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This discussion relates to Technology Review's article Battery Breakthrough?.

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  john2
  

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  02/01/2007 10:03 PM

  Motivation

  This was posted Jan 23, 2007
  
  "Feel Good Cars Corporation ("Feel Good Cars") (TSX VENTURE:ZNN) today announced that it has filed a preliminary short-form prospectus with the securities regulatory authorities in the provinces of British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario in connection with a best efforts equity financing. The offering will be led by Paradigm Capital Inc. Final pricing and determination of the number of common shares to be sold under the offering will occur immediately prior to the filing of the (final) short form prospectus in respect of the offering.
  
  Feel Good Cars expects to use the net proceeds from the Offering to repay $270,000 in unsecured short-term loans and interest thereon, approximately $2,100,000 to fund the payment of all future milestone payments to EEStor, Inc., $500,000 to fund product development and the balance for working capital and general corporate purposes.
  
  Closing of the offering is subject to certain conditions, including but not limited to, receipt of all necessary securities regulatory approvals, including the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange.
  
  This press release does not constitute an offer of the securities described herein in any jurisdiction. The securities described herein have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the securities laws of any state and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent an exemption from registration."
  
  Guess what then happened to their stock price?

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• 
  markcaz
  

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  02/04/2007 09:50 AM

  Sorry, It'll never happen!

  Assuming the technology is what EEStor says it is, the US government would never allow public access to such a highly charged, portable ultra-capacitor.
  
  This device is more powerful than C4 explosive.  Protective mechanisms can be dismantled by terrorists, and a $40 rental car can become a rather potent WMD.
  
  The military may use this technology, along with electric utility companies, and possibly Canadian "golf cart" corporations (Zenn), however something much less dangerous is needed to power cars in the US.

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  • 
    Nanook
    

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    02/22/2007 10:11 PM

    Re: Sorry, It'll never happen!

    I disagree, ultra-capacitors can release energy faster than a chemical battery but not so fast as an explosive. Internal resistance and inductance limit the rate that energy can be released. Gasoline can actually be made to release energy much faster.
    
    However, I do see a major issue with Ultra Capacitors as an energy storage medium.  A chemical battery maintains a relatively constant voltage across it's discharge curve.  Not so for a capacitor, it's voltage continuously decreases as it is discharged.  Let's say it's at 100% capacity at 10v, at 75% discharge it will be at 5v.
    
    This means the whole system must be capable of operating over a broad range of voltages, and when you get to 75% discharge at half voltage, now the whole system has to be capable of double the current to get the same power at that voltage.
    
    As a practical consequence, ultra capacitors will never achieve in practical terms the energy densities that they are theoretically capable of.

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    • 
      CJC_PE
      

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      02/23/2007 12:20 PM

      Re: Sorry, It'll never happen!

      The EEStor capacitor is intended to be charged to 3500 volts and discharged through a switch mode power supply. That still sounds like a tall order, but it may be feasable. A patent referenced in the EEStor patent describes the electronic control. The EEStor device as described doesn't sound practicable for low power applications.

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  john.saggese
  

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  02/06/2007 09:26 AM

  Hybrid Cars

  The technical, financial, and social aspects of eforts to reduce dependance on fossil fuels is fascinating.  The technical part has been well discussed here, but the other parts are just as important.
  
  I own and drive a model year 2000 Honda Insight.  As a contractor to national level companies, I travel extensively.  I have driven this car from my home in Ohio to San Francisco and back, to Denver and back a half a dozen times, to Baton Rouge, New orleans, Wisconsin, West Virgina, and all over Indiana and Illinois.  It is capable of cruising indefinitely as speeds well in excess of any posted limits.  I currently have 157,000 miles on the car, and as nearly as I can tell, I have averaged 49.3 mpg for this whole time, based on the dashboard mileage indicator as corroborated by careful actual measurements. 
  
  The argument has been made that the incremental addiional cost for the hybrid system over a similar but otherwise conventional small car would buy a lot of gas.  That's true, but I would rather put the money into the technology than the gas tank and the car has returned the investment handsomely.  Gas at $2.00 per gallon divided by 50 miles per gallon equals $0.04/mile.
  
  This significally reduces my carbon footprint from what it would otherwise be, to say nothing of reducing my cost of mobility.  Honda's integration of the elctric and gasoline engines is clever, no where's near as complex or untried as ultracapacitors, but extremely functional.  And yet, Honda no longer makes the Insight for lack of market demand.  They now make larger cars with hybrid technolgy that don't get nearly the mileage that my Insight gets.  These larger models get reasonably good gas mileage and use the hybrid as a power assist perhaps akin to a turbocharger, but without the strain on the engine. 
  
  I'm not married to Honda or to hybrids.  I would be glad to purchase any technology that would deliver, say, 75 mpg.  But until then, I'm very happy with the performance of the Insight and intend to drive it into the ground.  I figure that's nother 3-5 years, and I hope there's something better by then (even if it is an ultracapacitor).
  
  John Saggese
  419-346-5920
  

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  • 
    peteyamman
    

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    02/06/2007 03:12 PM

    Re: Hybrid Cars

    You know, you can get excellent MPG from a diesel, and runningo on what a deisel engine was built to run on - rapesead oil - you can mix it neat with either a 70% diesel 30% rapesead or, in older engines you can run 100% rapesead.  Anyway, I digress, you are able to get an easy 60 mpg from either a VW Passat or any other manufacturer who uses VW engines, like the Skoda Octavia Ambiant that I own and am on my 2nd one in five years!  Enjoy what you can at such a cheap rate for fuel in the states, as in England its equal  to $8.16 per gallon, if you see what I mean.  Peter

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    • 
      john.saggese
      

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      02/06/2007 09:45 PM

      Re: Hybrid Cars

      Pete, I tried to send this before and I don't think it went through.  I apologize in advance if you get it twice.
      
      I agree that diesels or diesel/hybrids can do the same as my Insight, and possibly better. Here in the States we keep hearing about European diesels but they never seem to arrive.  We had a bad eperience back in the 80's when GM offered a diesel version of their large cars.  Didn't get particularly good mileage, the cars themselves weren't very good, and when the price of diesel went up it destroyed any economic justification for the cars. 
      
      Ouch, sorry to hear about the price of gas in the UK.  Those kind of prices would kill us over here.  How much of that is taxes and how much is for the gasoline/diesel?  There are people in this country that would like to see significantly higher taxes on petroleum, and consequently higher prices, to encourage conservation, reduce dependence on foreign oil, slow global warming, etc.  They're generally called Democrats.  But that gets into the social aspects of gsoline mileage, which is at least as interesting as the technical side of it.
      
      Congrats on your highe mileage.
      
      John Saggese

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  • 
    Richee
    

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    04/01/2008 01:18 AM

    Re: Hybrid Cars

    I want an Insight! I drive a Honda Civic Hybrid, but I think Honda is going in the wrong direction. If Toyota is going to bring out a 90 mpg Prius in '09, WHAT is Honda waiting for?

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  brian
  

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  02/06/2007 01:06 PM

  Phillips and Panasonic Patents

  http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/6078494.html
  
  apparently, phillps has a patent as well. the poetically titled:
  
  Multilayer capacitor comprising barium-titanate doped with silver and rare earth metal
  
  if someone with a little more knowledge would translate that would be appreciated.
  
  and Panasonic (less important, but show business interest in these types of products.)
  
  http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/6947276.html
  
  Titled: Process for producing laminated ceramic capacitor

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  • 
    CJC_PE
    

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    02/06/2007 03:10 PM

    Re: Phillips and Panasonic Patents

    The Phillips patent describes various compositions of doped barium titanate powder one of which is the basic material that the EEStor patent uses as its starting point.
    
    The Phillips patent states that a capacitor including any of their ceramic compositions "...is characterized by a high dielectric constant K and a long service life, a low loss factor, a high insulation resistance and a capacitance with a low voltage dependence. The temperature dependence of its dielectric constant K corresponds to the EIA-standard Y5V."

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