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New Capacitor Technology Could Lead to Even Cleaner Cars
At this year’s Detroit auto show back in January, the AFS Trinity Power Corporation opened some eyes with its XH-150, an automobile prototype that uses more efficient ultracapacitor technology to store energy. Even with continued improvements in lithium-ion battery efficiency and storage, this latest development could be the most significant revolution yet for the hybrid car industry.
A three-way hybrid, the XH-150 adds these more efficient capacitors to the standard battery-and-gas-engine dual-system set-up found in most commercially available hybrids. This new wrinkle allows a vehicle to accelerate more quickly, as well as recharge and discharge electricity more quickly, than with a battery. Industry insiders believe that, as the capacitor technology progresses, it may even replace batteries entirely.
Even in their conventional form, capacitors supply energy more quickly than batteries, but are only able to achieve a fraction of the storage capability. The new ultracapacitors combine the best of each technology; they are able to store more energy because they don’t simply rely on static charges the way conventional capacitors do. They also make use of ionic flow and an electrolytic medium much like batteries, but do so without resorting to the slower electrochemical reaction that normally facilitates this process. This is achieved in part by increasing the surface area of the electrodes without increasing volume, a tricky process that engineers are finally beginning to control through nanotechnology. Other alternate approaches utilize new insulating materials such as barium titanate, eschewing increased surface area for higher electric potential.
The result, in the case of the XH-150, is a hybrid vehicle that will be capable of up to 80 mph and 150 mpg in normal use (as opposed to around 50 mph and 100 mpg for regular hybrids), and an all-electric range of 40 miles before the gasoline engine kicks in (400 miles on both electric and gas). The use of ultracapacitors also means it can be charged much more quickly than current electric vehicles, thereby increasing their range even more, since the possibility of convenient electric “refueling” will further reduce the need to make use of conventional fuel.
Ultracapacitors may not be the final word in the hybrid revolution, as battery technology is also improving by leaps and bounds. The ensuing competition between technologies will pose an embarrassment of wealth that the burgeoning industry will eventually need to resolve. But what a great problem to have!
