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The ability to drive from London to Edinburgh (a distance of some 600-odd-kilometres, or the equivalent of driving from Drogheda to Cork and back) and the ability to fully recharge in just a few minutes. That is the claim being made for the future of electric cars by a group of researchers collaborating between the universities of Surrey and Bristol. The work, being lead by energy company Augmented Optics, uses supercapacitors instead of batteries to meet these grandiose requirements.
Supercapacitors are, really, nothing new. They are like batteries, but instead of storing their energy in chemical form, such as in lithium metal, they store it electrically, in the form of static electricity caught between two plates coated with carbon. Their big advantage over conventional chemical batteries is that they can be charged more quickly, and also give back that charge more quickly. The downside, until now, has been that they can't store that energy for long. They're only useful for quick charge ups and instant use.
The research carried out by Augmented Optics and the two universities claims to get around that issue, by using, they say, technology from the contact lens industry to create a supercapicitor that has a so-called energy density comparable to that of a lithium-ion battery.
Dr Ian Hamerton, Reader in Polymers and Composite Materials from the Department of Aerospace Engineering, University of Bristol said: "While this research has potentially opened the route to very high density supercapacitors, these polymers have many other possible uses in which tough, flexible conducting materials are desirable, including bioelectronics, sensors, wearable electronics, and advanced optics. We believe that this is an extremely exciting and potentially game changing development."
Dr Brendan Howlin of the University of Surrey, explained: "There is a global search for new energy storage technology and this new ultra capacity supercapacitor has the potential to open the door to unimaginably exciting developments."
Supercapacitors are already in use in the motor industry. Mazda uses them to power its i-ELOOP stop-start system in the 6, 3 and CX-5 precisely because they are so well suited to that sort of fast-charge, fast-discharge setup. If their energy density can be ramped up (generally a standard supercapacitor now has around one-twentieth the energy storage capacity, per weight, of a conventional battery) then they could well be used to power the whole car.
According to the research paper, "the technology could have a seismic impact across a number of industries, including transport, aerospace, energy generation, and household applications such as mobile phones, flat screen electronic devices, and biosensors. It could also revolutionise electric cars, allowing the possibility for them to recharge as quickly as it takes for a regular non-electric car to refuel with petrol - a process that currently takes approximately six to eight hours to recharge. Imagine, instead of an electric car being limited to a drive from London to Brighton, the new technology could allow the electric car to travel from London to Edinburgh without the need to recharge, but when it did recharge for this operation to take just a few minutes to perform."
Jim Heathcote, Chief Executive of both Augmented Optics Ltd and Supercapacitor Materials Ltd, said: "It is a privilege to work with the teams from the University of Surrey and the University of Bristol. The test results from the new polymers suggest that extremely high energy density supercapacitors could be constructed in the very new future. We are now actively seeking commercial partners in order to supply our polymers and offer assistance to build these ultra high energy density storage devices."