the concept of storing energy cuts
across most modern technologies and
inventions for instance your phone
tablet the fitness monitor on your wrist
and the electric car in your garage all
rely on batteries to function however it
seems we have not yet reached peak
battery and the search for the perfect
battery is still on which is why the
search for the perfect battery material
is still on however there has been a lot
of attention on graphene the latest
wonder material in industrial circles
one application of graphene is in
batteries or energy storage join us as
we dive into scientists insane new
graphene battery that finally hit the
market
the world has become so used to
batteries the electrical energy they
store can then be used to produce light
heat or motion almost every electronic
device runs on batteries for example tv
remotes cell phones flashlights toys or
even our vehicles are powered by
batteries the two electrical terminals
of a battery are separated by a chemical
substance called an electrolyte which is
a medium that allows the flow of
electrical charge between the two
terminals when you connect the battery
to an external circuit board the
electrolytes move as ions allowing the
chemical reactions to be completed at
the terminals and thereby delivering
energy to the external circuit it is the
movement of the ions within a battery
that allows current to flow out of the
battery however there is another form of
energy storage known as ultra capacitors
also known as supercapacitors they are a
monumental breakthrough in capacitor
technology and a source of electrical
energy with a virtually unlimited
lifetime ultra capacitors are double
layer capacitors that offer
significantly higher energy density
meaning they're able to hold hundreds of
times more electrical charge compared to
standard capacitors ultra capacitors are
bigger capacitors that are inherently
better energy storage devices that are
able to store a larger amount of
electrical charge than chemical
batteries compared to similarly sized
batteries ultra capacitors have a higher
power density quicker charge discharge
rate and a longer life cycle ultra
capacitors can be used wherever a large
amount of power is required for a short
period of time unlike standard
capacitors ultra capacitors have an
electrolyte between the plates rather
than a dielectric meaning they store
energy in an electric field rather than
in a chemical reaction unlike batteries
they are resilient to high temperatures
and change much faster than batteries
ultra capacitors benefit from a new
wonder material known as graphene
graphene has emerged as one of the most
promising nano materials because of its
unique combination of exceptional
properties it is not only the thinnest
but also one of the most robust
materials it conducts heat better than
all other materials it is an excellent
conductor of electricity it is optically
transparent yet so dense that it is
impermeable to gases not even helium the
smallest gas atom can pass through it
graphene is the name for a single layer
or monolayer sheet of carbon atoms that
are bonded together in a repeating
pattern of hexagons this sheet is only
one atom thick monolayers of graphene
stacked on top of each other form
graphite since a typical carbon atom has
a diameter of about 0.33 nanometers
there are about three million layers of
graphene in a one millimeter thick sheet
of graphite harder than diamond yet more
elastic than rubber tougher than steel
yet lighter than aluminium
graphene is the strongest known material
graphene possesses other amazing
characteristics for example its high
electron mobility is 100 times faster
than silicon it conducts heat two times
better than diamond its electrical
conductivity is 13 times better than
copper it absorbs only 2.3 percent of
reflecting light also its high surface
area of 2
630 square meters per gram means that
with less than three grams you could
cover an entire soccer field to put this
in perspective if a sheet of cling film
like kitchen wrap film had the same
strength as a new single layer of
graphene it would require the force
exerted by a mass of 2 000 kilograms or
a large car to puncture it with a pencil
graphene is very versatile and forms the
basis of many derivative products and
materials one of the derived materials
is curved graphene this is where
skeleton technologies comes in the
german-based skeleton technologies has
been at the forefront of graphene-based
supercapacitor development for many
years the company recently made some
major moves including a large financing
round worth more than 70 million euros
the super battery project and several
strategic customers and projects
including ones with medcom skoda cef
right bus and marobani skeleton has
already raised over 117 million euros in
total in private funding rounds and
received numerous grants and project
awards in fact skeleton may not be far
from an ipo skeleton focuses on four
main markets the automotive one or cars
transportation or trains trams buses and
so forth industrial systems such as oil
and gas systems construction medical and
so forth and the power grid it sees good
demand and growth in sales across all of
its markets skeleton produces graphene
enhanced super capacitors based on its
curved graphene technology the company
boasts is capacitors are the best
performing capacitors globally with the
highest density and by a large margin
over its competition the enhanced
performance is behind skeleton's
extremely fast growth in the last few
years as the company supplies its
solutions to a wide range of
applications the company reports a
backlog of over 200 million dollars in
products that it will supply in the next
years to support its fast growth
skeleton is developing new production
technologies and scaling up capacity
with support from the german government
skeleton has tripled its revenues for
three years in a row up to 2020 and in
2022 it hopes to continue its fast
growth skeleton's main technology is its
curved graphene which is a type of
graphene but not a standard one the
material is nothing like the single
layer graphene sheet but rather
resembles crumbled up graphene resulting
in nanoscale 3d objects the curved
graphene retains the properties of
graphene-like high conductivity and
large surface area but can be inserted
into electrodes much more easily
compared to other graphene types this
enables skeleton to achieve high
performance in its super capacitors the
technology increases energy density by
almost a factor of 10 while still
enabling fast charging and the higher
power density the super capacitors are
known for
two popular applications today are wind
pitch control and grid energy storage
solutions wind pitch control systems are
traditionally powered by lead acid
batteries but newer turbines are
adopting super capacitors that
outperform the old solutions skeleton
supplies its capacitors to many such
turbines in this market will likely
continue to grow in the future
another important application for
skeletons super capacitor lies in the
grid large power banks up to 100
megawatts are used to regulate the grid
these installations need to release
their power quickly which is where
skeletons super capacitors come into
play skeleton's skel cap ultra capacitor
series is unique in the world of ultra
capacitors protected by 11 patent
families covering everything from the
raw material to the synthesis and
production processes the cells provide
up to four times higher power density
compared to the competition as well as
lower esr leading to a much better
application lifetime thanks to the
company's curved graphene tech scalecap
ultra capacitors have up to two times
higher energy density than even the most
advanced cells produced by their
competitors they also have lower
internal resistance resulting in
significantly higher efficiency and up
to five times less energy being lost as
heat this is also an advantage because
cooling systems can be downsized or
removed altogether skeleton also touts
the reliability and long life of the
scalcap battery curved graphene has a
high chemical purity which gives it a
significant reliability advantage over
activated carbons the special
purification and post-treatment
procedures applied to the materials used
in skel cap ultra capacitors result in
industry-leading lifetimes of 15 or more
years in many applications since skel
cap is an ultra capacitor and not a
battery it offers practically instant
charging and discharging efficient
operation in extreme temperatures
extremely high power high reliability
and safety the difference is because
ultra capacitors store energy in an
electric field rather than in a chemical
reaction like batteries however skeleton
says batteries into ultra capacitors are
complementary technologies that is
batteries provide energy for the long
term while ultra capacitors provide fast
reaction and high power together ultra
capacitors and batteries are the future
of electrification skeleton believes the
ideal applications for ultra capacitors
require high power and constant cycling
a good example is cars or kinetic energy
recovery systems where braking energy is
stored and reused for acceleration or
lighting another great use case is power
quality even a tiny disturbance of a few
microseconds in power quality can lead
to tens of millions in damages without
ultra capacitors to protect the
equipment infrastructure and grid with
immediate response skeleton has an iso
9001 and 14001 certified production
facility in grossroadsdorf germany the
most modern ultracapacitor factory
globally and the largest of its kind in
europe let's hear what you think about
skeleton technologies curved graphene in
the comments section below