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Robin Rogers, a professor of chemistry at the University of Alabama, says the challenge is finding "commodity ionic liquids" with the right set of properties that can completely change the economic equation for metal-air batteries. "It's not impossible," he says. "I look at ionic liquids and say, take a step back, because you need to do it in a completely different way."
Friesen downplays the cost concern, pointing out that the liquids become quite economical when developed in-house in large volumes. He's careful, however, not to say too much about the ionic liquids his team has developed, revealing only that there are "several contenders that seem to work well."
Friesen is also cautious when talking about the other key component of Fluidic Energy's research: a metal electrode structure that overcomes the problem of dendrite formation. These branch-like structures can grow on, for example, a zinc electrode and cause a metal-air battery to short-circuit. Dendrite formation happens in rechargeable batteries when the chemical reactions are reversed, limiting the number of charging cycles. Fluidic Energy has developed an electrode scaffold with multi-modal porosity, meaning it has a range of pore sizes down to as small as 10 nanometers. The scaffold surrounds the metal, in this case zinc, and can prevent dendrites that form during charging.
With the ability to eliminate evaporation, boost voltage and eliminate dendrites, "we're working now on taking it to the next level," says Friesen. "It's about taking everything we've done over the last four years and leveraging that work into a battery that looks and feels just like a lithium battery, but has energy densities far beyond that."
This would mean that energy storage would no longer be a limiting factor for renewable energy, and electric vehicles that could travel 400 to 500 miles on a single charge, he says, "at a cost just a little over lead-acid batteries."
As Congress prepares to vote on a comprehensive spending bill, U.S. energy projects such as ARPA-E hang in the balance.
Development is a step toward making such batteries practical for electric vehicles.
Utilities are installing devices that make ice at night to replace air-conditioning during times of peak power demand.
Stories like this are the reason I only post technology that has a working prototype on my site.
This may happen tomorrow... Or never.
-Dennis
www.PrometheusGoneWild.com
Re: The Future Now! Maybe not...
What advantage is having a prototype if the material used to make it is prohibitively expensive?
Hey guys, let's hope for the best. No need to speculate on a negative outcome (pun intended)
Anyway the article sums up that they've spent four years in development to reach a viable combo and now they're moving on to optimization.
When I read the part about preventing dendrite formation, I kept thinking of this other great new tech that prevents bacteria from sticking to a surface via a shark-skin like printed surface. I wonder if a similar textured surface on the electrode scaffold would help prevent dendrites. I WANT CREDIT IF THIS WORKS :)
The shark-skin tech article: http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2009-10/saving-skin
Metal-Air Battery Breakthrough would be great idea; I can,t wait
B. Umeadi
Using ionic liquids to help solve the problem of the drying out of acqueous electrolytes in a metal air battery bring up the question of.. do we need to? Why can't the electrolytes be replenished? This is just de-ionized water we're talking about. I think Metal-Air batteries hold maybe the best promise of all for <$100K/MWh/high cycle energy storage, and this is the most exciting time to be in batteries since Edison, but we ought to think everytime we solve a problem whether the solution is more costly than the problem.
I think it's all about costs - if there was a battery that lasted for 10 years, could fully cycle with heavy DOD, and was cheap as chips we would have much more reason to adopt renewable energy sources, which is inherently sporadic but reliable over the average. if a new technology like this can get us there, great! if anyone in interested in building the framework for renewable energy management: http://www.solarnetwork.net/
Metal-Air Battery Breakthrough
Great news! Hope this comes to fruition and makes it to market!
Do these fluids have a limitation on how large the cells can be made? If there is a way to scale up the battery size to the point they can be made economically, and applied to store off-peak and renewable energy so it can be fed back into the grid during the peak hours, then this is fantastic news - especially if the source of fluids can be made domestically or at least from sources of materials we have readily available here in the US.
If this technology ends up costing "little more than lead acid batteries," then why not use lead acid batteries or some other cheaper, safer medium for storage of grid energy to be used for load balancing? I believe the benefit from this technology comes from storing energy on mobile platforms, where a high energy density storage medium is in high demand. If it's cheaper and more convenient than pumping gas into your car, then everyone will want it, and it can be recharged using solar panels while the car bakes in the sun while parked outside...
Manufacturing in the United States is in trouble. That's bad news not just for the country's economy but for the future of innovation.
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jpm1u
14 Comments
great news
It's fantastic to hear news like this. This research team could change the world if they're successful. I wish them success!
But let's hope two things DO NOT happen if they're successful:
1. the government classifies the tech for 20 years, then decides it's ok for the public
2. some wealthy entity buys the patent
Reply
Observer10
3 Comments
Re: great news
What makes you think the government would classify such technology?
Reply
jpm1u
14 Comments
Re: great news
Mobile power could give the military a huge advantage with remotely operated, unmanned equipment. So if the tech comes to fruition and is outrageously successful, I would not put it past the military to seize it for their advantage. I may be completely wrong, just speculating.
Reply
Siphon
152 Comments
Re: great news
Maybe. Military funding and research, and subsequent application may sometimes help technologies get past the risky phase and spinoff to quickly conquer the commercial market.
The Internet being an obvious example. After all, we're using it right now quite happily!
Reply