CSIRO's UltraBattery to power hybrid cars

By Stuart Corner
Thursday, 17 January 2008 08:01

Science - Energy

The CSIRO has developed a revolutionary 'UltraBattery' for use in hybrid petrol/electrical vehicles that combines supercapacitor and conventional lead acid battery technology into a single unit. It is able to deliver the benefits of both technologies and with much lower cost and longer life than a conventional battery.

A test vehicle using the UltraBattery has just completed 100,000 miles (160,000km) of testing in the UK and vehicles using the technology are expected to be in dealers' showrooms within two years.

The combination of supercapacitor and battery is attractive for hybrid vehicles because the capacitor is able to deliver power at high levels in short bursts for acceleration and to receive high levels of power input, such as that produced by regenerative breaking. However capacitors are very poor at storing electrical energy over long periods. Batteries, in contrast are excellent for long term storage but do not like being rapidly charged or discharged.

However, there are cost, space and weight penalties from using both technologies and complex electronics needed to manage the flow of electrical energy into and out of supercapacitor and the battery add considerably to the cost.

The UltraBattery eliminates the need for all the control electronics required to manage electrical energy flows in a dual capacitor/battery system because energy flows are determined at a 'chemical' level by the internal construction of the unit.

"It is as though the positive plate as been split into two: one half lead [the battery] and one half carbon [the capacitor] and that is what the first of our patents relates to," David Lamb, leader of low emissions transport research at CSIRO told iTWire. "The second patent relates to how you make this into a battery in the factory."