While batteries make most of the headlines when it comes to the energy storage requirements of electric cars, the capacitor could be an exciting and viable alternative. Unlike batteries, which store chemical energy and make it available for use as electrical energy, capacitors store energy in the electric field between a pair of conductors. Supercapacitors, or ultracapacitors, are currently being developed which could rival batteries in the amount of energy that they can store. Whether capacitors see use as part of a hybrid drivetrain or as the sole source of electricity for a pure electric vehicle, we expect to see them make a dent in the automotive sector as the future unfolds. Then again, we've been expecting some news on this front for a while (EESTOR, anyone?), so we might have to keep waiting.

Check out Number 3.

From time to time, the capacitor shows up on AutoblogGreen as a method of storing power for electric cars instead of the much more common battery. The first capacitor ever invented is known as the Leyden jar, and we've found an instructable which shows how to create one very easily. Of course, whenever working with electricity, be very careful - you could get a nasty shock from a Leyden jar.

All that is required is a 2 liter bottle, a screw, tin foil, water and electrical tape. The capacitor can be charged using static electricity. The comments suggest that you place a sheet of foil over a TV or CRT computer monitor, connect the foil to your jar using a wire and turning the TV on and off a few times. Many of these jars could be connected together to form a very rudimentary "battery" of sorts if you so desired.

[Source: Instructables]

Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) has developed a hybrid car battery that costs 70 percent less all while charging faster, providing 50 percent more power and recharging more times, increasing the life of battery by 300 percent. CSIRO's so called UltraBattery combines technologies of the capacitor and a regular lead-acid battery to make a better battery. Capacitors and batteries working together is not a new thing but the Ultrabattery gets the advantages without using control electronics.

The batteries have undergone testing in a Honda Insight for the last year in the UK and just passed 100,000 miles. "After all this testing we are now very confident we can support medium hybrids or even full, plug-in hybrids," says David Lamb, leader of CSIRO's low emissions transport research. The test car was not perfect and David admits "it is 17kg heavier and that creates a fuel consumption penalty of 2.8 percent. But it is about one quarter of the cost, so you save around $2000 on the cost of building the car."

2.8 percent loss in fuel economy for $2,000 in savings sounds like a good deal to me. David thinks Japanese automakers (the battery was produced in Japan by Furukawa Battery Company) will think it's a good deal too and says that we'll be able to buy UltraBatteries in just two years. "They will have had these batteries on test for a year and if they have done as well as that car in England they will be as thrilled as we are and will be doing their best to find ways to milk the technology in some future model. But they don't tell us what they are doing," explains David.

I can't wait! Move over Ener1, I have a new favorite battery.

[Source: TG Daily, iTWire, tipster Chris]

Johnathan Goodwin is the patron saint of green cars (although as of yet, this honor has gone unrecognized by the Vatican). Last April, John was the guy behind the Chevy Impala conversion that smoked a Lamborghini in a quarter mile on the Earth Day special of MTV's Pimp My Ride. Arnold Schwarzenegger was so impressed that when he did a guest appearance on the Earth Day Pimp My Ride special, he hired SAE Energy (where John is co-partner) to make his Jeep run on biodiesel. Recently, John made the cover of Fast Company magazine for an article describing a green gearhead's wet dream.

Fast Company visited John's garage and found a 2005 Hummer H3 on jacks. John is going to put a 60,000 PRM, 1985, turbine, jet engine in the Hummer. The turbine engine will run on biodiesel or waste vegetable oil with a hydrogen-injector. John plans to make a series hybrid with this turbine engine. A beauty like that going to waste as a range extender? No, it charges a set of super capacitors in a matter of seconds, giving the car 600 horse power.

That's not all. Jon says "it'll get 60 miles to the gallon. With 2,000 foot-pounds of torque. You'll be able to smoke the tires. And it's going to be superefficient. ... Think about it: a 5,000-pound vehicle that gets 60 miles to the gallon and does zero to 60 in five seconds!" John is not just making drool worthy cars for stars like Neil Young (John is converting a 1960 Lincoln Continental to biodiesel, electric hybrid for him.) John said he wants to make a 100-mile-per-gallon car one day and he is working on a $5,000 conversion kit that make diesels run 50 percent more efficiently and emit 80 percent less pollution. John estimates his bolt-on kit will pay for itself in a year for bigger SUVs and two years for a normal car. He is getting patents hoping to license them to the big carmakers but he thinks automakers can do a lot more right now.

Go below the fold to see how John is using Ace Hardware better than you.

[Source: Fast Company]

Researchers at North Carolina State University have developed a new type of capacitor which allows up to seven times the electrical storage potential as standard capacitors available today. The breakthrough apparently is a polymer called PVDF which can act as a high-performance dielectric, which is an insulating material between two metal surfaces. Electricians are used to using a dielectric grease on electrical connections, so this may be a familiar concept to some of our readers.

This is good news for the electric and hybrid car industry, as capacitors are a possible alternative to batteries. Unlike batteries, which use a chemical reaction to release their stored energy, capacitors use no chemicals and are capable of storing and releasing a given amount of energy quickly. The problem is that capacitors generally store less energy than batteries. This potential, but untested breakthrough could alleviate some of that deficiency, allowing the capacitor to store more energy while still enabling that energy to be charged and discharged rapidly. EEStor is a name that has been thrown around on our blogs, as they claim to have a capacitor based system which rivals expensive batteries in power output, and possibly at less cost. We'll keep our ears and eyes open for more capacitor news, and we'll be sure to pass it along.

[Source: Science Daily, thanks to Matt for the tip]

Readers who are familiar with hybrid and electric vehicle drivetrains will already know what a capacitor is, but here is a brief explanation. A battery is a chemical means of storing electricity, while a capacitor is a mechanical means of storing electricity. Both can be recharged, and both can be discharged. One reason to choose a capacitor over a battery is that the mechanical capacitor can generally charge and discharge its electrical energy much more quickly than the chemical battery can. Alternatively, one reason to choose a chemical battery is that they generally store a longer lasting charge of electricity at lower voltages than the mechanical capacitor can. A quick high charge of current (capacitor), or a slower, longer lasting charge of current (battery). Hope that makes sense.

Carmakers have already realized the benefits of a hybrid battery\capacitor energy storage system. Aftermarket and automotive supplier companies have been working on capacitor technology as well; EEStor springs right to mind as one to watch. Researchers at the University of Arizona have used nanotechnology to create a new type of capacitor called Digitized Energy Storage Devices. or DESD's. According to them, "DESDs have a very high capacitance-to-volume ratio that's more than 10,000 times larger than a conventional parallel-plate capacitor of the same size. This makes for a device with large capacitance in a small package."

This is a rather exciting technology to watch, and if you are interested in more of the science behind their work, click here and read the whole article.

EDIT: Added the link to the source article above.

Related:

• More on EEstor's ultracapacitor - can we believe the hype?
• Quick update on EEStor and ZENN Motors
• EDTA Conference: Secret effects of EESTOR ultracapacitor info from ZENN Motor CEO

[Source: University of Arizona]