%20%C2%AELARGE.png){kind=small}
EnyGy® is a public company that has successfully raised seed capital from sophisticated investors, to establish operations in Melbourne, Australia. With a further planned finance round in the new year, enyGy is expected to surge into the global ultracapacitor energy storage market as it commercializes an IP portfolio of 7+ years of graphene research and development.
The benefits of ultracapacitors over batteries include:
· Longer lifetime boasting up to 1 million charge/discharge cycles
· 100x faster charging and discharging
· Up to 60 times the power density (a measure of power output per unit volume)
· Maintenance free operation
· Safety in operation, eliminating the risk of explosion under normal operating conditions
EnyGy is facilitating the production of next generation ultracapacitors, effectively leaping beyond the benchmarks of modern capacitor technologies in the market today. Increasing the performance of ultracapacitors is pivotal in the growing energy market which continues to seek out new innovative electrical applications alongside high demand for environmentally safe and conscious solutions.
Using enyGy® proprietary graphene technology, ultracapacitors can be reduced in size whilst maintaining the same capacitance (ability to store energy) or alternatively, be the same size whilst boasting up to two times the capacitance. This increased volumetric capacitance results in a higher energy density (amount of energy stored per unit volume), and this takes place without sacrificing the power density. The team at enyGy are experiencing significant interest within the industry and are excited about the prospects of this technology.
The reason for this interest is primarily due to current space constraints within applications that require rapid charging and discharging, for example, in automobiles, trams, trains, and handheld power tools. The ability to have the same stored energy in a smaller package or increase the stored energy within an existing package size is of immense value in existing and future applications. For example, in trains or light rail trains, ultracapacitors are utilised to store energy during braking, and release the energy during acceleration. The result is energy savings and less reliance on grid energy. In this application, enyGy® technology can reduce the size of ultracapacitor volume requirements by 30% to 50% whilst storing and releasing the same amount of energy. This opens up volume for design, innovative enhancements, and other important additions.
Professor Dan Li, key inventor of the enyGy IP portfolio, said, “A unique nano-engineering strategy has been developed to manipulate the individual graphene sheets and to control the inter-sheet spacing and interactions down in sub-nanometer scale. This achieves compact energy storage capability by graphene-based electrode films.”
Graphene has been of interest in the ultracapacitor industry for years due to its outstanding properties. Graphene is high in thermal and electrical conductivity and has long been sought after as a replacement for activated carbon due to its high surface area. A higher surface area means an increased storage of electrostatic charge with low degradation over long term cycles. The successful implementation of graphene in the electrode film within ultracapacitors presents an extreme challenge, which enyGy has been successful in achieving.
The proprietary graphene technology developed at enyGy has achieved this in a way that is both efficient and cost effective.
“The key challenge is to process the graphene-based materials at macroscopic level while being able to finely control its structure and chemistry at nanometer scale, so that we can preserve the fantastic properties of graphene at bulk level. We have achieved it.” said enyGy Chief Technology Officer, Dr. Yufei Wang.
EnyGy CEO, Gary Carroll said, “Independent testing has confirmed the performance of the enyGy product.”
EnyGy is able to achieve this cost effectively due to several key factors, one of which is that enyGy uses graphene sources that are readily available in commercial quantities. Another key factor is that enyGy has made it possible to include graphene into electrode films in a manner that is not only cost effective, but also scalable. At enyGy, a series of chemical manufacturing processes have been developed to enable scalable manufacturing of enyGy® graphene which is specifically designed for use in ultracapacitors. Moreover, these processes do not require special machinery, therefore, the enyGy IP portfolio can be easily and cost effectively integrated into existing manufacturing processes; common machines and standard electrode film coating processes are utilized.
The development of this enyGy® product over the past 7+ years has resulted in a technology that is ready to move from the laboratory and has the potential to transform the ultracapacitor energy storage industry and its role in our clean energy future.
Media contact: Felicity O’Meara, felicity.omeara@enygy.com