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Nippon Paper Industries Co. is seeking new advancements in the use of cellulose nanofibers, materials made by refining wood pulp to hundreds of microns or less, and is currently used in products such as diapers or food additives to create supercapacitors that can accumulate and release energy. . . These supercapacitors would work significantly more efficiently and have a much lower environmental impact than current batteries.
“We need to move faster and work with other companies to find practical applications,” said Toru Nozawa, CEO of Nippon Paper, in an interview. Supercapacitors based on cellulose nanofibers (CNFs) could “be adapted to applications where lithium-ion batteries are currently used, such as cars and smartphones.”
The company aims to develop a pilot energy storage system, which it intends to demonstrate at the Osaka World Expo in 2025, and fully commercialize the technology a decade later.
Supercapacitors hold massless electrons in an electric field, while batteries store energy in chemical form. These differences mean that supercapacitors are ideal for generating short, intense bursts of energy, like a camera flash, but they have only a small fraction of the capacity of lithium-ion batteries.
For this reason, supercapacitors have been used in specific areas for decades, as backup memory systems for laptops, wind turbine motor controllers, or regenerative braking systems for some hybrid and rechargeable vehicles. They also promised to deliver on the long-unfulfilled promise of an energy storage system, as they have significantly shorter charge times, lower safety risks, and are completely independent of precious metals like cobalt or nickel.
“Supercapacitors have a lot of potential to continue to grow as a technology, but they are in a completely different technology segment than batteries,” said Sam Jaffe, CEO of Cairn Energy Research Advisors, a Colorado-based industry consultant. “Supercapacitors are not and never will be a competitor to lithium-ion batteries.”
There are also challenges with new improvements in lithium-ion batteries. Until now, they have provided high energy storage capacity, but their charge has been slower. Some battery technologies now offer 30 minutes of charging, and companies like Volkswagen AG are working to reduce that time to about 12 minutes, said James Frith, an analyst at BloombergNEF.
Proponents of supercapacitors argue that it is still worth the effort. Energy density is already improving and components can take another big step forward with CNF, said Mikio Fukuhara, a researcher at Tohoku University in collaboration with Nippon Paper.
In a March article in the journal Nature, a group of scientists, including Fukuhar, provided evidence that supercapacitors with CNFs can be used to store large amounts of electricity and are suitable for small electronic devices, transportation, and storage of renewable energy.
The first examples of exploitation are devices that use low voltages, such as smartphones or smart watches, Fukuhara said by phone. The use of supercapacitors in electric vehicles would be an “end application”, but further advancements are expected: partly due to the need for higher voltages in electric vehicles. “I am sure that in the future they will replace lithium-ion batteries and become a decisive factor in preserving the environment,” he said. “It will be another industrial revolution.”
Competitors working on other supercapacitor development projects are also optimistic. “Once completed, the technology will be used to increase the capacity and lifespan of electric vehicles and energy storage systems,” said Yoo Seung Joon, professor at the Laboratory of Organic Electrochemistry and Energy Materials at the Institute of Science and Technology. of Gwangju in South Korea.
Nippon Paper is also looking for ways to increase the supply of materials to today’s battery manufacturers while developing competitive technology. The company has added at least one leading manufacturer to its customer base and plans to open supply centers in emerging markets such as Europe, Nozawa said in an interview Monday.
“There is no doubt that the transition to electric vehicles will accelerate,” he said. “We have to take advantage of that.”
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