Texas startup says it has batteries beat

Associated Press ^ | Tue Sep 4 | GRANT SLATER

[300magnum]

AUSTIN, Texas - Millions of inventions pass quietly through the U.S. patent office each year. Patent No. 7,033,406 did, too, until energy insiders spotted six words in the filing that sounded like a death knell for the internal combustion engine.

An Austin-based startup called EEStor promised "technologies for replacement of electrochemical batteries," meaning a motorist could plug in a car for five minutes and drive 500 miles roundtrip between Dallas and Houston without gasoline.

By contrast, some plug-in hybrids on the horizon would require motorists to charge their cars in a wall outlet overnight and promise only 50 miles of gasoline-free commute. And the popular hybrids on the road today still depend heavily on fossil fuels.

"It's a paradigm shift," said Ian Clifford, chief executive of Toronto-based ZENN Motor Co., which has licensed EEStor's invention. "The Achilles' heel to the electric car industry has been energy storage. By all rights, this would make internal combustion engines unnecessary."

Clifford's company bought rights to EEStor's technology in August 2005 and expects EEStor to start shipping the battery replacement later this year for use in ZENN Motor's short-range, low-speed vehicles.

The technology also could help invigorate the renewable-energy sector by providing efficient, lightning-fast storage for solar power, or, on a small scale, a flash-charge for cell phones and laptops.

Skeptics, though, fear the claims stretch the bounds of existing technology to the point of alchemy.

"We've been trying to make this type of thing for 20 years and no one has been able to do it," said Robert Hebner, director of the University of Texas Center for Electromechanics. "Depending on who you believe, they're at or beyond the limit of what is possible."

EEStor's secret ingredient is a material sandwiched between thousands of wafer-thin metal sheets, like a series of foil-and-paper gum wrappers stacked on top of each other. Charged particles stick to the metal sheets and move quickly across EEStor's proprietary material.

The result is an ultracapacitor, a battery-like device that stores and releases energy quickly.

Batteries rely on chemical reactions to store energy but can take hours to charge and release energy. The simplest capacitors found in computers and radios hold less energy but can charge or discharge instantly. Ultracapacitors take the best of both, stacking capacitors to increase capacity while maintaining the speed of simple capacitors.

Hebner said vehicles require bursts of energy to accelerate, a task better suited for capacitors than batteries.

"The idea of getting rid of the batteries and putting in capacitors is to get more power back and get it back faster," Hebner said.

But he said nothing close to EEStor's claim exists today.

For years, EEStor has tried to fly beneath the radar in the competitive industry for alternative energy, content with a phone-book listing and a handful of cryptic press releases.

Yet the speculation and skepticism have continued, fueled by the company's original assertion of making batteries obsolete — a claim that still resonates loudly for a company that rarely speaks, including declining an interview with The Associated Press.

The deal with ZENN Motor and a $3 million investment by the venture capital group Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, which made big-payoff early bets on companies like Google Inc. and Amazon.com Inc., hint that EEStor may be on the edge of a breakthrough technology, a "game changer" as Clifford put it.

ZENN Motor's public reports show that it so far has invested $3.8 million in and has promised another $1.2 million if the ultracapacitor company meets a third-party testing standard and then delivers a product.

Clifford said his company consulted experts and did a "tremendous amount of due diligence" on EEStor's innovation.

EEStor's founders have a track record. Richard D. Weir and Carl Nelson worked on disk-storage technology at IBM Corp. in the 1990s before forming EEStor in 2001. The two have acquired dozens of patents over two decades.

Neil Dikeman of Jane Capital Partners, an investor in clean technologies, said the nearly $7 million investment in EEStor pales compared with other energy storage endeavors, where investment has averaged $50 million to $100 million.

Yet curiosity is unusually high, Dikeman said, thanks to the investment by a prominent venture capital group and EEStor's secretive nature.

"The EEStor claims are around a process that would be quite revolutionary if they can make it work," Dikeman said.

Previous attempts to improve ultracapacitors have focused on improving the metal sheets by increasing the surface area where charges can attach.

EEStor is instead creating better nonconductive material for use between the metal sheets, using a chemical compound called barium titanate. The question is whether the company can mass-produce it.

ZENN Motor pays EEStor for passing milestones in the production process, and chemical researchers say the strength and functionality of this material is the only thing standing between EEStor and the holy grail of energy-storage technology.

Joseph Perry and the other researchers he oversees at Georgia Tech have used the same material to double the amount of energy a capacitor can hold. Perry says EEstor seems to be claiming an improvement of more than 400-fold, yet increasing a capacitor's retention ability often results in decreased strength of the materials.

"They're not saying a lot about how they're making these things," Perry said. "With these materials (described in the patent), that is a challenging process to carry out in a defect-free fashion."

Perry is not alone in his doubts. An ultracapacitor industry leader, Maxwell Technologies Inc., has kept a wary eye on EEStor's claims and offers a laundry list of things that could go wrong.

Among other things, the ultracapacitors described in EEStor's patent operate at extremely high voltage, 10 times greater than those Maxwell manufactures, and won't work with regular wall outlets, said Maxwell spokesman Mike Sund. He said capacitors could crack while bouncing down the road, or slowly discharge after a dayslong stint in the airport parking lot, leaving the driver stranded.

Until EEStor produces a final product, Perry said he joins energy professionals and enthusiasts alike in waiting to see if the company can own up to its six-word promise and banish the battery to recycling bins around the world.

"I am skeptical but I'd be very happy to be proved wrong," Perry said.

[silentreignofheroes]

almost,,was an electronic tech for 31yrs. or so,amazing the conversations we’d get into,,was interesting..

[Condor51]

The DUmmies are on this too.

One actually did some calcs ...

An average car traveling 60mph requires (about) 45 horsepower. A 500 mile trip takes 8.3 hours. That's 373 hp-hrs. A horsepower is .75kw. The trip consumes about 280kwh. 500m/60mph * 45hp * .75 = 280kwh or 280,000 watt/hrs.

To recharge after this trip in 5 minutes, the plug would have to deliver power at a rate of 3400 KWH (280kwh*60/5). A 120 circuit can handle 15a. A normal 240 circuit as much as 60a. A specialized one, perhaps 100a.

15a @ 120v = 1.8 kw
60a @ 240v = 14.4 kw
100a @ 240v = 24.0 kw
This car requires 1400a of current at 240v to charge at the rate advertised.

Disregarding any efficiency losses, you'd have to install 60a breakers and run extension cords to 237 of your neighbors homes to supply the charging current.

Don't know if he's correct, but at least he seems to have a brain. Another DUmmie even went further. (they must be out of drugs)

[AlaskaErik]

Without a serious upgrade in generating capacity, the whole grid would collapse. And the ecofascists will do everything in their power to prevent any new electric plants from coming on line. So even if this technology works, we won’t be able to utilize it. It’ll be just like the Nazis in spring 1945. Lots of nifty gadgets, but no energy to fuel them.

[RS]

“Oh! aw right 30 minutes you ol poop.. and cables the size your FINGER.. for enough energy to get you home..”

I’m with old poop ...

Every car at this electric fillup station standing there for 30 minutes ... I guy ticked when the guy in front of me takes 3 minutes ! at 30 the line will always be down the block.

[hosepipe]

[.. I get ticked when the guy in front of me takes 3 minutes ! at 30 the line will always be down the block. ..]

When most fill ups occur at home(at night) there would be much fewer fillups away from home.. Who goes more than 500 miles daily?.. Not many I think.. This wouldn't happen anyway unless a few million Americans get nuked by terrorists in some of our major cities.. Could happen but probably not..

[dangerdoc]

Don’t trust a democrat with math.

It only takes about 6 hp to keep an average car at 55 mph.

The eestor is 50,000 watt hours.

Paying higher taxes is not the same as investing.

[robertpaulsen]

"This car requires 1400a of current at 240v to charge at the rate advertised."

He's off by a factor of ten -- 1400 times 240 equals 336kwh, not 3400kwh. 1400 amps at 2400 volts will do it.

Up the voltage to 5000 volts and you'll need 680 amps. 10,000 volts and it's 340 amps.

In order to carry 340 amps, you'll need four insulated 3/0 awg copper wires -- bundled together, they're about the size of your wrist.

Hey, not bad. In my post #23 I said 10,000 volts with cables the size of your arm. Arm, wrist -- close enough.

[Balding_Eagle]

I think the average 10,000 volt lines normally carries less than that, so if even 1 person started to draw 50 amps it would overload the line.

[dangerdoc]

I’ve seen estimates that if every car in America were run on electricity, it would add about 30% to our current electricity use.

It would require some planning but would not collapse the grid. If they can acually produce this product at a reasonable price, the result will be a more stable grid.

The biggest problem the power companies have is adjusting to the constantly changing power needs. Either large banks of these things at substations or a more widely dispersed system would allow the big plants to churn away at full capacity with the storage units covering peak demand and soaking up excess capacity.

Something like this would also make wind power practical. There is enough wind power in my state to power a quarter of the country. The problem is that you either have too much wind or too little. Electricity is a commodity, power distributers buy megawatt hour futures to be delivered at a certain time, wind cannot be sold on the futres market and is worth alot less on the open market. Statistically, you know how much power you will make from wind each month but not how much you will make day to day. If you could cheaply store electricity, wind power becomes a reliable commodity, you can sell futures, produce reliable income streams which allows you to find financing to build more power generation.

Suddenly, the free market kicks in and the market fills the need.

Don’t let the eco weanies scare you. We have plenty of energy resources, we just need the technology to unlock them.

[roaddog727]

“I haven’t run the numbers but that claim implies a very high charging rate. I’d suggest standing back, way back.”

The thing is, that’s what capacitors do.

I have been toying with that Idea for a long time. Looks like someone else did too and put it into practice. We shall see if it actually works in a commercially acceptable means.

[dangerdoc]

Lets see.

50 kw over 5 minutes is 600 kw

divide by 10,000 volts that is 60 amps for a 5 minute recharge.

at 240 volts/60 amps will recharge in a little over 3 hours. If you drive 100 miles a day, it would recharge over a lunch break.

[Bob]

The thing is, that’s what capacitors do.

Yes, that's true. When they're discharged, though, caps present (almost) a short circuit load to the charging circuit. That initial load can cause a huge in-rush current to flow. I'd like to see the specs on that 5-minute charge time.

[roaddog727]

“I’d like to see the specs on that 5-minute charge time.”

You and me both.

[RipSawyer]

I was a Navy ET back in the stone age, when Frank Morris and crew broke out of Alcatraz I was attending the Navy electronics school on Treasure Island within sight of the rock.

[silentreignofheroes]

Tube theory,,those were the days..worked on shipboard electronics when I got out of the Army..All my solid state experience came from a NRI course and working on boats..met alot of people,retired from it in ‘04,but everytime I talk aboout elctronics I want to get back into it.,,taught me alot..

[FreedomPoster]

Just think of what would happen if all that highly-flammable gasoline caught fire in a crash.

Any system that can take a vehicle a worthwhile distance, has enough potential energy of one sort or another, that if things go wrong, it can get ugly. We accept the risk with petroleum-fueled vehicles. Why not with something else?

[Ditto]

He had way too much faith in our politicians. Nixon had no interest in the manned space program, since it was a Kennedy/Democrat invention (in his eyes - it actually started under Ike). This was, IMHO, his greatest failing outside of the character flaws that did him in with Watergate. We DID have the technical capacity for the base and the regular trips, and we’d be far better off materially if we had done that.

My friend, with all due respect, the fact is we simply could not (and still can't) afford "Clark's vision."

The 'bang for the buck' just isn't there --- at least not yet.

Don't get me wrong. I was a big fan of the manned space program. July 20, 1969 is a day I will always remember. In fact, I'm one of the thousands who made a 'reservation' on the PanAm 'Space Shuttle' like they showed in the movie. (Yes you could reserve a seat just by calling -- I was number 1200 and something in line.

The only reason we were in a race to the Moon was because the Russians were. It was Cold War propaganda/political calculations that drove that race, not the interests of science, technology or the betterment of mankind. The costs were unsupportable over the long run which is why the Russians backed out first -- they just couldn't afford to keep up.

Clark was just fine on dreaming up cool stuff from his plantation in Ceylon, but the guy never understood the basics of economics or how to get a measurable return out of all that cost in any reasonable time frame.

As a personal aside, I found Clark to be an egotistical jerk.

[FreedomPoster]

It’s amazing how many miss the point that petroleum fuels are both A) suitable for energy for transportation and B) an energy source. Energy storage systems such as the topic of this article are A) only (assuming this isn’t vaporware).

[Boiler Plate]

Let’s do the math.
It takes about 12kw to move a car down the road at highway speed(60mph).

500miles/60mph = 8.33hrs

12kw x 8.33hrs = 100kwhr

5min/60min = .083 hrs

100kwhrs / .0833hrs = 1200kw

1200kw at 600 volts dc = 2000 Amps

So in order to charge you vehicle in 5 min you will need to darken the surrounding neighborhood. And yes, plug in a cable the size of Hillary’s thigh.

I would not recommend doing this in the rain.

[FreedomPoster]

You’re a little too harsh on Clark. Folks are making a bundle on his concept of the geosynchronous telecommunications satellite.