[LINK] ultracapacitors

[Richard Chirgwin]

stephen at melbpc.org.au wrote:
> The US Patent Number, 7,033,406  <http://www.uspto.gov/patft/index.html>
> seems to be generating much interest for ultracapacitor driven vehicles.
>
> The Age says.. " sounds like a death knell for the internal combustion 
> engine ... meaning, a motorist could plug in a car for five minutes and 
> drive 500 miles" <http://www.theage.com.au/news/breaking-news/texas-
> startup-says-it-has-batteries-beat/2007/09/04/1188783194245.html>
>   

Science is one area where journalists make idiots of themselves by 
falling for the tricks of snake-oil dressed up as "fair hearing" and 
"both sides of the story". In this story, you don't even need to 
understand capacitors to call "bulldust".

Five minutes in a normal power outlet ... let's say 10 amps off an 
Australian supply:
Power = voltage * current
= 240 * 10
= 2400 Watts

Five minutes = 1/12 of an hour.
Power stored in capacitor from five minutes' charge on household power = 
0.2 kWh.

0.2kWh = 500 miles? Bulldust.

Imagine you could get (say) 500 miles out of 10kWh. The supply therefore 
needs to deliver 120 kWh to charge the capacitor in five minutes. Do the 
maths.

But (a) the journalist is required not to be a specialist; (b) not to 
"inject your own views" into the story, and (c) believes that giving a 
fair hearing to both sides = there is no such thing as a crackpot.

<sigh>

RC
> --
>
> US Patent Number, 7,033,406:
>  
> Electrical-energy-storage unit (EESU) utilizing ceramic and integrated-
> circuit technologies for replacement of electrochemical batteries 
>
> Abstract
>
> An electrical-energy-storage unit (EESU) has as a basis material a high-
> permittivity composition-modified barium titanate ceramic powder. This 
> powder is double coated with the first coating being aluminum oxide and 
> the second coating calcium magnesium aluminosilicate glass. The components 
> of the EESU are manufactured with the use of classical ceramic fabrication 
> techniques which include screen printing alternating multilayers of nickel 
> electrodes and high-permittivitiy composition-modified barium titanate 
> powder, sintering to a closed-pore porous body, followed by hot-isostatic 
> pressing to a void-free body. The components are configured into a 
> multilayer array with the use of a solder-bump technique as the enabling 
> technology so as to provide a parallel configuration of components that 
> has the capability to store electrical energy in the range of 52 kWh. The 
> total weight of an EESU with this range of electrical energy storage is 
> about 336 pounds. 
> --
>
> Cheers, people
> Stephen Loosley
> Victoria, Australia
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