New 125-volt Boostcap ultracapacitor introduced by Maxwell Technologies
Even though Honda is dropping the ultracapacitor used in the current version of the FCX fuel cell car in the new FCX prototype, ultracapacitors have and will continue to play an important role in hybrid and hydrogen fuel cell vehicle technology. That's why it's cool news to see that Maxwell Technologies introduced a new 125-volt Boostcap ultracapacitor module last week (called the HTM BMOD0063-P125, not pictured), intended for use in heavy hybrid and electric vehicles.
Able to deliver power and recharge very quickly,
The HTM BMOD0063-P125 is pretty small (it weighs less than 50kg and measures 315x425x744mm, according to Maxwell) and you can connect up to 12 modules in series to deliver as much as 1,500 volts. Click here for the full press release.
Related:
[Source: Maxwell Technologies, Inc.]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
TDIMeister 5:57PM (11/22/2006)
Quoting voltage alone is but telling a fraction of the story of how good such a device is, much like quoting only peak horsepower in an engine and nothing else.
What is the energy storage capacity in watts and the power capacity in watt-hours? More importantly, what are the weight-specific and volume-specific energy- and power density values? A supercap array might be able to supply 1500 volts but at low current levels and only for extremely short burst of time; then the initially impressive figure is not so impressive anymore. The current state-of-the-art for supercaps is around 4 Wh/kg energy density and 4000 W/kg power density. Compare these respective values to Li-Ion batteries with 300 Wh/kg and 500 W/kg, respectively.
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Howard Lee Harkness 7:05PM (11/22/2006)
From the spec sheet, this capacitor holds about 2Whr/kg, or less than 1% of what a carbon-substrate LiON battery (~350 Whr/Kg) can hold. Low-voltage capacitors can hold more, but still only a small fraction of LiON. The tradeoff of capacity vs. voltage was not as good as I would have hoped, but the technology is still improving, so I wouldn't count it out completely.
The new titanium-substrate LiON definitely looks more promising than this (~300 Whr/Kg). There is another LiON technology that is supposed to hold ~400 Whr/Kg, but apparently won't do the 9,000+ cyles that the TS-LiON will.
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Jack Mastbrook 7:54PM (1/15/2009)
Howard, I know this is two years later than your commments.
In response to your commments about Maxwell and the state of the art, you may want to look at the soon-to-be-revealed, Reticle Carbon UC.
It will deliver Energy densiby of 70 WH/kg and power densities of greater than 24 KW-H/Kg. This is 17 and 6 tiems that delivered by Maxwell.
This patented electrode mfr. process is all in the consolidation of the activated carbon..
Howard Lee Harkness 7:17PM (11/22/2006)
"...ultracapacitors have technically been around since the 1745..."
Wrong. The capacitor has been around that long, but ultracapacitor technology has only been around a few years. Sebastian, you need to read your sources more carefully. The 1745 Leyden jar was a only about a nanofarad, or 1/63,000,000,000 of the storage capacity of the unit in this article.
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Sebastian 4:42AM (11/23/2006)
Thanks Howard. Post has been edited to clear that up.
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