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Supercapacitor leakage in energy-harvesting sensor nodes: fact or fiction?

Supercapacitor leakage in energy-harvesting sensor nodes: fact or fiction?
Supercapacitor leakage in energy-harvesting sensor nodes: fact or fiction?
As interest in energy-harvesting sensor nodes continues to grow, the use of supercapacitors as energy stores or buffers is gaining popularity. The reasons for their use are numerous, and include their high power density, simple interfacing requirements, simpler measurement of state-of-charge, and a greater number of charging cycles than secondary batteries. However, supercapacitor energy densities are orders of magnitude lower. Furthermore, they have been reported to exhibit significant leakage, and this has been shown to increase exponentially with terminal voltage (and hence stored energy). This observation has resulted in a number of algorithms, designs and methods being proposed for effective operation of supercapacitor-based energy-harvesting sensor nodes. In this paper, it is argued that traditional ‘leakage’ is not as significant as has commonly been suggested. Instead, what is observed as leakage is in fact predominantly due to internal charge redistribution. As a result, it is suggested that different approaches are required in order to effectively utilize supercapacitors in energy-harvesting sensor nodes.
Merrett, Geoff V.
89b3a696-41de-44c3-89aa-b0aa29f54020
Weddell, Alex S.
3d8c4d63-19b1-4072-a779-84d487fd6f03
Merrett, Geoff V.
89b3a696-41de-44c3-89aa-b0aa29f54020
Weddell, Alex S.
3d8c4d63-19b1-4072-a779-84d487fd6f03

Merrett, Geoff V. and Weddell, Alex S. (2012) Supercapacitor leakage in energy-harvesting sensor nodes: fact or fiction? International Workshop Algorithms and Concepts for Networked Sensing Systems Powered by Energy Harvesters 2012 (EnHaNSS'12), Antwerp, Belgium. 11 Jun 2012. 5 pp .

Record type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)

Abstract

As interest in energy-harvesting sensor nodes continues to grow, the use of supercapacitors as energy stores or buffers is gaining popularity. The reasons for their use are numerous, and include their high power density, simple interfacing requirements, simpler measurement of state-of-charge, and a greater number of charging cycles than secondary batteries. However, supercapacitor energy densities are orders of magnitude lower. Furthermore, they have been reported to exhibit significant leakage, and this has been shown to increase exponentially with terminal voltage (and hence stored energy). This observation has resulted in a number of algorithms, designs and methods being proposed for effective operation of supercapacitor-based energy-harvesting sensor nodes. In this paper, it is argued that traditional ‘leakage’ is not as significant as has commonly been suggested. Instead, what is observed as leakage is in fact predominantly due to internal charge redistribution. As a result, it is suggested that different approaches are required in order to effectively utilize supercapacitors in energy-harvesting sensor nodes.

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Submitted date: 30 April 2012
Published date: June 2012
Venue - Dates: International Workshop Algorithms and Concepts for Networked Sensing Systems Powered by Energy Harvesters 2012 (EnHaNSS'12), Antwerp, Belgium, 2012-06-11 - 2012-06-11
Organisations: Electronic & Software Systems

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 337641
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/337641
PURE UUID: 0cd47dc7-b882-493d-a1d8-c3f05fba3e6d
ORCID for Geoff V. Merrett: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-4980-3894
ORCID for Alex S. Weddell: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-6763-5460

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Date deposited: 30 Apr 2012 16:41
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 03:25

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Contributors

Author: Geoff V. Merrett ORCID iD
Author: Alex S. Weddell ORCID iD

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