Supercapacitors are well suited to replace batteries in many applications. This is because at the moment their scale is comparable to that of batteries, from small ones used in cellular phones to large ones that can be found in cars. Even though supercapacitors have a lower energy density compared to batteries, they avoid many of the battery’s disadvantages.

Batteries have a limited number of charge/discharge cycles and take time to charge and discharge because the process involves chemical reactions with non-instantaneous rates. These chemical reactions have parasitic thermal release that causes the battery to heat up. Batteries have a limited life cycle with a degrading performance and acidic batteries are hazardous to the environment.
Supercapacitors can be charged and discharged almost an unlimited number of times. They can discharge in matters of milliseconds and are capable of producing enormous currents. Hence they are very useful in load levelling applications and fields where a sudden boost of power is needed in a fraction of a second. They do not release any thermal heat during discharge.

One of the most recent innovations in the field is the electrochemical double layer capacitor – the SuperCapacitor from Wima. From about 10 up to several thousand farad (F) values are housed in one. A 100 F model, for example, is approximately the size of a match-box, and this capacitance would correspond to the impressive volume of 100 million parallel connected standard polyester film capacitors with an individual capacitance of 1 mF each! With the superCapacitor, despite the limitations of its low maximum operating voltage of 2.5 V, several units can be built up to an enormous capacitance of the desired voltage rating by connecting them in series or parallel (cascade).

For more information go to:

http://www.wima.com/en_index.php