Outline

MAE 493R/593V- Renewable Energy Devices

Principle of supercapacitors
Materials used for supercapacitors
Applications of supercapacitors

Supercapacitor

http://www.flickr.com/photos/royal65/3167556443/

Conventional Capacitors

Conventional Capacitors

conventional dry electrostatic capacitor is composed of a dielectric block

sandwiched between two conductive plates
Capacitors store energy in its electric field.
In ideal capacitors, the magnitude of charge depends on area A and at a
distance d, is the capacitance:
Q
V
In ideal capacitors, the capacitance:
C=

C =

In a conventional capacitor, energy is stored by the removal of charge carriers,

typically electrons, from one metal plate and depositing them on another.
This charge separation creates a potential between the two plates, which can be
harnessed in an external circuit.
The total energy stored in this fashion is proportional to both the amount of
charge stored and the potential between the plates.
The potential between the plates is limited by breakdown of the dielectric. The
dielectric controls the capacitor's voltage. Optimizing the material leads to higher
energy density
d
it ffor a given
i
size
i off capacitor.
it

A
d

Image source: google

Electrolytic Supercapacitors

source: google

Principle of Supercapacitors

Electrolytic capacitor uses a moist separator. Rated in microfarads (uF), this

capacitor has several thousand times the storage capacity of the electrostatic
capacitor.
It is used for power filtering, buffering and coupling.

Electric Double-Layer Capacitor (EDLC)

Electrodes: Activated carbon particles

Electrolyte: KOH, organic solutions, sulfuric acid.
Separator: cellulose based material or porous polypropylene
Image source: google

M Jayalakshmi, K Balasubramani, Int. J. Electrochem. Sci., 3 (2008) 1196 - 1217

Principle of Supercapacitors

Principle of Supercapacitors

Supercapacitors do not
contain a dielectric block.
The electrical double
layer are formed in the
electrolyte surrounding the
particles, leading to
effective separation of
charge on the order of
nanometer scale.
scale
The area of the electrical
double layer depends on
the surface area of the
particles.
High capacitances result
from the practical-sized
packages.

In an electrical double layer, each layer by itself is quite conductive, but the
physics at the interface where the layers are effectively in contact means
that no significant current can flow between the layers. However, the
double layer can withstand only a low voltage.
Since the capacitance of these devices is proportional to the active
electrode area, increasing the electrode surface area will increase the
capacitance, hence increasing the amount of energy that can be stored.
The electric double-layer capacitor (EDLC) is ideal for energy storage that
undergoes frequent charge and discharge cycles at high current and short
duration.
Farad is a unit of capacitance named after the English physicist Michael
Faraday. One farad stores one coulomb of electrical charge when applying
one volt.

Source:: Wikipedia

http://www.ultracapacitors.org

Principle of Supercapacitors

Separator Materials for Supercapacitors

Three Types of Capacitors

The separator has two functions:

provide the electronic insulation between the electrode of opposite
polarization,
support the ionic conduction from one electrode to the other.
The conductivity through the separator is proportional to its porosity (4070%):
Where 0 is the electrolyte conductance
is the porosity and is a power factor

separators material: cellulose based material or porous polypropylene

http://www.garmanage.com

Image source: google

Electrode Materials for Supercapacitors

Carbon: charcoal, aerogel, fiber, carbon nanotubes, graphene
low cost, high surface area (up to 3000 m2/g)
Capacity: 100 120 F/g (nonaqueous electrolyte)
150 300 F/g (aqueous electrolyte)

Application of Supercapacitors
Series/Parallel Combination
Why in Series: Since ultracapacitor cells are limited to 2.7V per cell, for higher
voltage application multiple cells have to placed in series.
Design considerations: When placing capacitors in series their effective
capacitance is reduced by the number of cells placed in series:

Metal oxide: Rutenium oxide, manganese oxide.

high
g cost material.
Capacity 1300 F/g (RuO2)
Nominal voltage 1.2 V

Also when placing cells in series appropriate cell balancing needs to be added
to ensure all cells are charged uniformly.

Conducting polymers: polyaniline, polypyrrole, polythiophene

Capacity: 30 40 mAh/g
Nominal voltage 1.0 V

By courtesy of Tecate Group

Image source: google

Application of Supercapacitors

Application of Supercapacitors
Ultracapacitor Balancing

Series/Parallel Combination

Why Cell Balancing?

Why in Parallel: Since not all capacitance values are covered by cell offered,
customers can place multiple cells in parallel to achieve higher
capacitance/storage.

Achieve cell to cell voltage balance.

Accounts for variations in capacitance and leakage
current. Initial charge and voltage is dependent on
capacitance. Sustained voltage is dependent on
l k
leakage
current.

Design considerations: When placing capacitors in parallel their effective

p
is increased by
y the number of cells p
placed in series:
capacitance

Csys=C1+C2+C3+Cn
Also when placing cells in series/parallel combination appropriate cell
balancing needs to be added to ensure all cells are charged uniformly.

Reduces voltage stress on an individual cell.

Increase overall reliability of the individual cells.
Different methods of Cell Balancing:
Passive
Active

By courtesy of Tecate Group

Application of Supercapacitors

Application of Supercapacitors

comparison between supercapacitor and conventional capacitors

Available
Performance
Charge Time
Discharge Time
E
Energy
(Wh/kg)
(Wh/k )
Cycle Life
Specific Power (W/kg)
Charge/discharge
efficiency
Operating Temperature

By courtesy of Tecate Group

Advantages and limitations of supercapacitors

Lead Acid
Conventional
Ultracapacitor
Battery
Capacitor
1 to 5 hrs

0.3 to 30 s

-3

-6

-3

-6

10 to 10 s

0.3 to 3 hrs
10 to 100
1,000
<1000
0.7 to 0.85

0.3 to 30 s
1 to 10
>500,000
<10,000
0.85 to 0.98

10 to 10 s
< 0.1
>500,000
<100,000
>0.95

-20 to 100 C

-40 to 65 C

-20 to 65 C
By courtesy of Tecate Group

Application of Supercapacitors

http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/whats_the_role_of_the_supercapacitor

Application of Supercapacitors
Energy vs. Power

Performance comparison between supercapacitor and Li-ion Battery

Supercapacitor

Battery

compare power and consumed energy during 100 m sprint and 50 km

walk
http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/whats_the_role_of_the_supercapacitor

Source: Kestas Grigoras

Application of Supercapacitors

Application of Supercapacitors

Energy Density vs. Power Density for Various Devices

Source: Wikipedia

Author: Stan Zurek

Application of Supercapacitors
Performance Enhancement of cell phone with supercapacitor

Source: Tecate Group

Application of Supercapacitors
Market
The supercapacitor-based storage market can be expected to reach $877
million by 2014, up from $208 million in 2008

http://gigaom.com/cleantech/supercapacitor-market-to-surge-to-877m-by-2014/
http://www.tecategroup.com/white_papers/PumpUpTheVolume.pdf