BASF Patent For Barium Titanate Ultracapacitor

I wish I could recall where I saw this, but it sure is interesting. In addition to EEStor, BASF has filed for a patent on a barium titanate ultracapacitor design, number 7,023,687 filed on April 4, 2006. It will be interesting to see which, if any, of these competing designs ever make it to market. The more I read of EEStor (or, perhaps more accurately, the less I read, for they're notoriously quiet and quietly slipping behind schedule), the less inclined I am to believe they'll ever deliver a working product.

Update 12/17: A lot of interesting and heated discussion at Clean Break about this, including an anonymous commenter who claims that energy stored is proportional to ½cV for non-linear dielectrics (which barium titanate supposedly is) rather than ½cV² for linear dielectrics. One sign — and I agree — we should look for is an actual lab measurement of the properties they believe they can meet. Supposedly this is done in WIPO patent WO/2006/026136. Judging by the tone and arguments raised, it appears the same Anonymous (who may have been a former Maxwell Corp. employee) has been busy recently on Boing Boing as well.