the USPTO using this link. The most obviously interesting thing in the application is that compared to other ultracapacitors, this one has relatively small capacitance (31 Farads) but very high voltage (3500 V).

[David Kelly]

If the capacitor operates at high voltage, then we have the patent(s) pending power supply technology to go along with it.

Sorry at the time of this writing our website was undergoing a redesign, the high voltage to low voltage power supply technology is on the page ( ½ way down) http://www.stonepathpower.com/custom_work.htm

Dave

[Stephen Boulet]

Engineer-Poet wrote: "Still, I'm not sure which would make more sense, electric filling stations for an all-electric fleet, or electric dominant plug-in hybrids with the liquid fuel for those highway trips coming from cellulosic ethanol."

It seems to me that electric filling stations would make more sense, since, ultimately, power generating stations are more efficient than ICEs. The path I am thinking of would be to use the ultracaps in hybrids until a recharging infrastructure is in place and until battery capacity allows electric-only operation.

Stephen

[happyjuggler0]

Some suggestions for "filling stations" locations:

Hotels/motels, WalMart, fast food joints, middle-of-nowhere highway rest stops with low real estate costs.

One thing they all have in common is parking space already in place. Hotels and motels ought to welcome the extra usage of their parking during daylight hours.

[Paul Wagner]

Ummm...just a thought, but what happens if you "run out of joules" while driving down the highway? You'd better have a very lengthy extension cord.

[Doug Eckert]

I'm sure you'd have in-dash monitoring/gauges to avoid running too low on electrons. If vehicles come complete with both an AC & DC recharge mechanism (on-board inverter?), then you can recharge from an EV tow-truck to get you to the nearest outlet, then you're on your way in 5 minutes at full capacity.

[Doug Alder]

There was a recent article on EEStor in CNN's Money - http://money.cnn.com/2006/09/15/technology/disruptors_eestor.biz2/index.htm - The single charge can give you a 500 mile cruising range. That's more than sufficient to rely strictly on recharging stations and no need for any hybridizations. As long as this technology works and all of this is not some late dot com era pre IPO hoopla generation then this technology is going to stand a lot of businesses on their heads and put quite a few others out of business.

[haikunick]

This kind of thing would be great for electric bikes and mopeds. The weight of the battery, # of recharge limits, and the length of recharge time make it impractical. I'd love to create a tricycle that had enough power to push mom, baby, and insulated grocery bin around the neighborhood and park at the store. I'm so sick of seeing SUV's and single occupant cars running around town burning all that precious carbon to push 2 tons of metal around.

But seeing is believing on a product that offers so much. What happens if the capacitor fails? Is it a giant arc going to ground? or is it a white hot short lived fire?

[john]

Michael:

31 Farads is not a small capacitor, I don't think one with that high a capacitance has ever been built. Thats why we in the capacitor business rate caps at Micro-farads, one millionth of a farad.

Haikunik:

If this were real,(which I don't believe)there would be the equivalent of 100 sticks of dynamite sitting there. If so, the effect of a short would be pretty dramatic.(and that is how these caps fail)

Doug E:

That tow truck would have to have one heck of a lot of storage. To deliver that charge in 5 minutes would require over 2000 amps..what's your house service amps?

[Lawrence Miller]

Michael wrote: "31 Farads is not a small capacitor, I don't think one with that high a capacitance has ever been built."

Super capacitors are common today having 1000's of Farads, yes Farads. Low voltage though, maybe 2.7 V.

Here is an example at www.DigiKey.com

Part search on: ESHSP-5000C0-002R7

CAPACITOR ULTRA 5000F 2.7V MOD

Let's use engineering units, 5 kF.

I await to see what EEStor produces.

[Lawrence Miller]

Correction, John wrote... See my post above.

[CapacitorMan]

I stand corrected, I was not aware they came that high, that is some bundle!

In any case, it would require 8000 of those to provide the energy for the car, which is about a cube 5ft on edge, and weigh around 8 tons. At the Digi-Key prices, it would cost $2.8 million....probably not practical, but it puts the eestor claims in perspective.

[H. Ohlke]

I am optimistic that cross-country personal electric transportation may be available in the near future. However, a small stumbling block to this dream would be the government's eventual concern on how to collect highway taxes from cars charging off the electric grid. This may be part of the reason that so much grant money is currently available to research only the technologies that require one to fill up at fueling stations (methanol, hydrogen, etc) where taxes could easily be collected.

A suggestion would be to tax tires for highway taxes in lieu of fuel. This way no matter what provides the energy, fair taxes on the amount of highway used by an individual could be collected. Government should be happy that the money keeps rolling in for highway maintenance.

If this was seriously considered, it would be interesting to see the debate over what amount should be levied per tire. Should a motorcycle tire be taxed the same as a car or 18 wheeler tire ? What about the loss of tax money from gas used by lawnmowers, tractors and other non-highway vehicles ?

Definitely should make for an interesting discussion....

[Brian H]

This EEStor website redesign is taking one unholy amount of time. Wassup?