Imagine if it were possible to fully charge your laptop in a few minutes, or your electric screwdriver in a few seconds.  Now, with ultracapacitor technology, this is going to be possible.  Regular capacitors have been around for quite some time, since the beginning of the electronic era.  More recently, however, a new kind of power cell called an ultracapacitor, or double-layer capacitor, is hitting the market, and with any luck it will take the market by storm.

I’m not going to go down into the gritty science of how ultracapacitors work, but would rather explain why this is so important to our thriving age of technology.  For those science geeks who would really like to delve into the matrix, you can check out the stats at ultracapacitors.org and the Electric Double-Layer Capacitor article at Wikipedia.  What I will tell you is that ultracapacitors are in line to replace the every-day battery in our modern electronic devices.

Coleman FlashcellColeman, one of the worlds leading manufacturer of nifty gadgetry and camping stuffs, has put together one of the world’s first ultracapacitor gadgets for all the real power tool geeks out there.  Advertising a charge time of about 90 seconds (yeah, that’s right 90 seconds) and a life of about 30 minutes.  Now we haven’t received ours yet, but how freaking awesome is it to be able to put together that new rig you’ve been dying to buy, dismantle the old one, and charge your nifty powered ultracapacitor screwdriver in the time it takes to grab a drink of water?  I say that this is going to be one of the new best geek tools in any tech’s toolbox.  At the time of this article, you can Coleman Flashcell Chargerpick yours up at Amazon.com for around $32 plus shipping.  Keep in mind that according to a Popular Mechanics article, this little baby only goes through about 22 screws before it is time to recharge (need i remind you to go get a drink?).  Still, it only takes 90 seconds to recharge, so stop your whining!

In addition to household screw guns, ultracapacitors may be a good alternative for laptop and cell phone batteries.  Although there are still some kinks to work out, ultracapacitors may be the best technology in line to replace our trusty lithium-ion, ni-cad, and lead-acid batteries.  Imagine being able to charge that laptop in just a few minutes, then enjoy hours of fun surfing the web, playing games, facebooking, or whatever your kind does on the information super highway.

MIT Car WireThe guys over at MIT are already working on making ultracapacitors a viable alternative for HEV’s or Hybrid-Electric Vehicles.  Yep, you got it!  Park your awesome HEV in the garage and plug it in to charge that bad boy over night.  With ultracapacitor technology, “filling up” is even possible.  Gas stations would inevitably become service stations again, since gas would be the minority with these new batteries powering your shiny new car.  Don’t expect a real fast fill-up at home though.  In order to charge the capacitors to full you would have to have some equipment installed in your garage that stepped up the voltage to a level that would be useful for your car.  Service stations would likely have some sort of way to offer the higher voltages required to charge your car quickly though.  Who wants to spend hours at the pump waiting for the gauge to reach “full” when we are so used to filling up in a couple of minutes.

Unfortunately, ultracapacitors are probably a long way off from fully replacing the batteries we know of today, but with research continuing, it may not be long before our copper-tops become ultra-tops.  Keep on banging that drum Mr. Bunny!  It will be beautiful music when ultracapacitors hit the shelves for sale.