SBIR Phase II: The Development of Higher Voltage, Longer Life and Lower Cost Activated Carbon Materials for Supercapacitors

SBIR第二阶段：开发用于超级电容器的更高电压、更长寿命和更低成本的活性炭材料

• 批准号: 1430918
• 负责人: Edward Buiel
• 金额: $ 64.94万
• 依托单位: Coulometrics
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-10-01 至 2016-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1430918&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; II; Development; Higher

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project is in significantly increasing the ways supercapacitors and lithium ion batteries are used today. Supercapacitors offer very high power capabilities and high energy efficiency and have been used in many renewable energy applications such as hybrid buses and wind turbines. Currently, their use is limited due to high cost and low energy density relative to Li-ion batteries. Coulometrics has developed a proprietary process that can modify low cost activated carbon materials into supercapacitor grade carbons with 25% higher energy density and twice the current lifespan of existing materials. These critical developments will lower the overall system cost and improve cell life allowing for more widespread use of supercapacitors in renewable energy applications. Coulometrics has also shown that a very similar process can be used to convert natural graphite to lithium ion grade anode materials with higher energy density and significantly lower cost. This process will also enable a Northern American company to become the first producer of graphite for lithium ion batteries on the continent which can significantly reduce lithium ion battery cost for applications such as electric vehicles. Both projects will have additional environmental benefits including reduced greenhouse gas emissions, less burning of fossil fuels, and help protect the environment.The project seeks to break through a significant barrier that has kept ultracapacitor voltage and energy density stagnant for over a decade and significantly reduce costs of lithium ion battery carbon materials. Supercapacitor companies all produce products with different carbons, electrolytes, cell construction, etc. and yet are all confined to the same performance specifications. We believe that this is related to oxidation/reduction reactions that occur on the carbon surface; a fairly intuitive hypothesis; however attempts at solutions have been futile. The surface treatment we developed in Phase I has resulted in a reduction of these oxidation/reduction currents by more than 50%. This technology will lead to the largest performance gains in the ultracapacitor industry in over 10 years. Additionally, one of the most challenging factors limiting market growth for ultracapacitors is their high cost, of which activated carbon accounts for 27%. Coulometrics' treatment applied to inexpensive water filtration carbon, also developed in Phase I, has shown very similar performance enhancements, and will cost up to 95% less than commercial activated carbon materials. The surface modification process for graphitic carbons will enable the low cost and high quality production of carbon anode materials for lithium ion batteries based on natural graphite. This breakthrough can significantly reduce lithium ion battery cost which is a key element for more wide spread adoption of electric vehicles which will help reduce our nation's dependence on the need to import foreign oil.

小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第二阶段项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力正在显著增加超级电容器和锂离子电池的使用方式。超级电容器提供非常高的功率容量和高能效，并已被用于许多可再生能源应用，如混合动力公交车和风力涡轮机。目前，与锂离子电池相比，由于成本高，能量密度低，它们的使用受到限制。Coulometrics开发了一种专利工艺，可以将低成本的活性碳材料改性为超级电容器级碳，能量密度提高25%，寿命是现有材料的两倍。这些关键的发展将降低整体系统成本并提高电池寿命，从而使超级电容器在可再生能源应用中得到更广泛的使用。库仑计量学还表明，可以使用非常类似的过程将天然石墨转化为锂离子级负极材料，具有更高的能量密度和显著更低的成本。这一过程还将使一家北美公司成为欧洲大陆第一家生产锂离子电池用石墨的公司，这将大大降低电动汽车等应用的锂离子电池成本。这两个项目都将带来额外的环境效益，包括减少温室气体排放，减少化石燃料的燃烧，并有助于保护环境。该项目寻求突破一个使超级电容器电压和能量密度停滞不前十多年的重大障碍，并显著降低锂离子电池碳材料的成本。超级电容器公司生产的产品都使用不同的碳、电解液、电池结构等，但都受到相同的性能规格的限制。我们认为这与碳表面发生的氧化/还原反应有关；这是一个相当直观的假设；然而，解决方案的尝试都是徒劳的。我们在第一阶段开发的表面处理已使这些氧化/还原电流减少了50%以上。这项技术将带来10多年来超级电容器行业最大的性能提升。此外，限制超级电容器市场增长的最具挑战性的因素之一是其高昂的成本，其中活性碳占27%。库仑计量公司的处理方法应用于廉价的水过滤碳，也是在第一阶段开发的，表现出非常相似的性能改进，成本将比商业活性碳材料低95%。石墨炭的表面改性工艺将使以天然石墨为基础的锂离子电池碳负极材料的低成本、高质量的生产成为可能。这一突破可以显着降低锂离子电池的成本，这是更广泛地采用电动汽车的关键因素，这将有助于减少我国对进口石油的依赖。