Long Awaited Tech Of Ultracapacitors Is Now Arriving

[Revoltingest]

A friend who works in advanced military thingies has long had a flashlight (still
unavailable to ordinary folk) which uses super-capacitors instead of batteries.
It charges & can discharge quickly, & has great energy density & reliability.
I've been watching for products using this technology to hit the market.
Lo! Here is one.

Lamborghini creates world's first 'self-healing' sports car
Excerpted.....
The all-electric car is powered by supercapacitors rather than conventional batteries.
The car has an energy storage system which allows it to rapidly charge and hold more power than a battery.

Professor Mircea Dinca, from the MIT, added: "The new Lamborghini collaboration allows us to be ambitious and think outside the box in designing new materials that answer energy storage challenges for the demands of an electric sport vehicle....

The supercapacitors are made using carbon enabling them to be formed into the car's body panels as they are smaller and lighter than conventional batteries.

 

[Revoltingest]

This development has important implications for many things....
- Solar & wind energy storage.
- Electric vehicle range & quick "refueling".
- Power tool capability.

Thoughts?

 

[Brickjectivity]

Thoughts?

There are youtube videos on how to make your own using activated charcoal. You can also buy them. One fellow replaces his car battery with a set.

 

[Eliab ben Benjamin]

This development has important implications for many things....
- Solar & wind energy storage.
- Electric vehicle range & quick "refueling".
- Power tool capability.

Thoughts?

Wonderful now let us get the price down to inexpensive

 

[sun rise]

I keep thinking of "discharges quickly" and get a dandy energy weapon that reminds me of that prescient series of movies about your friend and mine, Godzilla

 

[Guy Threepwood]

A friend who works in advanced military thingies has long had a flashlight (still
unavailable to ordinary folk) which uses super-capacitors instead of batteries.
It charges & can discharge quickly, & has great energy density & reliability.
I've been watching for products using this technology to hit the market.
Lo! Here is one.

Lamborghini creates world's first 'self-healing' sports car
Excerpted.....
The all-electric car is powered by supercapacitors rather than conventional batteries.
The car has an energy storage system which allows it to rapidly charge and hold more power than a battery.

Professor Mircea Dinca, from the MIT, added: "The new Lamborghini collaboration allows us to be ambitious and think outside the box in designing new materials that answer energy storage challenges for the demands of an electric sport vehicle....

The supercapacitors are made using carbon enabling them to be formed into the car's body panels as they are smaller and lighter than conventional batteries.

Yes, sounds like a totally economically viable concept that is sure to revolutionize the automobile industry in no time

bionic hamsters running in the wheels is also looking very promising

 

[Terrywoodenpic]

Interesting that they could not find an American car maker to partner with.
Perhaps the powers that be and the energy companies had a down on it.

 

[Revoltingest]

Wonderful now let us get the price down to inexpensive

It'll trickle down from the Lamborgotti Fastarossa to pickup trucks within a decade, I predict.

 

[Revoltingest]

Interesting that they could not find an American car maker to partner with.
Perhaps the powers that be and the energy companies had a down on it.

It's a very spendy technology.
The higher cost doesn't alienate the kind of people who buy impractical
200+MPH sports cars costing multi-hundreds of thousands of dollars.

I'm sure you jest, but if the energy companies really wanted to inhibit
fuel saving technology, they'd have opposed....
- Aerodynamic styling
- Hybrid drives
- Lithium ion batteries
- Diesel & other high efficiency thermodynamic cycles
- Carbon fiber
- Aluminum bodies, crankcases & wheels
- HSLA steels
- Computer controlled engines
- Atkinson cycling
- Turbocharging
- Infinitely variable transmissions

When I worked in the auto industry, no one told us we couldn't improve fuel economy.
(Although I concentrated on safety & reliability.)

 

[Revoltingest]

Yes, sounds like a totally economically viable concept that is sure to revolutionize the automobile industry in no time

bionic hamsters running in the wheels is also looking very promising

Mock them at your peril, bub!

 

[blü 2]

It charges & can discharge quickly, & has great energy density & reliability.

Thanks for that. Very interesting.

What about capacity and duration? If it only gets you round the block twice, the fact that it recharges quickly won't matter.

But if all the details stack up ─ including cost, as has already been remarked ─ then yes, I'll consider buying one (probably the Mark II and not in a Lambo).

 

[Revoltingest]

Thanks for that. Very interesting.

What about capacity and duration? If it only gets you round the block twice, the fact that it recharges quickly won't matter.

But if all the details stack up ─ including cost, as has already been remarked ─ then yes, I'll consider buying one (probably the Mark II and not in a Lambo).

Lots'o capacity...hundreds of miles.

 

[columbus]

a very spendy technology.

Do you understand why?
Is it something that can come down in cost like computers did, with mass production jobbed out to cheap foreign labor and competition? Because it's new and hyped, like Facebook stock?
Or is it because it requires a lot of expensive and rare materials?
I have no idea myself. Have you?
Tom

 

[blü 2]

Lots'o capacity...hundreds of miles.

Lookin' good then!

Just a matter of field experience and of course bucks.

 

[Revoltingest]

Do you understand why?
Is it something that can come down in cost like computers did, with mass production jobbed out to cheap foreign labor and competition? Because it's new and hyped, like Facebook stock?
Or is it because it requires a lot of expensive and rare materials?
I have no idea myself. Have you?
Tom

I don't know how they're manufactured.
But it's reasonable to assume that cost declines as production quantity increases.

 

[Terrywoodenpic]

Perhaps it is a spin off from graphine research.

I once had a capacitor explode in a powerful professional flash gun.
It was quite dramatic. I would not want to be around if one of thse power jobbies did the same.

 

[Guy Threepwood]

I don't know how they're manufactured.
But it's reasonable to assume that cost declines as production quantity increases.

Not really, the electric car market share peaked around 100 years ago, when they were very expensive playthings for wealthy people.

The combustion engine made them obsolete overnight in cost and performance, bringing personal mobility to the masses- along with other increases in standards of living. If anything the gap has been widening ever since as the combustion engine has improved.

But there has always been a desire for some to return to the good old days, where only the wealthy enjoy such luxuries, with the riff-raff taken off the streets. Outlawing reasonably prices cars is a great way to do this, and it has already been implemented in many places.

 

[Revoltingest]

Not really, the electric car market share peaked around 100 years ago, when they were very expensive playthings for wealthy people.

There is a complex historical thingie going on here. Early roads were bad....really bad. Cities often weren't even connected to each other by roads. So car trips were far more local. IC engines in early cars were primitive, so that primitive electric cars were competitive for the typical short trip. All things changed as engines improved, roads expanded, & gasoline infrastructure grew.
The game changer lately was the maturation if the LI battery. I recall in the 70s, when auto manufacturers were searching for, & experimenting with various alternatives to the lead acid battery. None were better until lithium ion technology. Those started out very expensive, but prices fell as production increased.

The combustion engine made them obsolete overnight in cost and performance, bringing personal mobility to the masses- along with other increases in standards of living. If anything the gap has been widening ever since as the combustion engine has improved.
But there has always been a desire for some to return to the good old days, where only the wealthy enjoy such luxuries, with the riff-raff taken off the streets. Outlawing reasonably prices cars is a great way to do this, and it has already been implemented in many places.

Electric & hybrid vehicles are becoming more competitive (even without heavy government subsidies). But the IC engine still has a lotta life left in it. Some engine advancements which will increase efficiency....
- Hi compression for gasoline engines (think of Diesel, but with spark ignition).
- Adiabatic engines (using heat for power, instead of dumping it out the radiator).
- More efficient transmissions.
- Variable valve timing.

But as time passes, fossil fuels will increase in price relative to renewables.
So we'll seen a market which will increasingly favor electrics.

 

[Guy Threepwood]

There is a complex historical thingie going on here. Early roads were bad....really bad. Cities often weren't even connected to each other by roads. So car trips were far more local. IC engines in early cars were primitive, so that primitive electric cars were competitive for the typical short trip. All things changed as engines improved, roads expanded, & gasoline infrastructure grew.

Yes, and so disallowing those longer trips, commuting from suburbs is also part of the plan, they call it a 'green belt' in many places- or fines for driving into the city, or various other schemes to reverse the trend of the 20th C- where people left cities for a better life, more space, better housing,- and undeniably the availability of affordable personal mobility was crucial to this.

The game changer lately was the maturation if the LI battery. I recall in the 70s, when auto manufacturers were searching for, & experimenting with various alternatives to the lead acid battery. None were better until lithium ion technology. Those started out very expensive, but prices fell as production increased.

Electric & hybrid vehicles are becoming more competitive (even without heavy government subsidies). But the IC engine still has a lotta life left in it. Some engine advancements which will increase efficiency....
- Hi compression for gasoline engines (think of Diesel, but with spark ignition).
- Adiabatic engines (using heat for power, instead of dumping it out the radiator).
- More efficient transmissions.
- Variable valve timing.

But as time passes, fossil fuels will increase in price relative to renewables.
So we'll seen a market which will increasingly favor electrics.

So the electric car faces the same inherent problem as always, degradation of the power source, it's the same kind in your phone, it's performance begins to drop as soon as you buy it

And so the equation still depends on conventional technology being dragged down, and 'alternatives' being propped up by the government- personal mobility becoming more expensive and less available to the masses- as well as being a drain on the entire economy

This was the complete reverse with the IC revolution, it stood on it's own merits, and so the opposite was possible. We take it for granted today, but it's only been a tiny period of time, in which common plebs like you and I, can enjoy much of the same luxuries as elites, this is not guaranteed to last forever, and again in many countries it's already disappearing.- while all along being touted as 'good for the planet!'

 

[Revoltingest]

Yes, and so disallowing those longer trips, commuting from suburbs is also part of the plan, they call it a 'green belt' in many places- or fines for driving into the city, or various other schemes to reverse the trend of the 20th C- where people left cities for a better life, more space, better housing,- and undeniably the availability of affordable personal mobility was crucial to this.



So the electric car faces the same inherent problem as always, degradation of the power source, it's the same kind in your phone, it's performance begins to drop as soon as you buy it

And so the equation still depends on conventional technology being dragged down, and 'alternatives' being propped up by the government- personal mobility becoming more expensive and less available to the masses- as well as being a drain on the entire economy

This was the complete reverse with the IC revolution, it stood on it's own merits, and so the opposite was possible. We take it for granted today, but it's only been a tiny period of time, in which common plebs like you and I, can enjoy much of the same luxuries as elites, this is not guaranteed to last forever, and again in many countries it's already disappearing.- while all along being touted as 'good for the planet!'

Note that I'm a big fan of IC engines....& steam & Stirling.
But battery (& ultracapacitor) powered motors are becoming more competitive.

It's happened before to stationary applications. Before 1900, factories had
huge engines to run line shafts which powered all the machine tools. But with
the advent of electric motors (more convenient, better power transmission, cheaper
to run), those gorgeous engines were either scrapped or they endured the horror
of capture & display by nerdy gearheads. The horror! Think of the children!