Commercial Aspects, Safety Regulations, Environmental and Health Impacts, and Recycling Strategies of Supercapacitors

Abstract

Supercapacitors have great potential for applications in electric and hybrid vehicles, wind farms, and low-power equipment due to their large specific power density and long-term cyclic stability. Waste supercapacitors are required to be recycled for making their use sustainable from the waste electronic equipment perspective. This chapter describes a recycling approach for end-of-life supercapacitors based on shredding and mild thermal treatment. Further, the safety regulations for supercapacitors with respect to the operating conditions like temperature, potential window, self-discharge, leakage current, etc., are discussed. We further include discussion about the impact of supercapacitor applications on human health. We also include a brief analysis about the ethical issues as well as the social impacts of supercapacitor applications. This chapter summarizes the various aspects of the implementation of supercapacitors and their recycling prospects.