Power Tools Recharged In Less Than a Minute by New Lithium-Ion Ultracapacitor

Ioxus, a company located in Oneonta New York, developed a new type of lithium ion ultracapacitor. Ioxus offers pre-packaged modules, individual cells, or complete system integration to streamline productiveness.

The ultracapacitors and hybrid-capacitors produced by the company are meant for high performance with low resistance, making them ideal for distributing high power amounts for acceleration, energy capture, turn on/off mild hybrids, or high power applications.

Power tools have the ability of being recharged, in no more than a minute, with a hybrid energy-storage device, that connects a lithium-ion battery to an ultracapacitor. This way, the power tools can resist up to 20,000 charges. Generally, fully recharging the battery in an automatic lathe or an electric saw might take hours, while the tool is used solely for a few minutes.

The disadvantage of the energy storage device is that the power tool works for only 1/15 as long as it would run on a normal battery. While lithium-ion ultracapacitors store charge at the surface of the electrodes, traditional lithium-ion batteries store charge within the electrodes. The request of alternative energy-storage devices has led to new developments in this field. It seems that the idea of hybrid lithium-ion ultracapacitors exists for 20 years or so, but it has never been emphasized as it is today.

Traditional ultracapacitors store only 5 percent as much energy as lithium-ion batteries. The new hybrid system is able to store two times as much as classic ultracapacitors, even though this quantity is much smaller than the one accumulated by traditional lithium-ion batteries. Ultracapacitors are able to catch energy in seconds, thus offering a much faster recharge time than lithium-ion batteries.

Regenerative braking in vehicles will use the hybrid lithium-ion ultracapacitor in the future. Improving the hybrid system’s life cycle will also be needed, because vehicle braking systems demand recharging for hundreds of thousands of times.

Find out how to recover your old batteries, be them lithium ion, nickel metal, nickel cadmium or lead acid, and save cash, or use them to store the green electricity you generated.