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[2023] High Growth of Supercapacitor in Energy Storage and Automotive Applications

更新時間： Mar 27, 2023 閲覧数： 2669

Capacitors are a common type of device and have a wide range of applications in various circuits and devices. There are many types of capacitors in different voltage levels and different capacitance values, ranging from small to large capacitance values, such as ceramic capacitors, film capacitors, and aluminum electrolytic capacitors.

super capacitor

In the range of ultra-high capacitance, there is also the double-layer capacitor, which is often referred to as super capacitor.

What is Supercapacitor

Supercapacitor is a new kind of energy storage device, which is a special capacitor between capacitor and battery, with the characteristics of both capacitor and battery, and has a broad application prospect in many new fields.

Supercapacitor is built on the basis of interface double layer theory, in which two electrodes are inserted into the medium and a voltage value smaller than the medium decomposition voltage is applied between them, then the positive and negative ions will form a close charge layer on the surface of the two electrodes respectively, i.e. double layer.

The formed double layer is similar to the polarized charge produced by the dielectric in a conventional capacitor under the action of electric field, which can produce the capacitive effect, and at the same time has a larger capacity than the ordinary capacitor because the distance between the close charge layers is much smaller than the distance between the charge layers of the ordinary capacitor.

The electrode and electrolyte materials of double layer supercapacitor are the key, and the materials restrict the upper limit of current supercapacitor. The electrodes are usually made of carbon-based porous materials to obtain a larger surface area, which facilitates the capacitance. At the same time, these carbon-based porous materials tend to be highly hygroscopic and are quite secure in terms of service life and reliability. Through different processes, some of these supercapacitors made of special electrode materials are outstanding in voltage carrying capacity, while others go further in capacity and power density.

Application of Supercapacitor

Nowadays, there are also supercapacitors with metal oxide and polymer as electrode materials, which often have high energy density due to their excellent conductivity. However, these are still in the R&D stage, and there is still a long distance from commercialization.

Application of Supercapacitor

The applications of supercapacitors have already penetrated into many fields, such as IOT devices, smart meters, medical devices, industrial automation devices and automotive electronics. These applications mainly take advantage of the fast charging and discharging of supercapacitors and their ability to provide instantaneous power output. Especially in the automotive and energy storage fields, the characteristics of supercapacitors are highly anticipated.

Automotive Supercapacitor

The application of automotive supercapacitor has been highly anticipated. At this stage, supercapacitor is not suitable for main power supply because of its low energy density, which is less than 5% of lithium battery, but it is promising as a supplement to main power supply. Under 12V electrical system, supercapacitor can be used as safety redundant power supply in electric control motion and intelligent cockpit, which greatly reduces the risk of electronic device failure.

The main power supply of 12V system also has the trend of using super capacitor, which can replace the lead battery and achieve high power start of the car while also recovering the braking energy. This can not only solve the problem of poor start-stop but also reduce energy loss, energy saving and emission reduction.

According to Frost&Sullivan research data, the application of supercapacitor in car start-stop can save 1%-5% of fuel and reduce 30%-40% of pollution emission. 48V electrical system is now hot, and the demand of supercapacitor as in-line power supply in 48V system is also starting to be highlighted. The advantages of high power density and fast response time can ensure reliable operation of the line control system.

It can be said that the combination of supercapacitor and Li-ion battery can bring out the advantages of each other in the high growth field of automotive application, and enhance the performance of automotive electronic system in all aspects.

Energy Storage

Another big application direction of supercapacitor is energy storage, especially power type energy storage. Nowadays, in the hybrid energy storage system, it starts to need to be able to perform frequency regulation and reduce the pressure of frequency regulation in the conventional units of power system.

This means that power-based energy storage devices are needed to provide short duration, high power peak pulses on the transmission and distribution side, and on the power consumption side. In the power generation side, supercapacitors are used as short-time energy storage devices to suppress the impact of power fluctuations brought about by grid entry; and lithium-ion batteries form a hybrid energy storage system for peak and frequency regulation mode switching.

In transmission and distribution side, supercapacitor is used for frequency regulation in substation and backup power in distribution terminal, and it can also be used for frequency regulation in instantaneous time when large fluctuations occur in the grid. And it is also a good choice to use supercapacitor as backup power to solve the power problem in emergency.

Conclusion

Although the real commercialization of supercapacitor is still in the initial stage, the advantages of supercapacitor in these high-growth fields are very obvious and the market scale will be expanded steadily.

As for the supercapacitor products on the market now, there is still a need to continuously optimize the imperfections of the products, such as continuously improving energy density and reducing energy storage cost. With the cooperation of upstream and downstream of the industry chain, the market prospect of supercapacitor is worth looking forward to.

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