EEStor gets patent for EESU, we get some details
Stop the presses! We've finally got some real information regarding EEStor's highly secretive capacitor-based energy storage system, though it's not exactly coming from the company itself. It seems that EEStor recently filed for patents of its new technology, which centers around a core of aluminum coated barium titanate powder immersed in a polyethylene terephthalate plastic matrix, and they've now been granted those patents. The best part for those of us who've been following the company's developments is that the patent office has released detailed information regarding what makes it all tick.
We'll leave it up to you if you want to read through the whole document, but here are a few salient points for your consideration. The EEStor EESU would weigh just 282-pounds, yet would carry as much juice as the lithium ion battery pack that's currently in use by Tesla Motors for its Roadster. Just as much power but nearly four-times lighter? That's impressive. Even better, EEStor claims that its EESU's performance never degrades with use and would potentially last forever. Great. We'll take two, and we're not the only ones excited. Click past the break for more.
[Source: Patent file (.pdf link) via GM-Volt via Treehugger]
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See? Of course, we're also wondering what this news will mean for ZENN Motors, which has an agreement with EEStor to use its EESU in a future electric vehicle. Stay tuned.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Tim 10:59AM (12/24/2008)
I hope this is real and works as well as they claim it will. If so, this would truly begin the electrification of the automobile.
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Enoch 9:58AM (12/24/2008)
Can any fool sketch a diagram and make claims? Does getting a patent imply that the patent examiner actually had a physical device that was tested and had the claims confirmed? If so why doesn’t Eestor show this device to the rest of us.
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jason 10:09AM (12/24/2008)
Can any fool sketch a diagram and make claims?
yes
Does getting a patent imply that the patent examiner actually had a physical device that was tested and had the claims confirmed?
no
james 6:22AM (6/05/2009)
they are a private company, and they don't need to show device for investment. and those they have shown it too immediatley by into the company...GM, zenn motors,etc.
besides a third party has tested and confirmed the claims....as of last month,lol.
i can't wait to put a few eesu's in my house to spend ten minutes charging at off time, and power the house the rest of the day off grid.....goodbye 100.00 electric bill, hello 10.00 bill. lol
jeff 10:23AM (12/24/2008)
I can imagine those 3500 Volts being a bit of a stumbling block if everything they're claiming is true. 3500V doesn't really sound all that safe or practical to integrate with other electrical components.
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pgh 10:53AM (12/24/2008)
"3500V doesn't really sound all that safe or practical"
It depends. Those CRT monitors we were using for decades have up to 20,000V inside them. I seriously doubt that you would see anything like 3500V exposed outside the capicitor pack. Almost certainly, the pack incorporates a DC to DC converter to achieve the 3500V.
Current hybrids (yes, it's a bad pun) operate at between 200V and 300V in their battery packs.
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why not the LS2LS7? 11:12AM (12/24/2008)
There's a huge difference between 3500V and 300V. Also, the 3500V is tougher to work with because as the energy in a capacitor drops, the voltage drops with the square root. So if you want to make (say) 80% of the power in the pack available, the circuits have work with the pack anywhere between 3500V and 1600V. With a NiMH pack, the voltage only changes about 20% total from dead to full.
This DC to DC converter will be quite amazing. The power supply that makes 20,000V in a CRT cannot make continuous power and cannot sustain much current. This one will have to do both, so it'll have to use different techniques and not a flyback circuit.
why not the LS2LS7? 11:14AM (12/24/2008)
Patents are often divorced from reality. The company I work at applies for lots of patents, but by the time we get them, the product has already shipped (we were already protected by patent pending).
Now EESTOR has a patent go out and the product isn't ready yet? Makes me wonder if development is going very slowly.
They could write any figures they want on that patent, it doesn't mean they have it working or even close to.
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gorr 11:23AM (12/24/2008)
O"K i give up. I want to buy or at least i want to go see it at a dealer floor to put on my shopping list along the eco-fueler. If it's an ultra-ultra capacitor that don't wear then it may be good. But i won't buy if there is sup-par performance then a civic, approx 130 h.p. up to 90-100 m.p.h. And i won't buy if there is no gasoline range-extender. Don't need a big gasoline range extender. A gasoline range extender and performance enhancer of 200 cc, one or two cylinders can be sufficient. What it cost to add a gasoline range extender and performance enhancer amount to 400-1000$ approx and can triple of even give unlimited range if you drive normal speeds without hills.
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Aimless Six 11:44AM (12/24/2008)
Oh nice ..... a design for a new type of electric chair.
If they can build it, and it fails, it will deliver 100 MJ in 0.1 seconds, instantly vaporizing the occupants of the car.
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Lad 12:48PM (12/24/2008)
Well! We have everything we need for a viable electric car except a long-range. light-weight, mobile energy source; the current heavy LI Ion batteries have the storage to drive the car 125 miles or so and will do for most daily drivers.
I believe as science moves on with its research, we will perfect better energy storage devices and quick charge devices such as the ultracaps. There is great hope that caps will solve the quick charge problem and extend the range of BEVs. We'll see.
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Jeff 4:53AM (12/28/2008)
Why limit this technology to cars?
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J M 10:19AM (2/05/2009)
Self-centered greedy human species will have to grow up to be content with traveling in something non-oil, and non-racing, and non-big engine, something meant for more than nurturing their own egos with speed and the sound of a "big motor"! Just kidding...sort of. What a wonderful day that would be!
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jill 8:20PM (4/14/2009)
I have read this story and one's like it, about 2 dozen times in some form or another!
Please research this!!!!!! If true he has all ready triple the output using batteries over
ESStor and MIT new
Capacitor, over a two years ago!!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFcylXFGTgk
If true, the Lawyer might grant an interview or make some comment! What can it hurt to TRY! You always give press to people who might do something, someday and it always seem, that we are always kept waiting, when clearly this lawyer might hold the answer to what everybody have been looking for !
Jill
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