Do any of you good folk down around Austin know anything about EEStor? For those not in the know, EEStor is a small private company that may have made the discovery that proves to be the tipping point toward the mass shift to electric cars, amongst other things. Have I got your attention yet? “EEstor, of Cedar Park, Texas, is either headed for an ignominious (though well intentioned, I think) fall, or they’re in on the ground floor of the Next Big Thing. You see, EEstor is trying to produce a material that will in turn make relatively high voltage ultracapacitors practical… An ultracapacitor is just a capacitor with a lot of capacitance. And a capacitor itself is just a device that stores electric charge. But it doesn’t do it like a battery does. Batteries store charge in chemical form, and there are several unfortunate consequences of that… Ultracapacitors, on the other hand, store energy as a surplus of electrons in one conductive region, and a deficit of electrons in another, separated by a very thin insulating barrier. They can accept charging current at amazing rates, without any waste heat; rates that make batteries look positively stone-age. More than that, they can discharge just as fast, and again, without any waste heat. It doesn’t wear them out, either; fast, moderate, slow, it’s all the same to them. Nor do they care how many times this goes on — they have usable lifespans that could be hundreds or even thousands of times the life of a battery, even under the very worst circumstances. They even work to specification over considerably wider temperature ranges. The higher the voltage the ultracap can handle, and the more capacity (measured in “farads”) it is rated for, the greater the total energy it can provide on discharge… Sounds great, doesn’t it? So what’s the catch? There has to be a catch, right? Here it is: No one in the ultracapacitor business — except EEstor themselves — thinks they can make the pure material in question at the permittivity (this is the key value that will allow high capacitance in a thin film) they claim to have achieved in their patent...” http://fyngyrz.wordpress.com/2008/06/15/most-interesting-company-eestor/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EEStor Other people are working on ultracapacitors too. MIT is working on this as well, but they’re coming at the problem from a very different angle. http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/03/mit-ultracapacitors-nanotubes-nanowires.php
I've heard this story for a while now and it seems like their dates keep getting pushed back and nothing of substance comes along..... Hopefully something will come out of it, but I'm starting to think its more hype
The fact that they have Lockheed-Martin's attention means they may be on to something. They are also gearing up for an electric car in 2009. Here are several articles: http://www.autobloggreen.com/tag/eestor/
I actually first heard about eestor about a year and a half ago from one of my co-workers who was going into environmental law. Unfortunately, I don't know much more about them than what can be found on a google search, but I am definitely intrigued by their product. They've got some serious heavy-hitter venture capitalist firms backing them, which has allowed them to operate without constantly searching for funding. I've also been keeping up with any news coming from their strategic partner in Canada, ZENN Motor Cars. Eestor has also signed an exclusive agreement with Lockheed Martin, which would seem to lend credibility to their development as well. However, I too have noticed the release date being constantly pushed back, which has caused much of skepticism that is out there now. They definitely have the potential to be a game-changer in the world of energy storage, but like they say, the proof is in the pudding; so I suppose I'll be waiting in suspense until they finally release what they have.
Release dates moving back are normal as things heat up. I have heard about them here in Austin, there is a lot of buzz about their company. I am hopeful, this would be an amazing discovery and one that changes the world..... LOVE IT. DD
I have to say that I’m sceptical as well. I have to wonder why none of the major auto manufacturers invested in EEStor. Lockheed Martin is obviously a very big company, however, and you would think that they would have done their homework, but maybe they were priced in for what they had to pay for the rights they bought and they just took the chance. There are lots of twists and turns to this story. Richard Weir, who apparently has his name on the patent for this product, apparently was formerly involved in making high capacity hard drives and such for big Silicon Valley companies. That seems like a useful background given the kinds of problems he’s trying to solve with EEStor, but a post I read on a blog suggested that in his past career he was involved with some high profile projects that looked very good on paper but that ultimately had fatal problems in production. I wasn’t able to quickly find the exact post, but it was on this blog a week or two ago. http://bariumtitanate.blogspot.com/ This blog is kind of mysterious too, and I think some posters believe that it’s someone who is trying to put a favourable spin on things to boost Zenn’s stock price. If so then it doesn’t seem to be working. There have been a number of companies seemingly on the verge of making major breakthroughs with ultra or super-capacitors. MIT looked to be on the verge a couple of years ago, but they seem to have been mostly silent since. There is a company associated with UBC, EPOD, that also seemed to be on the verge a couple of years ago. Maybe I don’t understand enough about the problems these projects are facing to understand what kind of timelines are reasonable, but at first blush it seems strange to me that no one has taken that final step yet.
the major auto companies aren't exactly well-known for being on top of things when it comes to innovation. Remember, they had to be pushed really hard by the Japanese auto industry to even get to the point where they are now.
US Auto companies are LAAAAZZZZYYYYYY....they do not lead, they follow. There have been plenty of advances that could benefit the Auto industry that have been ignored..... They are just happy to keep on keeping on...... Meanwhile Honda puts out a Hydrogen car.... DD
I would thin that they haven't actually built this super capcitor yet in terms of one that actually delivers enough juice to do the job. Probably have some tests that make them believe they will be successful. But seeing is believing, and we haven't seen yet. Imagine a capcitor that requires nothing but electricity, can move a car for 250 miles, takes only 5 minutes to recharge, and has 0 emissions. We'd have to definitely go nuclear, but it would hold the promise of ending our dependence on foreign oil. But for now, it's just theory.
I'm bored so just did a little bit of calculation based on their patent. Apparently each of their energy storage unit is good for 20 minutes with a 200 horse power engine. So in order to drive for 2 hours before a recharge, they would need 6 units which would weight 2000 pounds. It seems based on the figures in their patent, they are pretty close but not there yet. They probably need to double their energy per unit to make it practical for a car. Of course the patent was filed in 2001 so they might have already made a lot of progress.
The info on their Wikipedia page suggests an improved product from what you’ve calculated, but that leads to one of the mysteries about this company. They are extremely private and most of the info about them comes from questionable sources. They don’t even have their own website. It seems that most of the new info on them is coming from an anonymous blogger on the bariumtitanate.blogspot.com site. He released info late Friday and on Monday morning Zenn’s stock price jumped 15%, but it has fallen back since then. This all seems very sketchy to me. I think there are two issues here, one about the technology and one about this company and what’s happening with that blog and Zenn’s stock price. I’ve never invested in stocks like this and I’m not planning to start, but I am finding this situation quite interesting. If I lived in Austin I’d be tempted to drive out and see what EEStor looks like. They are supposed to be past the prototype stage and going into production, for delivery this year to Zenn, so there should be lots of signs of activity, but as EEStor is a private company they don’t have to say anything, and they have said precious little. Are they just protecting info while they file patents, or is this some kind of stock scam based around Zenn’s stock? If this thing is real then Zenn’s stock price will skyrocket. One report said that it could hit $100, which would be in the neighbourhood of 20x what it is now. Otoh, if this thing does not really exist then Zenn’s stock will likely crash. The anonymous blogger claims to be talking to Weir, but why would Weir do that knowing that by doing it he’s messing with Zenn’s stock price? I don’t know much about this kind of stock and the games that are played, but this sure seems strange to me. On the technology issue, even if this particular innovation doesn’t pan out there are enough different groups working on ultracapacitors that you would think that one will make a breakthrough soon, and if they do it could well change the world. We could potentially skip the hydrogen economy and go strait to ultracaps. Does anyone know anything more about the MIT project?
