Brian Eichler, VP Global Sales

Most manufacturers use a wet electrode manufacturing process, similar to lithium-ion batteries, which is toxic, expensive, and non-eco-friendly. The solvent handling machinery and drying ovens used in traditional wet electrode manufacturing consumes high power and large factory space. This makes the overall process more expensive for manufacturers. In addition, residual solvents left behind in a wet processed electrode can lead to gas generation and ultracapacitor product performance or reliability issues.

Enter LICAP Technologies, a company that is redefining the power electronics space with its world-class ultracapacitors and lithium-ion capacitors. The company’s patented Activated Dry Electrode manufacturing process eliminates the need for drying ovens, solvents and solvent recovery systems. LICAP’s patented activation process also enables using less binder material in the carbon powder mixture, which leads to higher capacitance and lower ESR, as compared to other ultracapacitor manufacturers. This, in turn, leads to a range of benefits including improved cost efficiency, reliability, higher performance and eco-friendliness of the ultracapacitors. The absence of energy- and space-intensive ovens and solvent handling systems in the factory not only makes the process environment-friendly but also reduces power consumption. What’s more, a smaller factory footprint is enabled —reduced by up to 75 percent—which further lowers the cost burden while retaining the market differentiation of manufacturing superior devices.

LICAP’s ultracapacitors store energy electrostatically, enabling the devices to handle rapid charge and discharge rates at high power. As opposed to traditional batteries, LICAP’s ultracapacitors have a longer lifetime of approximately 10-15 years, or 1 million cycles, and predictable EOL, which makes them highly efficient in applications that require short-duration energy backup, high power discharge and quick recharge.

The legacy ultracapacitors can store 5.7Wh of usable energy in one liter volume of space, but our lithium-ion capacitor can store up to 13.5Wh of usable energy in the same space size

LICAP’s ultracapacitors and lithium-ion capacitors find applications in several industries. One of the most prominent today is the backup power system for electric pitch control in wind turbines. Wind turbines make blade pitch adjustments using electric motors inside the hub. They also rely on these motors to stop the turbine as needed for maintenance, or for an emergency stop. Energy storage is located in the hub to provide power for the pitching activity. The hub of a wind turbine is a harsh environment with temperature extremes, vibration and is not convenient to access for service. Wind turbine manufacturers select ultracapacitors as energy storage for pitch control systems due to their long life, wide operating temperature range and high reliability. In addition to wind turbine pitch control systems, there many other applications in multiple industries that benefit from using LICAP ultracapacitors and lithium-ion capacitors in their systems. Anytime battery maintenance or replacement is costly or inconvenient, or high reliability and long life is required, more system designers are turning to ultracapacitors and lithium-ion capacitors as a solution. This includes systems developed for applications in automotive, heavy vehicles, railway, grid, manufacturing, industrial and more.

LICAP manufactures its state of the art activated dry electrode and lithium-ion capacitors at a LICAP factory in Sacramento, CA, USA. Ultracapacitor cells and modules are assembled at a LICAP facility located in Tianjin, China. Striving to expand further, LICAP is focused on increasing its output with a new production facility being built in China. The company is looking forward to serving multifaceted industry applications with their eco-friendly, reliable and cost-saving energy solutions while mitigating the challenges of traditional slurry manufacturing processes.