Any people here good with chemistry or physics?

[Super_Geo]

Does anyone know the efficencies involved with charging supercapacitors? Like say I wanted to charge a series of supercapacitors with a certain energy, how much input energy would I need?

Also, is it possible to slowly discharge the power? Most applications I read completely discharges the supercapacitor in the microseonds/seconds range, whereas I'd need it to discharge in more the minutes/hours range.

Just hoping someone here has done some some reading on supercapacitors and can give me a hand. Thanks guys.

[Carfanman]

Homework trouble?

[Super_Geo]

Well I'm taking Fuel Cell Design right now and half of it is based on a semester long desig/implimentation project.

So we're trying to power a house using an alkaline fuel cell power generator. We're just trying to explore different options for power storage. The problem is, we started on this project today, and it's due tomorrow... haha, talk about being up shit creek eh.

Anyway... if by some chance anyone knows anything about this, that would be awesome.

[Kamen]

How long did you have to do this one man?
Shit good luck, too bad I'm an economist...I know nothing

[Super_Geo]

Originally posted by Kamen
How long did you have to do this one man?

Haha... um... 12-weeks.

[Ben]

ok, well basically...Input energy on these things will always equate to be larger than the energy youl'll get out of it. The input energy is wasted on things, mainly heat, but resistance (which generates heat.) You can make things mor efficient and see less loss, by making your method of transport more efficient. Pretty vague question without knowing what the input power is from and what the electrolite is. etc.

[Super_Geo]

But do you know what the efficiency is? Of course it'd be very generalized, but is it possible to say that for a general supercapacitor, an input energy of 10KWh would result in x KHw stored?

The only reasonable battery that would work is a lead-acid battery, but they are only about 50-60% efficient.

[kiwi]

Originally posted by Super_Geo
Well I'm taking Fuel Cell Design right now and half of it is based on a semester long desig/implimentation project...

...we started on this project today, and it's due tomorrow...

Wow, good luck with that man!

[Ben]

Here's a helpful link for you, with diagrams

http://www.propane.tx.gov/education/lessonpdf/3_1a.pdf