Ultra Capacitor
The combination of ultra capacitor for starting and deep-cycle batteries for a truck's electrical and hotel loads looks like a winner, says Rick Capps, special projects systems engineer of the Nevada Automotive Test Center, a contract facility much used by the military. "The technology is not down the road, it's now," he says. And even though the ultra capacitor is expensive today - it's currently around $800 - Capps reckons the lifecycle costs will put the capacitor/battery system ahead over the life of a truck.
In most applications, fleet specifiers might find it hard to justify such a cost, even trading off a couple of vehicle batteries. Bulk haulers may be able to rationalize the expense from the nearly 100-pound weight savings. But pioneer KBi's ultra capacitor supplier maintains the payback can be as little as a year when factoring in the savings and the uptime guarantee of the capacitor starting system. And that's at today's cost of building the ultra capacitors in the supplier's Russian plant and shipping them here.
Even so, KBi and its partner are working hard to fix the ultra capacitor's perceived cost drawback. They are currently looking to establish a joint venture to manufacture the KAPower-branded capacitors in the United States, where they predict the cost per kilojoule will drop approximately 50% from the current 10 or 12 dollars. Ultimately, when mass production is finally realized and using the latest designs, materials and production techniques, costs could be reduced by an additional 50%, to around $200-$300 per install.
And when they do, says KBi vice president Jim Burke, they will release a log-jam of demand. The technology is not only attractive to heavy truck users, it has wide application in the military, farm and construction, standby generation, even the uninterruptible power supply industry. Burke and his Russian associates anticipate a rush to reap the benefits of the ultra capacitor.
THE TECHNOLOGY
Capacitors are not new. In fact, their characteristics have been well understood since first demonstrated by the physicist Hermann von Helmholz in the late 19th century. This century, capacitors have been fundamental parts of tuned electrical circuits, and they are extensively used today in watches, PDAs and phones to maintain memory during battery changes. But the big, industrial-sized ultra capacitors have, until now, been more difficult to develop and implement, says Burke. With the introduction of the asymmetric ultra capacitor by the Russian technology company, there's a capacitor that will do the job.
The Russian company officers have invested five years and thousands of miles in rental cars taking their innovative asymmetric ultra capacitors to a diverse cross section of industries all over North America.
At the same time the Russians were beating on American doors, KBi's Burke and his father — company founder and president James W. Burke — were casting around for a synergystic technology to their Kold-Ban Dieselmatic ether-starting product. This product, which has been refined over several decades, guarantees a diesel start however cold the environment, providing the engine will turn over. What KBi was looking for was an advanced and reliable technology that would guarantee to do it. When a KBi group happened to bump into the Russian delegation at a heavy-duty OEM's engineering department, both sides realized it was a perfect solution for guaranteed starting of heavy-duty engines in any environment.
The technologies' combination opens up some remarkable possibilities. The ether start is too familiar to need explanation, though it's worth noting that the latest generation ties directly into the engine ECM to make it completely automatic and seamless for the driver. The ultra capacitor needs some introduction to understand how remarkable a starting aid it can be. According to Burke, as a demonstration, they took an ultra capacitor starting system that was completely discharged. Using a stack of four small, three-volt, photocell type batteries, they managed to build up enough charge on the capacitor to fire up a heavy-duty diesel engine.
IMPLEMENTATION
Starting a diesel with camera batteries is just a side-show example, but KBi has already developed and introduced the KrankingKart a jump-starting cart utilizing the ultra capacitor technology. You could, says Burke, have a truck with a battery voltage of around 10 volts that is effectively a lost cause for starting. Bring up the cart, connect the cables, and the residual energy in the batteries will build a charge in the ultra capacitor. Within seconds, the KrankingKart will start the truck.
Again, that would be a trick, because shops would conventionally leave the cart charged, bring it to the truck to jump it, then leave the device connected to the vehicle for a few seconds to re-establish the full charge. The KrankingKart can then be left for months before it is needed and still have a full charge on the capacitor.
In vehicle systems that are completed for development and evaluation, the 27-pound ultra capacitor substitutes for two of a truck's batteries, saving more than 90 pounds. It is wired in parallel with the remaining one or two batteries there to run lights, sleeper loads and other vehicle electrics. There's an isolator/starter switch so the ultra capacitor can be removed from the circuit except for starting and charging — though this is not essential.
Several evaluation programs by end users have been completed. At Ryder Transportation Services, equipment evaluation team leader Tom Shupbach ran several tests substituting the ultra capacitor for one or two batteries in a four-battery system. While the team was able to verify the capacitors worked, the high initial cost and several operational issues have meant the program is on the back burner.
Operational issues included a need for education, says Shupbach. "We had instances where an engine manufacturer would blame the capacitor (system) without trying to find what was wrong. They would disconnect the capacitor when it was mounted close to the starter — which is where they should be. There needs to be education to the suppliers of other vehicle componentry."
According to Shupbach, though, if the cost can be reduced to KBi's target, then he says Ryder could build a business case for using the alternative technology to save the company's high cost of replacing conventional lead acid batteries.
In the meantime, "We're waiting to see where it can go," he said.
The military is extremely interested in the technology, because vehicle batteries represent a huge cost, handling and tactical problem. One of the projects under investigation is a batteryless starting system based on the KBi/KoldBan Dieselmatic ether start and the KAPower-branded ultra capacitor.
According to the U.S. Army Tank-Automotive and Armaments Command (TACOM), advantages include maximum power on demand, recharge from a start in five seconds and the opportunity to charge via a standard NATO slave receptacle when necessary.
Important for the military is the fact that the capacitor has no hazardous materials in its construction, greatly easing the handling, storage and paperwork involved over standard batteries. The military also sees the wide operating range of -58 to 122 degrees Fahrenheit as a major plus for the starting of its vehicles. The fact that the batteryless truck dispenses with four conventional batteries not only saves weight, but the relatively small size of the capacitor and controller mean they can be packaged more easily on the truck, says Jim Miodek, business development manager of U.S. Army TACOM.
