Group items tagged

Any capacitor large enough to run the bus, would presently be many times the size of the actual bus, thus the capacitors would need to be in a string of trailers behind the bus to power it and leave room for the passengers. If such a capacitor-powered bus was ever designed, then consider how damaging the energy stored in the capacitor/s, if a sudden short circuit developed - it would demolish several city blocks in the resultant explosion. By comparison, energy stored in chemical form is far safer, small volume for large energy storage, easy to control.

energy storage device that has an energy density approaching that of a battery and the power density of a capacitor

Existing technologies for hard, brackish and sea water desalination are highly energy consuming even in the case of the best available technology nowadays, Reverse Osmosis. In addition to this problem, the construction of desalination plants requires intensive capital expenditures.

Such a capacitor gauge could become a common sight on the dashboards of the future. A capacitor can discharge and recharge far faster than a battery, making it ideal both for generating bursts of speed and for soaking up the energy collected by regenerative braking. AFS Trinity, a company based in Washington state, has turned that insight into a piece of equipment that it has fitted into an otherwise standard production model as an experiment. The result—the XH-150—was unveiled at this year's Detroit motor show.

The new device also exhibits some unique electrical properties. While it can act like a traditional lithium-ion battery in that it stores energy and releases it as needed, it also has properties of a super-capacitor. These allow for quick discharges when necessary.

The ultracapacitor-equipped Toyota Supra HV-R coupe became the first hybrid to win the 24-hour endurance car race held at Japan’s Tokachi International Speedway. The hybrid Supra finished 616 laps of the 5.1-kilometer (roughly three-mile) course—19 more laps than the second-place, non-hybrid, Nissan Fairlady Z.