Battery breakthrough

[sendler]

Originally Posted by oil pan 4

Is this scale able?
That means is this cheaper than just building a bigger battery and replaceing it sooner?
A lot of these advancements seem to only help the cell phone, laptop and tablet makers.

Bigger starts to get too big and heavy to put in a car or motorcycle.

[DJBecker]

Originally Posted by sendler

Bigger starts to get too big and heavy to put in a car or motorcycle.

We do seem to be right on the edge of usable for automotive use.

Lead-acid has low cost for the capacity, but the weight means that you can only build a slow or short range vehicle. A 30 mile range at highway speeds means that you are at a 2C discharge rate (at best). That drives the cycle life and efficiency way down. Adding battery capacity dramatically increases weight, requiring bigger everything, eliminating much of the range gain.

Current LiFePO tempts us with a possible life of 5000 cycles, but only if we discharge at a 0.3C rate. That means a car with at least 3.3 hours of range, which means batteries are more than half the vehicle weight. Most builders compromise with a 1 hour range and a significant discharge with every drive, accepting a likely sub-500 cycle life.

A 3x increase in capacity at the same weight would be a game changer. You could put in enough capacity to not do a major discharge with a short trip, or stress the battery at highway speeds. And once a normal range battery is no longer more than half the vehicle weight, you can increase range without doubling the size of everything.

That said, I haven't seen enough details to believe that this is really a breakthrough in power density.

[sendler]

The new nano coatings will improve cycle life and damage free current rates quite a bit.

[oil pan 4]

I need to get a way to make my A123 LiFePO4 starting batteries last.

[yostumpy]

Now and again i get invited to various lectures at the local uni, and i went to one about a year ago, all about renewable energy. Most was a bit over my head, but the lecturer was into hybrids and battery power, and he said that some major breakthro's were coming in the battery world. he said, that the next BIG thing on the horizon, that was being developed beyond its normal means, was the 'air battery'. He gave comparisons for power to weight ratio, efficiency and longevity, and showed via 3d models how it worked, but i've forgotten now. it looked very promissing, but he said it would be a few years before anything was seen in public.

[Air-Hybrid]

Originally Posted by yostumpy

the next BIG thing on the horizon, that was being developed beyond its normal means, was the 'air battery'. He gave comparisons for power to weight ratio, efficiency and longevity, and showed via 3d models how it worked

air-battery-to-let-electric-cars-outlast-gas-guzzlers (newscientist)

[SOUL-DRIFTER]

This is the future.
Do away with the combustion engine and go all electric.
Where I work is a 40 mile drive one way, up and down hills and curves.
A long range electric car would be the ticket.
We already have a local station that offers an electric car charging spot.

Envia Systems battery breakthrough for affordable 300 mile range electric cars

Lithium battery startup company Envia Systems plans to announce tomorrow, at the ARPA-E conference, development of a high energy density lithium battery (400 watt-hours per kilogram) which could be the tipping point enabling long range affordable electric cars. Long range electric cars have been possible for quite awhile, Solectria built one in the 1990's, and Tesla Motors has been selling the Roadster and will soon be selling the Model S with battery packs sufficient for 200-300 miles of all electric driving range. What Envia brings to this is higher energy density and lower cost, a combination which would make for an affordable, long range, electric car with a 300-mile range and a price around $25,000 to $30,000