Iodized Salt – Iodine Battery

Dean Sigler Electric Powerplants, Sustainable Aviation 1 Comment

The Blog has reported on aqueous batteries, such as those developed by PolyPlus, a firm that has worked with the U. S. Navy to develop long-duration batteries compatible with sea water.  Sea water carries about 60 parts per billion of iodine by mass, from which we get iodized salt. Battery performance going swimmingly, the Riken lithium-iodine battery is said to excel in most areas Which may have been the starting point for Riken, “Japan’s largest comprehensive research institution renowned for high-quality research in a diverse range of scientific disciplines.”   Hye Ryung Byon and her team from the Byon Initiative Research Unit(IRU), have developed a lithium-iodine (Li-I2) battery system with a significantly higher energy density than conventional lithium-ion batteries. The Japanese New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization has set goals for batteries similar to those anticipated by IBM with its Battery 500 program.  They want 500-kilometer (311 mile) range for electric cars that could compete with internal-combustion powered vehicles.  This would …

Battery Prices and Lithium Futures

Dean Sigler Electric Powerplants, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

EV World has a weekly email update to which your editor subscribes.  Because they provide a collection of articles and opinions from different sources, one often comes away questioning trends and even facts – or sometimes the meaning of it all. This week, an article referenced from Green Car Reports says that EV batteries may already have fallen to $250 per kilowatt hour.  This would be a godsend for sales of battery-powered cars, because sticker prices would drop sharply.   The article quotes Wolfgang Bernhart, a partner at Rolan Berger Strategy Consultants, that battery prices are already much lower than previous predictions would have indicated, possibly as low as $250 per kilowatt hour.  His analysis credited economies of scale for this drop, which is based on 2015 demand. This paradoxical approach notes that battery manufacturers must begin planning production now for 2015 EVs, with prices quoted to those manufacturers based on that future demand.  Such prices would be an optimistic five …

Fastest Electric Vehicle Design at EAS VI

Dean Sigler Electric Powerplants, GFC, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

Dr. Brien Seeley, President of the CAFE Foundation, has made the following announcement: “The Chief designer of the F-22 Raptor has prepared another spectacular design: The World’s Fastest Electric Vehicle. This new aircraft design will be presented along with the other outstanding talks at next week’s CAFE Electric Aircraft Symposium, April 27, 28 in Santa Rosa, California (Sonoma Wine Country). This symposium, dedicated to the burgeoning new domain of emission-free flight, now has representatives from Boeing, Bosch, IBM, Honda, Nortrhop-Grumman, Japan Air Lines, Rolls-Royce, Siemens, Aerovironment, FAA, Cummins, Cessna, Lycoming and many other companies enrolled to participate.” The high-speed electric may be a response to Ivo Boscarol’s pledge to put up $100,000 of his Pipistrel G-4 winnings at last year’s Green Flight Challenge for the first supersonic electric aircraft. Program Details can be found here. There is still time to pre-register online here.

An American ReVolt

Dean Sigler Uncategorized Leave a Comment

ReVolt Technologies LLC, a Swiss battery company founded in 2004 as a spin-off of SINTEF, Norway, is moving its headquarters to Portland, Oregon. Initially targeting the consumer electronics market with their zinc/air battery (compare to the lithium/air batteries IBM is researching – see “Big Blue and Blue Sky Thinking” October 25, 2009) in a grant request to the U. S. Department of Energy for $30 million for research on making large format versions of the battery for vehicles.  The company has an alliance with chemical giant BASF. ReVolt claims the following advantages over lithium batteries: A theoretical potential of up to 4 times the energy density of lithium-ion batteries at a comparable or lower production cost. Extended battery life due to stable reaction zone, low rates of dry-out and flooding, and no pressure build-up problems. Controlled deposition with no short-circuit, high mechanical stability. No need for bulky peripherals such as cooling fans or temperature control systems. Generally seen as primary …

Big Blue and Blue Sky Thinking

Dean Sigler Uncategorized Leave a Comment

Would a 500-mile electric vehicle battery interest you? IBM, not normally thought of as a purveyor of electric vehicles, is backing a large-scale push from their Almaden Laboratory in San Jose, California, using the lithium-air battery demonstrated by recent experiments at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, and the Universities of Strathclyde and Newcastle as a basis for their research.  IBM is teaming with UC Berkeley and all five National Laboratories as part of Big Blue’s Big Green Innovations program. Initially launched as a means of reducing the 98 percent of carbon emissions from non-information technology related activities and the two percent from IT activities, the Big Green Initiative took a turn in the last several months toward the development of a 500-mile battery for electric vehicles. According to IBM, “The 500 mile battery program’s goal “is to catalyze long-term, concerted efforts to create rechargeable next-generation batteries with ten times higher energy density, compared to the best current Lithium-ion batteries.” “While scalable energy storage …