08 November 2007

Honda to Use Ultracapacitor Tech in Hybrids

Honda will be putting ultracapacitors in their cars in the next few years. They will use it on a fuel cell vehicle to handle demand peaks.

Capacitors have some advantages and disadvantages relative to batteries.

The pluses: hey don't wear out, and they can put out a lot of juice in a short time (they are in camera flashes).

The minuses: They slowly* leak stored energy over time., and they have lower energy density.

The technology is advancing rather quickly, so the disadvantages may decrease.

You could also use the capacitors in conjunction with batteries to go with a higher energy/lower power battere (higher power means lower energy and vice verse),

*Very slowly, as anyone who has gotten knocked on their when they open up a TV that has been in a junkyard for two years can attest.
When I was in school, I was told that a 1 Farad capacitor would be the bigger than a a pick up truck, now there are commercially available ones that are smaller than a thimble.

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