Thomas Alva Would Be Proud

Dean Sigler Electric Powerplants, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

The best batteries as now produced use expensive materials and processes to achieve high energy density.  Could a century-old idea be resurrected to provide an inexpensive alternative to today’s costly electric storage devices?   Science Daily reports on a recent attempt to improve on a proven technology. Stanford University’s Hongjie Dai, professor of chemistry and head of a research group, is working with the Edison battery, named for Thomas Alva Edison, and using the nickel-iron electrodes Edison favored, but with a modern twist to overcome one of its disadvantages. Stanford’s news bulletin quotes Dai.  “The Edison battery is very durable, but it has a number of drawbacks. A typical battery can take hours to charge, and the rate of discharge is also very slow.” Powering electric vehicles in the early 1900s, Edison’s battery is used today in limited instances to store surplus electricity from solar panels and wind turbines where charging and discharge speeds are not a major consideration.  Dai’s …