Batteries, Supercapacitors, Alternative Storage for Portable Devices 2009-2019

Abstract

Electronics and electrics are becoming ubiquitous, the devices appearing on and in higher and higher volume products including e-labels and e-packaging. This calls for different forms of battery, capacitor and other energy storage because priorities such as environmental credentials, thinness and compatibility with energy harvesting (eg solar cells) come to the fore alongside life and cost. This unique new report is directed towards those developing, marketing and using the new small electronic and electrical devices, particularly those that are self-sufficient. It will also interest those investing in new battery, capacitor and allied companies providing products for these markets and those regulating and supporting these burgeoning industries. To this end, the report is almost devoid of equations but it is replete with summary diagrams and tables, pros and cons, company profiles, new products and applications beyond the familiar ones. There is therefore much to interest those with a technical background as well. The report looks hard at what comes next, particularly over the next ten years.

We use relatively simple language so the report can be useful to as broad a range of readers as possible, enhanced by a glossary. After all, investors, government regulators, journalists and many other people have a great interest in the imminent huge deployment of small self-powered electronic and electrical devices. It will eventually reach hundreds of billions of products yearly, including electronically enhanced drug packs, magazines, disposable medical testers and much more besides. For the more technical, there are many new summary tables and diagrams comparing parameters required and achieved. The parameters, including costs, and the applications are compared and the work of many suppliers is evaluated. No other report on this subject is as broad ranging or up to date. The main emphasis is on what will needed and possible, not on rehearsing the story of traditional cylindrical, laptop and mobile phone batteries. Here we see the future.

Energy storage for small devices, the subject of this report, forms by far the largest mobile energy storage market today, being much larger and faster growing than the market for heavy energy storage such as automotive and enjoying greater innovation for the future, including transparent and printed batteries. The report mainly concentrates on batteries and capacitors - including the rapid adoption of supercapacitors and hybrids of the two. It explains how they are constructed, how they work and the pros and cons. However, it also touches on the elusive small fuel cells and other options. Focussing on use in small devices, we forecast the market for both single use and rechargeable batteries by numbers and value from 2009-2019 and the market size for supercapacitors, tracking a return to rapid growth from 2010, after the global financial meltdown ends. The market drivers are given as they change over the years. We evaluate the limitations of current devices against what will be needed and what can be done. For example, as the traditional parameters of batteries and capacitors are painfully and slowly improved, some completely different improvements are proving exciting because they can open up completely new markets. These include transparent, edible, stretchable, woven, stitchable, implantable, biodegradable and wide area versions more suited to the world of ubiquitous electronics that is arriving. As wall decoration, windows, apparel, books, posters, consumer goods, pharmaceutical packaging , the sensing skin of an aircraft and the inside of a car and much more become electronic and local harvesting of power becomes commonplace, these are the products we need. We describe the remarkable new approaches including batteries assembled using viruses and carbon nanotubes, biomimetic and magnetic spin batteries and ones that can harvest energy in the human body. Then there are batteries and supercapabatteries only one tenth of a millimeter thick. Which are the most exciting developers and what will be available when? It is all here.