Nano-Engineered Carbon Ultracapacitor for Satellite Energy Storage

The United States Air Force (USAF) has identified the need for an advanced and reliable ultracapacitor to prolong the operational life of military satellites that use batteries for their energy storage. Based on the requirements of the USAF, Giner, Inc. proposes the development of an innovative Electrochemical Double-Layer Capacitor (EDLC) device that has low overall Equivalent Series Resistance (ESR), high capacitance (>10,000 farads) and high energy density to meet the demands of the USAF. The innovative concept is to combine high-surface-area (greater than 2500 m2/g) nano-porous carbons with organic electrolytes and improved current collector/ultracapacitor active material interface conductivity for a high-capacitance and high-energy-density device. The proposed innovative concept will optimize nano-porous carbon synthesis parameters to result in powder material with large fraction of its pore volume in pores of diameter 1-5 nm to be fully accessible to the organic electrolyte, and will improve the conductivity of the current collector/ultracapacitor active material interface resulting in high capacitance and high energy. The proposed novel EDLC will operate in the temperature range of 40°C to +80°C and will be capable of operating through greater than 500,000 charge-discharge cycles.