Ultracap product line includes devices from 3 to 5,400 F

Written by Joshua Israelsohn May 11, 2010 Hits: 469 Favorites

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Lithium-Ion batteries exhibit remarkably flat discharge curves but, unfortunately, exhibit wear-out mechanisms that limit their lifetimes and charge-cycle counts. The terminal voltage of an ultracap, by contrast, is proportional to its instantaneous state of charge. However, given that most applications include a DC-DC converter between energy source(s) and active circuitry, the ultracap’s lack of discharge-curve flatness may not represent as significant disadvantage as some represent.

You do need to scale your storage capacity to maintain at least the minimum operating voltage that your power converter requires and consider the capacitor’s discharge characteristics when choosing the converter’s topology. However, once done, your design can enjoy storage-device lifetimes of 10 years and 100,000 cycles after which the charge store’s capacitance should remain within 30% of its initial value. Depending on the capacitor’s construction, lifetime ESR degradation can fall in the range of 1x to 2x of the initial value.

LS Ultracapacitor, a South Korean manufacturer, offers devices from 3 to 5,400 F with operating potentials between 2.5 and 2.8 V. Additionally, the company provides custom and standard modules, the latter available with working voltages of 16.8, 50.4, 67.2, and 84 V and capacitances, inversely proportional to working voltage, in the range of 100 to 500 F. For full specifications, see the online datasheet. The company has also prepared an introductory brochure that provides a good overview of the product line’s individual devices and the company’s custom and standard modules and related accessories. Applications include:

Automotive—

auxiliary energy storage and emergency backup power for HEVs (hybrid-electric vehicles)
output load compensation for fuel cells in FCEVs (fuel-cell-electric vehicles)
auxiliary energy storage for break-energy recapture in rail-system locomotives

Industrial—

power sag compensation
UPS (un-interruptible power source)

Renewable energy—

back-up power for heliostats in photovoltaic panel mounts
solar-powered lighting
emergency backup power for pitch systems in wind turbines

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Written by :

Joshua Israelsohn