AABC Europe 2015 - ECCAP Symposium: Large EC Capacitor Technology and Application - Session 3

New EC Capacitor Products and Business Development

This session reviewed new capacitor products and EC business development activity. Leaders from key companies discussed present and future products and business development strategies as they expand their product offerings to support the growth of energy-efficient industrial, utility, and transportation-related energy-storage systems.

Session Chairman:

Dr. John R. Miller is President of JME, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in ultracapacitor development, testing, and application. John is a well-known expert in ultracapacitor technology with 25 years of experience in the industry. In the past five years, prior to joining the AABC team, he has chaired the Advanced Capacitor World Summit.

1. Optimized Hybrid Energy Storage Architecture
   Michael Everett, CTO, Maxwell Technologies
   

   It is no secret that energy storage has a very robust and promising future in vehicles and grid scale implementation. What is not yet known is how to squeeze every last ounce of benefit from energy storage in those applications. This is mostly because the architectures for energy storage implementations are evolving as are the energy storage technologies themselves. The target is therefore moving. This presentation will focus on the optimization of energy storage (size, performance, cost and type) and the integration challenges and benefits of different storage technologies available to arrive at affordable and reliable application solutions which are going to be necessary for the industries to utilize energy storage effectively now and in the future.
2. Innovative Electrolytes for High Voltage and Safe EDLCs
   Andrea Balducci, Researcher, Helmholtz Institute Ulm
   

   The development of innovative electrolytes is a key factor for the realization of high voltage and safe EDLCs.

   Advanced electrolytes need to display several properties, including:

   • High concentration
   • High conductivity and low viscosity
   • Large electrochemical stability window
   • Low flammability
   • High safety

   In this presentation solvent-free electrolytes as well as electrolytes containing propylene carbonate as solvent will be will be considered and critically investigated. Particular attention will be dedicated to the following aspects:

   • Influence of the selection on anion on the performance of high voltage EDLCs containing ionic liquids as electrolytes
   • Influence of the salt concentration on the energy and cycling stability of high voltage EDLCs containing propylene carbonate as solvent
   • Introduction of new types of ionic liquids as electrolytes in high voltage EDLCs

   The presentation concludes with a summary and discussion of next steps necessary for the further optimization of electrochemical double layer capacitors containing these advanced electrolytes.
3. EDLC Design for End-of-Life: Impact of Testing Conditions
   Clifford W. Walton, Research Fellow, Calgon Carbon Corporation
   

   In the ongoing drive to make EDLC’s (supercapacitors) of greater value to end users, manufacturers are pushing components to ever wider ranges of temperature and storage capabilities, stretching existing materials of construction to their limit.  Since the end users, such as wind turbine, automotive (buses, cars and trucks) and power recovery (e.g., braking energy), are focused on effective performance through the entire life of a piece of equipment (service life) that can easily be 10-15 years, this presents a major developmental challenge for rapidly evolving improvements, for both EDLC manufacturers and their material suppliers.  This presentation highlights these issues and learnings from studies.

   • Introduction
     • End user needs: Full life performance
     • Testing for full life in accelerated manner
      
   • Issues impacting efforts to push limits on EDLC voltage and temperature maximums
     • Thermal kinetics
     • Electrochemical kinetics
     • Materials
      
   • Generic comparison of findings from testing
     • Capacitance decay, the fleeting value of pseudo capacitance
     • Resistance increase
     • Degradation of component materials, including separator
     • Coin, small can and large can cell testing
      
   • Challenges to further improvements
   • Conclusions
4. China Steel’s New EDLC Activated Carbon Development and its Application
   Rock S.T. Shen, General Manager of New Venture Dept., China Steel Chemical Corp
   

   Today Supercapacitor has long been a promising technology and active material is the soul of the capacitance. China Steel Chemical is a subsidiary of China Steel Corporation which is established in 1971 in Taiwan. China Steel Chemical has been involved in Li-ion battery anode material for above 10 years and raw material, coal tar pitch, are provided by China Steel Corporation steadily. In the past ten years, a lot of efforts have been devoted into developing activation carbon for supercapacitor. After continuous improvement, such as activation process and reaction condition, unique technique was established and energy-oriented ACS20 and optimization of energy and power ACS25 are generated. This talk is intended to introduce China Steel Chemical’s activated carbon, which is made in Taiwan, and shows what makes our material outstanding from competitors. The outline includes:

   • Introduction of China Steel Chemical Corporation from Taiwan.
   • How and what does raw material affect the performance?
   • Why do we utilize DFT to measure our product as internal SPEC?
   • Why Pore Size Distribution is as important as Specific Surface Area?
   • Our product: Energy-oriented ACS20 & optimization of energy and power ACS25
   • Customer feedback.
5. Low-Resistance EC Capacitors
   Kai Vuorilehto, VP of Production, Skeleton Technologies
   

   High power is the main reason for applying electrochemical capacitors. Power is limited by the inner resistance of the capacitor. However, there are many definitions for the inner resistance; data sheets, impedance spectroscopy measurements and cycling experiments give quite different numbers for the resistance.

   The alternating current (AC) resistance is rather easily determined by measuring the impedance at 100 Hz frequency. The AC resistance value corresponds to the contact resistance of tabs, welds, current feeders and aluminum/carbon contacts. Additionally, the electrolyte resistance inside the separator causes contact resistance.

   The direct current (DC) resistance includes the AC resistance and the electrolyte resistance in the porous carbon structure. The measurement is less straightforward, and the result depends on current and time.

   In this presentation, various components of the resistance are discussed:

   • tabs
   • welds
   • aluminum foil
   • aluminum/carbon contact
   • electrolyte in the separator
   • electrolyte in the porous carbon.

   Some methods for resistance measurement are shown:

   • 10ms method
   • 5s method
   • impedance spectroscopy
   • capacitor cycling

   Finally, the importance of resistance for different applications is discussed.
6. The Next Generation Ultracapacitors and Modules
   Chad Hall, Co-Founder, VP of Marketing & Product Management, Ioxus
   

   There’s a global demand for improved energy storage when it comes to powering tomorrow’s vehicles and Ioxus is proud to say it is ready to meet tomorrow’s challenges today. This session will take a close look at the Ioxus iMOD X-Series, a reinvented series of module systems for a common, single-piece extruded housing for application across all of its axial ultracapacitors. The modules unique design allows for Ioxus to provide its customers with the durability and extended-life that surpasses that capabilities of its competitors and establishes Ioxus as the firm leader in module design.
7. SAFECAP: A New Safe Inorganic-Based Supercapacitor
   Marie Dieudonné, E-Green Laboratory Manager, Hutchinson SA Central Research
   

   This talk will take a closer look at the new ultracapacitor technology based on aqueous electrolyte developed by Hutchinson within the last 5 years. At present all commercial solutions are based on organic solvent with their drawbacks of flammability and toxicity in case of damage and fire.
   The outline includes:

   • Introduction to Hutchinson
   • Safety concerns with organic based ultracapacitors
   • Our product: SAFECAP, advantages and performances
   • Different packaging for different applications