18650 Supercapacitor battery with 1550mAH

Do you guys think this is legit:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/shawnpwest/30-second-charging-rechargeable-battery

I know supercapacitors are likely to be the future (or solid state batteries) but at this point I did not think they had the energy density to compete with NiMh or Lithium-ion. Just wondering if anyone can say if this is at least technically possible with the latest gen supercapacitors?

The one thing that makes sense is the voltage convertor inside the package. One of the biggest drawbacks of supercapacitors is the drop in voltage as they discharge. The buck regulator efficiently handles this

After watching the video, reading the write-up, and doing a little basic research, I conclude that it is not possible.

If it is indeed a supercapacitor, the fast charging could certainly be done. That part is no problem. But the rest of the claims are simply not believable to me. Supercapacitors have MUCH lower energy density, and higher self discharge. It will give you dramatically inferior runtime compared to a lithium-ion cell (or lead acid, or NiMH, or NiCad, etc). Supercapacitors are wonderful for short bursts...they can deliver a lot of power VERY quickly, but that isn't really what you want in a standard battery.

http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/whats_the_role_of_the_supercapacitor

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercapacitor

It's on kickstarter, so it has to be legit, right?

Or maybe the 1550mAh claim comes from the Ultrafire method of determining capacity.

Supercapacitors have quite high resistance compared to the 300 - 500 Volts electrolyte capacitor specially graded for Xenon flashlamp, and Lithium-ion batteries. It's no problem for low amperage usage like clock backup or even a battery management system processor keep-alive power, but for higher-amperage usage like flashlight, forget it.

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jd_oc said:

Do you guys think this is legit:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/shawnpwest/30-second-charging-rechargeable-battery

I know supercapacitors are likely to be the future (or solid state batteries) but at this point I did not think they had the energy density to compete with NiMh or Lithium-ion. Just wondering if anyone can say if this is at least technically possible with the latest gen supercapacitors?

Click to expand...

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/shawnpwest/30-second-charging-rechargeable-battery/comments

Lithium ion capacitor, that is classic!

It's old news that you can write complete nonsense on Kickstarter and still manage to ripoff people for $20K.