After Gutenberg

IEEE Photo
Inho Kim, Chair, and Sun-wook Kim, Founder of NessCap, with super caps and architectural, solar tiles that are capacitor powered

In the IEEE Spectrum Online, January, 2005 Glenn Zorpette notes that NessCap Co., in Yongin, South Korea is one of about ten companies that are makers of ultra capacitors just beginning to appear as alternatives to batteries.

Ultracapacitors are now establishing themselves in niches demanding a power source that can recharge quickly, be sealed into a system that has to last for years, or put out prodigious amounts of power in short bursts. Tokyo-based Ricoh Co. is using them in copier machines to store the energy needed to warm up the machines quickly, minimizing time spent in the energy-wasting standby mode. Makers of high-end car stereo amplifiers are using ultracapacitors to deliver the surges of power demanded by musical crescendos, without straining the vehicle’s battery.

Another use is in solar tiles; a new twist in landscape architecture, they’re used to guide pedestrians at night, by storing solar-generated electricity during the day and using it to power a small light-emitting diode panel after dark [see photo, "Bright Idea"]. Sealed into a walkway, wall, or staircase, these clear, rugged tiles have to last for a decade or more, working without fail night after night, withstanding subfreezing and sweltering temperatures alike—criteria only ultracapacitors can fulfill.

And then there are cars. The hybrid-electric vehicle, in its various forms, is poised for an increasing share of the automotive market in several parts of the world, including the United States. And ultracapacitors have already found their way into hybrids, albeit in a minor role: hardly noticed among the Toyota Prius’s many celebrated technical breakthroughs is the fact that it uses ultracapacitors, from Panasonic, to power an electric-hydraulic pump in the mechanical braking system.

It’s just the start of what some experts say ultra-capacitors will do for hybrids. For example, with their lightning-fast charge and discharge capability, ultracapacitors could handle the power surges needed for accelerating, allowing engineers to use a smaller battery pack in the vehicle (and eventually, perhaps, no battery pack at all). Shielded from high-current pulses, the batteries would last longer, too.

One study (PDF) by researchers from the Department of Electrical Engineering at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile has shown that “the reduction in costs would only justify the inclusion of this type of system to a lead-acid battery powered vehicle if the battery life is extended in 50% or more,” a prospect that the authors observed was unlikely.

In the Near Future

Follow-up to e³ Super Cell Batteries, it would seem that by paralleling a low impedance, high power Aerogel Capacitor and a high impedance, high energy battery, the result is a low impedance, high power and high energy battery pack, known as a hybrid battery-capacitor.

Tyler Hamilton (Tiny URL) writes in the Toronto Star (Mar. 6, 2006) about EEStor:

Battery power as good as gas?
A much-shrouded idea could give portable power a real charge, for a
change — and change, well, everything
Mar. 6, 2006. 07:12 AM
TYLER HAMILTON

Imagine the day when cellphones charge up in seconds, laptop batteries never degrade, and electric cars have the same power, driving range and purchase price as their gas-powered cousins.

It’s a consumer’s dream and an engineer’s fantasy: Safe, affordable and eco-friendly batteries that can store immense amounts of energy, allow for lightning-fast charging, and handle virtually unlimited discharging with little affect on quality.

Such a battery — a superbattery — doesn’t exist today, but a tiny company out of Austin, Texas, is getting remarkably close, and the possibilities have caught the attention of the U.S. army, the former vice-chairman of Dell Computer, and one of the most respected venture capital firms in North America.

Not much is known about awkwardly named EEStor Inc., and the company prefers to keep it that way. It has no website. Hits on Google are remarkably low. And as far as requests from the media are concerned, the company makes its position crystal clear: Go away.

“EEStor is not making public statements at present time,” company co-founder and chief executive Richard Weir replied when the Toronto Star requested an interview via email. “EEStor would also like to have you and your paper not publish any articles about our company and the Toronto Star is certainly not authorized to publish this response.”

The Mission Impossible secrecy is understandable, given what’s at stake. Despite advances in other fields, there have been no dramatic improvements in battery capacity in the two centuries since Italian physicist Alessandro Volta invented the technology.

Energy storage has long been the bottleneck for innovation, holding back new energy-sucking features in mobile devices and preventing everything from the electric car to renewable power systems from reaching their full potential. Build a radically better battery at lower cost, experts say, and the world we know will be forever transformed.

“There’s been nothing big or disruptive, and we’re due for it,” says Nicholas Parker, chairman of the Cleantech Venture Network, which tracks investment in so-called clean technologies. He says energy storage is one of the hottest areas for venture capital funding right now. “Right across the board, better energy storage is essential.”

Among EEStor’s claims is that its “electrical energy storage unit” could pack nearly 10 times the energy punch of a lead-acid battery of similar weight and, under mass production, would cost half as much.

It also says its technology more than doubles the energy density of lithium-ion batteries in most portable computer and mobile gadgets today, but could be produced at one-eighth the cost.

If that’s not impressive enough, EEStor says its energy storage technology is “not explosive, corrosive, or hazardous” like lead-acid and most lithium-ion systems, and will outlast the life of any commercial product it powers. It can also absorb energy quickly, meaning a small electric car containing a 17-kilowatt-hour system could be fully charged in four to six minutes versus hours for other battery technologies, the company claims.

According to patent documents obtained by the Star, EEStor’s invention will do no less than “replace the electrochemical battery” where it’s already used in hybrid and electric vehicles, power tools, electronic gadgets and renewable energy systems, from solar-powered homes to grid-connected wind farms.

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“The stuff at MIT is a lot of hype . . . I’ve been working on ultra caps since 1989, and I’ve seen an awful lot of water go under the bridge — a lot of technologies get hyped and then go away,” Andrew Burke, researcher at the University of California
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“If everything they say is true, then that’s pretty amazing,” says MacMurray Whale, an energy analyst at Sprott Securities and a former professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Victoria. “To do all of that is unheard of when you look at any other battery technology out there.”
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EEStor’s technology, to be accurate, isn’t really a battery at all. In “techie-speak” it’s a ceramic ultracapacitor with a barium titanate dielectric. A mouthful to be sure, but what’s important is that it’s designed to combine the superior storage abilities of a battery with the higher power and discharge characteristics of an ultra capacitor.

Batteries, from the throwaway Energizer Bunny variety to the nickel-metal hydride units in a Toyota Prius, are great for storing large amounts of energy through chemical reactions, but they’re notoriously slow when it comes to absorbing and releasing that energy.

They’re also sensitive to temperatures, made up of toxic materials, and anyone who owns a digital camera, laptop, or handheld vacuum knows that after draining and recharging a few hundred times the battery degrades to the point of being useless.

On the other hand you’ve got ultracapacitors, based on an invention that dates back to 1745. These little devices hold energy as an electric charge and release it instantly as a power-packed jolt of electricity — not unlike the static shock you might get after walking on a rug and touching a metal doorknob. Ultracapacitors, unlike batteries, can also absorb a charge as fast as they release it.

And they’re also “green,” in the sense that they contain no nasty chemicals and aren’t made of toxic substances. Reliable in the coldest winters and warmest summers, “ultracaps” can typically be cycled — that is, completely discharged and recharged — more than a million times, outlasting any iPod or that electric scooter in your garage.

“After nearly two centuries in which batteries have been the obvious choice for storing usable amounts of energy, high-end capacitors, known as ultracapacitors, are poised to challenge them in a growing range of applications,” John Miller, an ultra cap expert and former engineer with Ford Motor Co., wrote in a recent essay.

The quick power burst that ultracaps provide is why they’re already showing up as a complement to batteries in hybrid-electric vehicles and fuel cells in hydrogen-powered cars and buses, which benefit from the extra kick that’s needed to get from a stop-to-start position or to assist in acceleration.

But completely replacing batteries, rather than just complementing them, poses a much more difficult challenge. Ultra caps have traditionally not been able to store as much energy as a battery. For example, a lithium-ion battery — where many of the advances in the battery world are focused — can typically store 25 times more energy than the latest ultra capacitors of the same size made by market leaders such as Maxwell Technologies Inc., NessCap Co. Ltd., and Epcos AG.

Last month, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology announced they had achieved a breakthrough that could potentially overcome these energy-storage limitations. Using carbon nano-tube structures, they claimed to have developed a way to improve by 100-fold the energy storage capacity of ultra capacitors.

Andrew Burke, an ultracap expert and researcher at the University of California at Davis, says there’s no shortage of groundbreaking claims but no one has been able to back them up with hard data or outside a laboratory environment. And even if they get beyond the lab, the high cost of manufacturing presents another barrier to overcome.

“The stuff at MIT is a lot of hype,” says Burke. “They haven’t tested the material yet. Their claims are based on calculations and assumptions about what these things are going to do.

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“If everything they say is true, then that’s pretty amazing. To do all of that is unheard of when you look at any other battery technology out there.”

MacMurray Whale, energy analyst at Sprott Securities, former professor of mechanical engineering

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“I’ve been working on ultracaps since 1989, and I’ve seen an awful lot of water go under the bridge — a lot of technologies get hyped and then go away.”

EEStor, on the other hand, appears well beyond the lab stage. Weir and Carl Nelson, vice-president of engineering and technology, spent much of the 1990s testing and developing manufacturing techniques and processes to support their claims.

Weir, an electrical engineer who has worked at IBM Corp. and auto parts giant TRW Inc., and Nelson, educated in chemistry and materials sciences, have extensive experience in the fabrication of integrated circuits and in the development of the kind of ceramic powder at the core of EEStor’s technology.

The details of their research are sketchy, but it involves a method of processing, mass-producing and using barium titanate powder as an insulator — the dielectric — helping EEStor’s energy storage system achieve a radical increase in voltage and energy storage without compromising reliability.

Another key to this process is the ability to lower the cost of production enough to become price-competitive with conventional battery technology, itself a major feat.

By 2000, the co-founders were ready to build a prototype. It’s difficult to say how far EEStor’s ultracap technology has evolved since, but sources close to the firm say a working prototype has been built and a production line is now creating prototypes on a batch basis, in preparation for volume production.

The company, sources say, is weeks away from seeking independent verification of the product’s performance, which will be conducted by the University of Texas at Austin or a U.S. army facility. If all goes well, EEStor could be in preproduction this year and full production in 2007. During this time, potential customers — from automakers and military contractors to tool and electronics makers — will get a closer look at the product.

Burke remains skeptical. “I think it’s nonsense. If they say they’ve built something I want to see the test data. Until then, talk is cheap.”

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Burke isn’t the only suspicious observer. Another engineer the Star consulted had similar doubts. “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof,” says Neil McMurchie, a freelance engineer working in the Alberta oil patch. “I find it hard to accept because the impact would be so profound. It would really change everything in electronics and power engineering.”

Then again, he adds. “It just might work.”

That possibility, that earth-shattering potential, has turned just as many skeptics into believers — a number of them highly credible. Last fall, it was reported that venture capital powerhouse Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers led a $3 million (U.S.) investment in EEStor.

Kleiner Perkins has a track record for picking winners. It made early bets on Google, Sun Microsystems, Amazon.com, Netscape and a host of other high-tech success stories that went on to become leaders of the computing, Web and telecommunications sectors.

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“I’ve been working on ultracaps since 1989, and I’ve seen an awful lot of water go under the bridge — a lot of technologies get hyped and then go away’
Andrew Burke, ultracapacitor expert at the University of California
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“Kleiner has done a hell of a lot of due diligence on this,” says a source close to EEStor, who asked not to be named.

John Doerr, a partner with Kleiner Perkins, reportedly told an audience at an investors’ conference in January that an energy storage company, which he would not name, represented the VC’s “highest-risk, highest-reward” investment. It’s widely assumed he was referring to EEStor.

Adding more intrigue to the story is the fact that Colin Powell, the former U.S. secretary of state, joined Kleiner Perkins last summer as a strategic partner. Sources speculate Powell has been briefed on EEStor, which from a government and military perspective could bolster the Bush administration’s energy security policy and efforts to break America’s “addiction to oil.”

“It’s one thing to have the greatest new technology, but another to get it out into the field,” says Richard Baxter, an energy-storage expert and researcher at New York-based Ardour Capital Investments LLC, who sees huge potential in ultracap technology. “Kleiner’s great for opening up the door.”

Besides Kleiner’s involvement, EEStor has also attracted big names to its five-person board. The Star has learned that Morton Topfer, former vice-chairman of Dell Computer Corp. and widely known as Michael Dell’s mentor, has joined the company as a director. Topfer founded and is managing director of Austin-based private equity firm Castletop Capital LP and has close and invaluable ties to big Texas money.

Michael Long, CEO of online real-estate giant Homestore Inc., is also on the board. His experience with Homestore and as CEO of several companies before that could prove useful as EEStor inches closer to commercialization.

There’s a Canadian angle to all of this. Before Kleiner’s involvement, EEStor struck a relationship with Toronto-based Feel Good Cars that has translated into a $2.5 million (U.S.) licensing agreement. Feel Good makes low-speed electric cars and wants to use EEStor’s technology to power its next-generation vehicles, which could hit the market as early as 2007.

Ian Clifford, the company’s co-founder and CEO, says he has secured exclusive worldwide rights to purchase EEStor’s product for use in any vehicle up to 1,200 kilograms, about the size of a Honda Civic. It also has non-exclusive rights to use the technology in other vehicles excluding SUVs and pick-ups.

According to patent documents, EEStor describes the day when gas stations evolve into “electrical energy stations” that store energy overnight when electricity is cheap and sell it like gasoline during daytime. Drivers could pull in and recharge their EEStor-powered car in a few minutes the same way we now fill up with gasoline.

The company pegs the potential electric vehicle market at $40 billion (U.S.) a year, but figures its total opportunity — military, utility and electronics markets — approaches $150 billion.

Clifford is waiting anxiously for the results of independent testing, which are expected this spring and will trigger another licensing payment from Feel Good. “The implications of this technology go well beyond transportation,” says Clifford. “EEStor, for us, would be a dream come true.”

Trehugger followed up Tyler’s story.

The batteries fully charge in minutes as opposed to hours.

* Whereas with lead acid batteries you might get lucky to have 500 to 700 recharge cycles, the EEStor technology has been tested up to a million cycles with no material degradation.

* EEStor’s technology could be used in more than low-speed electric vehicles. The company envisions using it for full-speed pure electric vehicles, hybrid-electrics (including plug-ins), military applications, backup power and even large-scale utility storage for intermittent renewable power sources such as wind and solar.

* Because it’s a solid state battery rather than a chemical battery, such being the case for lithium ion technology, there would be no overheating and thus safety concerns with using it in a vehicle.

* Finally, with volume manufacturing it’s expected to be cost-competitive with lead-acid technology.

“It’s the holy grail of battery technology,” said my source. “It means you could do a highway capable electric city car that would recharge in three or four minutes and drive you from Toronto to Montreal. Consumers wouldn’t notice the difference from driving an electric car versus a gas-powered car.”

Tyler Hamilton recently posted a follow-up:

“This is a very sophisticated electric car, with 250 to 300 miles of range,” Richard Weir, CEO, president and co-founder of EEStor said. “It’ll take a full electrical charge in about the time it takes to gas up a regular car. Just plug it up for a few minutes and you’re off.” Many auto manufacturers experimented with electric cars in the 1980s and 1990s but essentially abandoned the technology for hybrid or other alternative fuel systems due to their high cost of manufacture and maintenance. Weir believes EEStor has overcome those hurdles with their product. “This is just a preview of what’s to come. We have another major announcement for May. But seeing is believing!” he said. Cedar Park, Texas News Flash

Weir, says Hamilton, was referring to “two prototypes of a Feel Good Car that runs off one of its super dooper ultracapacitor-based energy storage systems — which, it bears repeating, claim to have 10 times the energy density of lead acid batteries and none of the negative side effects, such as slow charge time, limited cycling and environmental nastiness.”

Not the only capacitor-powered all-electric prototype, eh, Blue Car fans?

• More EEStor Conjecture from Leonardo
• Go, Austinites!
• Testing Innovative Transportation Manufacturing
• Carbon Nanotube Enhanced Ultracapacitor