Introduction to the topic

Supercapacitors

Like chemical batteries, commercially available supercapacitors from various manufacturers store electric energy. While batteries do so through a chemical redox reaction, supercapacitors use a purely physical process in which electrical energy is stored in an electrostatic field. As a result, supercapacitors can absorb and release electric energy much faster. Furthermore, they can be charged almost an unlimited number of times (>100’000x) without losing their capacity over time. They are clearly superior to batteries in terms of sustainability, service life, temperature robustness and costs per charge cycle, among other aspects.

Supercapacitors are becoming increasingly important due to their properties and advancements in their further development. The latest generation store the same amount of energy as normal household rechargeable batteries but contain no or only extremely small amounts of problematic substances. It can arguably be said that they will become one of the most promising constituents of our future. Research and development reports indicate that supercapacitors could completely replace batteries in the future. In doing so, they make a major contribution to the reduction of CO2 and significantly alleviate the problem of mining and disposal of environmentally harmful battery components. Given how fast research is advancing and what major challenges mankind faces due to climate change, it is quite conceivable that supercapacitors will be at the core of modern energy solutions in the not too distant future.

To provide an overview of the properties of the latest generation of supercapacitors, here is a brief overview (please note: these are manufacturer specifications, which are taken from the respective data sheets, which are linked):

Product name

Wh/kg

Wh/l

Capacity in Farad

SC-typ

  

Product name

Wh/kg

Wh/l

Capacity in Farad

SC-typ

Aowei UCK42V6800C

100

216

7200

NG*

  

Cornell Dubilier DSF607Q3R0

9.15

11.14

600

trad.

Aowei UCK42V14000C

92

128

20000

NG

  

Cornell Dubilier 807DCR2R3SEK

8

8.7

800

trad.

Aowei UCK42V9000

65

90

9000

NG

  

sech C60T-3R0-3000

7.7

9.6

3000

trad.

GTCAP GTSPL-4R0-169ML

57.7

74.6

16000

NG

  

WIMA SCSRA1C300RE00MV00

7

6.3

3000

trad.

Jianghai SCCHAA4R0169MD60DC080E3

55

n/a

16000

NG

  

Skeleton SCA3200

6.8

9.3

3200

trad.

Aowei UCK42V28000

54

n/a

28000

NG

  

Ioxus iRD3000F285CT

6.6

8.3

3000

trad.

Shamwa CB2R7709W60138ATBHE

52.2

109.7

70000

NG

  

AVX SCCZ1EB308SWB

6.08

7.8

3000

trad.

Powerresponder PR13500F08R0-109W245L-T

50.7

77.2

13500

NG

  

Illinois 407DCN2R7K

5.8

7

400

trad.

Yunasko YLICC-0013E2R8

37

n/a

n/a

NG

  

Eaton XB3585-2R5607-R

4.26

6.2

600

trad.

* SC-typ: NG = newest Generation, trad. = traditional, conventional EDLC-Supercapacitors

 

Problems with today's battery technology

A chemical battery is an electrochemical energy store. When charging, electrical energy is converted into chemical energy through an electrochemical redox reaction. When discharging, the stored chemical energy is converted back into electrical energy and released. Both processes take time, take place only with limited intensity and generate waste heat.

The above-mentioned electrochemical redox reaction changes the chemical structure of the battery material. As a result, the battery ages over time with every charge or discharge cycle. How much it ages depends, among other factors, on how quickly it is charged and discharged (strength of the currents), whithin which range this takes place (state of charge from and to), and on the ambient temperature. For example, charging from 1/3 to 2/3 of the batterie’s capacity at room temperature over many hours, is far less harmful than from 0% to 100% at an environment temperature of 50° Celsius in just half an hour. This is taken into account and implemented by modern battery management systems such that the battery is never completely discharged or charged, but only within a certain range, for example from 20% to 80%.

Unlike batteries, supercapacitors do not contain any raw materials, which are mined in third world countries under work conditions that are harmful to health, and while the effects of mining have a strong impact on the environment, recycling them still represent a largely unsolved problem. Supercapacitors mainly consist of unproblematic carbon (e.g. burned coconut shells) and plastic sheeting.

 

Current charging technology for supercapacitors

Currently used supercapacitor charging technology is directly adopted from chemical battery charging systems and thus includes their inefficiencies and doesn’t take the properties of supercapacitors into account. Resistors and semiconductors are used to ensure that all supercapacitors of an energy storage unit, also known as a module, are charged equally, aka balanced. By doing so, the electronic components generate waste heat and have a load limit regarding currents they can control without getting damaged.

 

SwissCapTech’s charging technology

Our charging technology takes a fundamentally new approach to charging and handling supercapacitors. Neither resistors nor semiconductors are used to control the charging currents. Therefore, it works much more efficiently and with considerably higher currents, meaning it charges considerably faster.

 

Key elements of SwissCapTech

If electric energy has to be transmitted extremely quickly,

  • Supercapacitors must be deployed (instead of chemical batteries),
  • all of the energy has to be available where required => intermediate storage
  • Dealing with large amounts of energy requires a new "charging" process, specially developed with supercapacitors and this purpose in mind: