Ioxus, a US firm, is beating ultracapacitors made in Asia, and using them for much larger applications than digital cameras and Blackberries.
Ioxus is helping power cars, diesels and locomotives, along with finding smarter ways to make small devices smaller.
Fitting between batteries and traditional capacitors, ultracapacitors have features of both. As Chad Hall, COO of Ioxus said,
“Batteries are best at doing a little work for long time, like running a radio. Capacitors, on the other hand, can do lot of work for a short time.” He went on to say, “You can start a motor with lots of battery or one capacitor.”
Ultracapacitors have very fast rates of charge and discharge which is why cameras now use very small ultracapacitors to charge the flash. But until recently, most of the applications for ultracapacitors has centered around compact consumer electronics. What Ioxus brings to the market is a way to bring the advantages of high capacity to the newer, large applications like hybrids and distributed energy.
Hybrids
For standard batteries-like car batteries-ultracapacitors act as a shock absorbers by working well under conditions that are not good for battery life: cold temperatures and quick starts. Imagine a North Dakota morning in December or a 1 million square foot warehouse that is below freezing. The cold that stalls batteries, don’t affect ultracapacitors. Since they don’t break chemical bonds, but move charge and ions only, they can charge/discharge hundreds of thousands of cycles with minimal changes in performance over the product life cycle.
By pairing ultracapacitors with batteries for hybrid vehicles, utracapacitors ensure that the battery never sees a high current peak. During large power draws such as starting, breaking and power steering, the battery is not being over heated. What this means for batteries is longer life and smaller size, which in turn leads to lighter vehicles and less waste.
For the hybrids, ultracapacitors can be used to efficiently capture electricity from braking (known as regenerative braking) and power for acceleration that helps offset the hybrid’s reputation for slow starts. With no moving parts, ultracapacitors also have a very long lifespan – 500,000 plus charge/recharge cycles.
Distributed energy
The amount of energy stored is very large compared to a standard capacitor because of the enormous surface area created by the porous carbon electrodes and the small charge separation created by the dielectric separator. As a result, ultracapacitors are currently used for wind or solar storage. The energy stored during peak production (sunny and/or windy days) can then be discharged during peak usage, which maybe at night or on cloudy or calm days.
Ioxus Edge
Their electrode performance is two times the output of their competitors, which they attribute to the fact that they have been working with high capacity since 1964. They have over 21 patent applications as well as experience in building the modules they design. Their own in-house electrode production helps them stay competitive with Asian competition with a 100% made in USA products. Recently, they have received a NYSERDA grant along with an expansion of their distribution network.
As Chad remarked,
“If you leave lights on, take a capacitor and plug it into battery.”
