New Patent Reveals Details of EEStor’s Ultracapacitor Technology
A newly-granted US patent (PDF) for the upcoming ultracapacitor technology from secretive Texas-based EEStor contains a ton of detailed information about their near-mythical Electrical Energy Storage Unit (EESU), which has the potential to revolutionize transportation and our energy infrastructure.
Apparently one EESU weighs 281 pounds, has a volume of 2.63 cubic feet, can be fully charged in 3-6 minutes, is completely unaffected by temperature, will not explode or catch fire in an accident, and provides 52 kWh of electricity (nearly the same amount of energy the Tesla Roadster battery can hold, which reportedly takes the Roadster about 240 miles).
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The speed at which an EESU can be charged is fully dependent on the type of power source used to charge it. Ultracapacitors, in general, can accept a near-instantaneous charge, so, if you want to take advantage of the super fast recharge time, you’ll need to get a heavy-duty circuit installed. For instance, if you are trying to charge it from a regular US 110V/15A outlet, it could take you up to 30 hours to get a full charge.
Continuing on with the Tesla Roadster comparison (why the hell not?), we find that one Tesla lithium-ion battery pack (PDF), containing 6800 small batteries, weighs almost 1000 pounds and takes up about 4-5 cubic feet of space. The Tesla Battery can be charged in about 3.5 hours, again given a high enough voltage and amperage. Given this comparison, you can clearly see how the EESU, if it ever comes to market, would truly be a game-changer.
I spent a couple hours last night combing through the detailed EEStor patent (PDF) looking for other clues and made some minor discoveries of my own. The EESU consists of thousands of tiny “components,” each consisting of 10 “elements.” In turn, each element has 100 alternating screen-printed dielectric layers of barium-titanate ceramic powder (94%) mixed with PET plastic (4%) and screen-printed layers of an aluminum electrode.
EEstor says the volume of each dielectric layer is 0.0005651 cubic centimeters and the volume of each electrode layer is 0.00005806 cubic centimeters. Given that there are a thousand of each layer in each component (10 elements X 100 layers), the total volume of each component would be: 0.5651 cubic centimeters + 0.05806 cubic centimeters = 0.62316 cubic centimeters.
To get to a capacity of 52 kWh of electricity, EEStor calculates that each EESU would need about 31,351 of these components. Therefore, the total volume of an EESU’s charge holding parts with a capacity of 52 kWh, according to my calculations, would be: 31,351 X 0.62316 cubic centimeters = 19,537 cubic centimeters, or roughly 0.7 cubic feet.
What’s odd about this is that, according to the patent, the volume of a 52 kWh EESU plus its “box, connectors and associated hardware” is 2.63 cubic feet. So, almost 2 cubic feet of the EESU is devoted to the “box, connectors and associated hardware”? I find this hard to believe. Maybe somebody else should check my calculations (look at column 5, Table 1, and columns 9 and 10 of the patent for the details).
If you were to combine two of these EESUs in one vehicle, it would still weigh roughly half as much as a Tesla battery pack, but take the car twice as far (almost 500 miles). Additionally, because of the nature of ultracapacitors, it would still only take 3-6 minutes to charge both packs (again, only if you have a powerful enough outlet).
I’ve still got my fingers crossed that EEStor is really making progress on the EESU. The fact that they’re backed by ZENN Motors and Lockheed Martin lends some credence to their claims, but I’ll believe it when I see it.
Source: GM-Volt
Image Credit: EEStor Patent
I’m thrilled that EEStor has stuck around.. but remain convinced that cars are not iPods and that we’ll need all three energy storage devices to make electric cars work. So batteries, fuel cells and capacitors working together might be our most plausible future… But good luck to EEStor!
Garry G
Editor
The Energy Roadmap.com
Somewhere in the charging circuit the voltage needs to be 3500V according to the patent. This might be done inside the EESU itself. Around here, you can have 220V 80A service wired right at the box on the house. To go higher, you have to get a special permit plus, the building zoning must allow it. Higher voltage service requires some special hoops to be jumped through but I wouldn’t think it would be a problem for a service station like setup. I personally wouldn’t want a 400V 200A drop at my house.
“What’s odd about this is that, according to the patent, the volume of a 52 kWh EESU plus it’s “box, connectors and associated hardware” is 2.63 cubic feet. So, almost 2 cubic feet of the EESU is devoted to the “box, connectors and associated hardware”?”
Maybe the extra volume is needed for heat dissipation?
What’s odd about this is that, according to the patent, the volume of a 52 kWh EESU plus it’s “box, connectors and associated hardware” is 2.63 cubic feet. So, almost 2 cubic feet of the EESU is devoted to the “box, connectors and associated hardware”? I find this hard to believe.
I think the rest of the volume is going to be connections and probably air cooling. If you can imagine the current required to charge this in 3 minutes, these will be truly massive connectors (0000 gauge to carry 300A at 3500V, or about 12mm diameter) that will have to divide / bifurcate all the way to the 31k components at which point they will be miniscule connections. That will be some interesting wire routing. It’s probably a very interesting package.
K Bradshaw was mistaken. 25 kWH is only about 15 hours at 110V/15A, but 52kWH (the value mentioned in the article) would be about 32 minutes at 100% efficiency. He probably owes someone an apology. With that said, I think K. bradshaw should sue the pants off this website for publishing his email address when it clearly states it will NOT be published. I think he could win a massive settlement for such an unauthorized disclosure.
Such treatment of an invited guest reminds me of the AGW crowd that can’t handle a little kindly criticism of theories that have been totally blown out of the water. Don’t make the same mistake they did.
Mike,
Kerry bradshaw is a troll who has been outed on many other sites many times before now for doing the exact same thing he’s done on this site with many other Gas 2.0 posts on countless occasions… usually with baselessly idiotic and mean intentions. He’s damn near a legend to anybody who blogs about the future of transportation and energy.
You’re right in that I probably shouldn’t have posted his email. It’s been taken off his comment. It’s not something I’ve ever even contemplated before and for that I’m sorry. Rest assured I would not have done it if it weren’t for his past history.
With that said, I think it’s a joke that you believe he could win a massive settlement and that you actually encourage him to seek damages. That’s the beauty of a litigious culture for you. It would be almost laughable if it weren’t so sad.
“A little kindly criticism.” Ha. If you knew even half of Mr. bradshaw’s history on this site (and hundreds of others around the internet) you’d eat your words… unless, of course, you’re from the same organized group as Mr. bradshaw?
I guarantee you that he spends so much time surfing for posts to criticize on the internet, that he will never return to this one. He hasn’t ever returned to any of the other 50+ posts he’s left comments on to rebut any criticism, so why would he start now? That, in and of itself, should be enough to clue you in on his intentions.
I also encourage you to take a step back and realize that the easiest thing for me to do would be to delete all of his comments, but I’ve never done that. I believe in letting even the trolls spout their crap. It certainly entices lively conversation, even though it takes up an inordinate amount of my time.
@Nick
You are very right that the recharge time is actually limited by the power outlet of your house.
In Europe the modern electrical cars use a standard outdoor 230V 16A plug = 3680W charge power. Blue plug 3 pins.
Houses also have 400V system which is made as 3 phases of 230V 16A plug, the 400V is because the 3 phases are shifted. It is e.g. used for a stove and could also be practical for charging an electrical car. With a plug like that you get 230V * 3 * 16A = 11KW. Red plug 5 pins.
Plug type 6, P+N+E and 3P+N+E
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEC_309
With Tesla as the example, it has 53KWh battery, but you also have add the loss in the charge system in the Tesla, expect a 15% loss. Your plug actually have to deliver 62KWh.
Charge time with:
230V single phase: 17h
400V plug: 5h40mn
I can accept the 17h charge time because I most often would not need the full driving range. However it would be practical if future electrical cars can make use of the 400V system when available, and optionally use the 230V standard slow charge.
In US you absolutely need to upgrade your house electrical system to at least the 220V power system to make home charging work. For things like this it would be practical if US used standards compatible to European standards.
The alternative to use 120A through your cable is not a good idea because the cable would have to be thick like a water pipe and would heat up from internal resistance.
Doei RIF
Where I live in Canada the average residential electrical Service is 120/240V 100A. That what your whole house could use. If As some one stated earlier you would need a 240V 120A service just to get the charge time down to 1.8 hours which means you’d have to more than double a whole bunch of things and rewire the house, too costly for a quick charge but for an overnight charge at home 240V/50 Amp is a possibility without much rework.
We’re used to plugging our cars in a few months of they year anyway to keep the engines warm so most houses, apartment buildings and even some commercial parking lots have 120V plugs on the outside already.
I could see that for the Quick charge you’d pull up to a Charge Stations, similar to a gas stations and pump in the electrons there.
Hell so it cost $10.00 bucks to have some high school drop out plug in your car, still cheaper than gas.
Please help me with this. Why are you people accepting the claims of Eestor as fact without question? Is it because you want to believe? I am looking for honest answers here - I simply do not understand why people buy into the Eestor pitch.
“Powerful enough outlet” is a bit of an understatement. 52 kilowatt hours / 3 minutes = ~ 1 megawatt. That’s a thousand microwave ovens running simultaneously. 240 volts @ 120 amps, which someone mentioned is the largest outlet you can reasonably obtain, is only 28 kilowatts. So yeah, it can charge quickly, but that’s only a theoretical kind of thing. I can’t imagine that even special gas stations for charging capacitors could do it in thirty minutes, let alone 3. But really cool nonetheless. I think it’s more of a “plug it in overnight after I get home” sort of thing than “plug it in on the way to work while I buy a coffee” sort of thing.
I think alot of people believe EEStor because if they don’t deliver as promised Lockheed Martin WILL ruin them. Seriously, teeny tiny company gets millions of dollars from gigando huge company to develop product and it turns out the whole thing is a fraud? Teeny tiny company gets squished.
As to charge time issues: while the 280 lb unit weight is fairly hefty I could see people pre-charging these and swapping them out. If you drive less than 200 miles per day you could switch back and forth between two units… one in the car and the other charging for the next day. Have an extra long trip planned? Charge up four extras the week before and put them in the trunk. They’re heavy, but not very big.
Obviously, putting high power charging stations in homes and existing gas stations would also make devices with these specs more useful, but even with standard outlets they’d be viable by having an extra unit or units and swapping them. Depending on how the infrastructure develops EEStor could presumably develop lighter and/or heavier models… if high powered chargers start to become commonplace then an ultracapacitor with three times the storage would probably allow some economies of scale and come in at less than three times the weight, not swappable but can be recharged in minutes every 800 miles or so. Conversely, several smaller ultracapacitors could probably be swapped more easily than one big one.
EEStor has already talked about wanting to adapt the underlying technology to replace rechargeable batteries for small electronic devices, so the specs for this one particular device in the patent needn’t be set in stone.