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The global connection of devices is a trend that spreads to “things”, allowing for the ability to remotely monitor and control equipment and devices. This trend has rapidly spread from industrial IoT (IIoT) systems supporting asset and process monitoring equipment to industrial automation, smart cities, smart homes, electric vehicles, and smart grids. In a nutshell, additional power, as well as power optimization, are more critical than ever in an increasingly connected world.
Conventional storage technologies such as lithium and alkaline battery technologies are becoming inefficient and unable to keep up with current and emerging technologies. For example, batteries are prone to overheating (resulting in thermal runaway), cranking issues (for vehicle engines in cold start conditions), and shorter lifetimes (both during storage and regular use). Due to their unique construction, Supercapacitors offer significant benefits over batteries including thermal stability, ultra-long life, and maintenance-free operation.
Supercapacitor modules come with pre-installed balancing circuits to ensure safe and optimal operation. Unlike battery management systems (BMS), these balancing schemes do not require external controls or monitoring. This allows for greater simplicity in integrating energy storage into applications, such as electric vehicles and smart grids, while also mitigating operational expenditures.
The working principle of supercapacitors is similar to that of standard capacitors. Basic capacitors store energy between two conducting plates or electrodes, separated by a non-conducting region or a dielectric. Supercapacitors store charges at the interface between an electrode and an electrolytic solution which creates a capacitor at each electrode. A supercapacitor essentially bridges the gap between a battery and a capacitor. Furthermore, supercapacitors exhibit much faster charging and discharging speeds than a battery while storing much more charge than an electrolytic capacitor.
There is a bevy of benefits to incorporating supercapacitors in electronic designs. These components can serve as sole energy storage or in combination with batteries to optimize the cost, efficiency, size, and longevity of diverse electronic products. Key benefits include smaller footprints, longer life, high energy density compared to an electrolytic capacitor, higher power capability than a battery, thermal stability, and a wide application range.
The number of IoT end devices is projected to jump from the current 13.8 billion to nearly 31 billion -- a more than twofold increase by the mid 2020s. These massive machine type communications (mMTC) are defined by their low throughput and small payload wireless connectivity to enable high power, size, and cost-constrained sensor nodes. The high power capability of supercapacitors are ideal for IoT devices which require efficient energy storage but need pulses of energy for communications. Supercapacitors provide small form factor storage that last 2-4 times longer than batteries with high power density and no thermal runaway risk.
With current battery chemistries, lithium-ion and lead-acid types last only a few years and experience fast degradation due to chemical reactions and variances in operating and storage conditions. On the other hand, supercapacitors can achieve millions of charge/discharge cycles spanning up to two decades.
High power density critical to meet the growing energy needs of modern applications. Like other passive components, supercapacitors often form the basic building blocks of electronic circuits. Key applications include pulse power, ridethrough power, graceful shutdown, hybrid energy storage systems (HESS) and backup power.
Conventional batteries are notoriously susceptible to fluctuations in operating temperature. Batteries have been known to fail easily in cold or elevated temperatures, causing startup issues and costly downtime for time-sensitive operations. Failure and degradation due to battery chemistries and defects also result in thermal runaway. Supercapacitors ensure stable performance over a wide range of operating temperatures, enhancing the safety and reliability of electronic products.
key differences between supercapacitors and batteries in construction, specifications, capabilities, and applications.
Both small and large-sized electronic applications including IoT devices, data centers, industrial plants, healthcare facilities, and other public areas increasingly require the use of clean and quality power with little risk of downtime. In these applications, reliable sources of backup power even with short backup times in the event of power failures can avoid potentially catastrophic results of power variation, outage and downtime.
With growing and widespread concerns about the increasing deposits of toxic metals around the world and their effects on climate change, supercapacitors offer a robust, eco-friendly solution compared to traditional energy storage. Unlike batteries, supercapacitors provide clean energy storage without safety concerns, do not contain toxic metals or additional accessories or components, and are much simpler in terms of power management.
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