We first saw the appellation, “24M” four years ago in our report on research done at MIT to produce an ionic liquid called “Cambridge Crude,” usable in flow batteries. Dr. Yet-Ming Chiang headed up that work in collaboration with Professors Angela Belcher and Paula Hammond at MIT and Glenn Amatucci at Rutgers, among others. They formed a commercial spinoff and seemingly went underground for the next four years. Dr. Chiang and his associates had previously gone commercial with A123, which went through the trial of bankruptcy and being acquired by overseas investors. It’s now solvent and looking to double output. 24M is a spin-off of A123. We found that Professor Chiang had resurfaced when friend and blog reader Marshall Houston sent an article from Quartz about Chiang’s work with Dr. W. Craig Carter to expand on the foundational energy storage technology of 24M – based on the thick black electrolyte they’d created and a resulting semisolid electrode. Their semi-solid lithium-ion …
U of Transylvania Announces 3 kW-Hr per Kilogram Potato Battery
Obviously inspired by seminal research on potato batteries in Portland, Oregon, University of Transylvania researchers led by Dr. James Whale, Director of the Tuber Genetics Energetics Laboratory, announced a major breakthrough in GMO plant life with the hope for impressive gains in electric vehicle dynamics. Officials in America’s Southeast warn that the U of T is NOT to be confused with Transylvania University, an actual liberal arts college in Lexington, Kentucky. Such confusion has led to a glut of applications from potential students with “decidedly loopy” academic credentials and “dangerously bizarre” ideas for research, according to a TU spokesperson. The earlier effort, a low-budget research project, showed that potato batteries in large quantities and wired up like a really big science fair exhibit could generate useful energy. “I built a potato battery out of 500 pounds of potatoes. It powered a small sound system. With the help of the Red 76 crew (a local arts collaborative) I installed the battery and sound …
UPS Tests Lithium Battery Cargo Safety Aids
Aviation Week reports that United Parcel Service (UPS) “is ready to start FAA certification testing of an active fire-suppression system fitted to the cargo carrier’s new fire-resistant containers, preventive measures aimed in large part at protecting crews from lithium-type battery fires.” The fire-resistant containers are the center of attention right now, though. After the fatal crash of a UPS Boeing 747-400F in Dubai in September 2010, United Arab Emirates investigators “determined that a large fire developed in the palletized cargo on the ‘Class E’ main deck in an area that included ‘a significant number of lithium-based batteries and other combustible materials,’” according to the Aviation Week report. That fire had filled the flight deck with smoke within three minutes of its detection and the intense heat had damaged aircraft control systems. MACRO Industries of Huntsville, Alabama makes composite armor for military vehicles. Their MacroLite panels are half the weight of aluminum and provide superior fire protection. UPS looked at this material …
Dr. Cui’s Pomegranate-inspired Battery Bears Fruit
Dr. Yi Cui seems to get inspiration from food. A few years ago, his research team came up with a “yolk-shell structure” that helped contain the high amount of lithium that silicon anodes were able to absorb. That battery design promised much, and an embellishment of that design seems to hold even greater promise. His newest effort, working at Stanford University with the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, features an electrode “designed like a pomegranate – with silicon nanoparticles clustered like seed in a tough carbon rind.” This approach, according to its inventors, overcomes several remaining obstacles to the use of silicon in a new generation of lithium-ion batteries. Yi said the battery’s efficiency and longevity are promising. “Experiments showed our pomegranate-inspired anode operates at 97 percent capacity even after 1,000 cycles of charging and discharging, which puts it well within the desired range for commercial operation.” Cui’s team has been working on preventing anode breakup for the …
While EV Battery Costs Decline, Repurposing Adds Life
Cleantechnica has heartening news from the Bloomberg New Energy Finance report. Battery prices for electric vehicles, a key factor thus far in keeping electric cars more expensive to buy than smoggier alternatives, are dropping, and somewhat quickly. “According to an April 2012 Bloomberg New Energy Finance report, the average price of batteries used in electric vehicles dropped 14% from Q1 2011 to Q1 2012. ‘The average price of an EV battery at the end of Q1 2012 was $689 per kilowatt hour, compared to $800 per kilowatt hour in 2011, according to that report. “Compared to 2009, prices were down approximately 30%. “By 2030, BNEF projects battery prices will fall to $150/kWh (in 2012 dollars).” The report explains, “Electric vehicles such as the Mitsubishi Motor iMiEV, Nissan Leaf or Tesla Model S require between 16 and 85kWh of storage, with a total cost of $11,200 and $34,000, or around 25% of the total cost of the vehicle. Battery pack prices for plug-in hybrid vehicles such …
Iodized Salt – Iodine Battery
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 …
Stanford scientists develop high-efficiency zinc-air battery
Battery researchers, including those at Stanford University, have been focusing for years on improving lithium batteries of multiple chemistries. While IBM tries to create the 500-mile battery based on lithium-air reactions, and ReVolt in Portland works on perfecting a long-lasting zinc-air cell, Stanford researcher Hongjie Dai and his team claim to have “developed an advanced zinc-air battery with higher catalytic activity and durability than similar batteries made with costly platinum and iridium catalysts.” The resulting battery, detailed in the May 7 online edition of the journal Nature Communications, could be the forerunner of something with greater endurance and lower cost than current efforts. Mark Schwartz, writing for Stanford, quotes Dai, a professor of chemistry at the University and lead author of the study: “There have been increasing demands for high-performance, inexpensive and safe batteries for portable electronics, electric vehicles and other energy storage applications. Metal-air batteries offer a possible low-cost solution.” Lithium-ion batteries, despite their limited energy density (energy stored per …
A Milestone on the Road to Dr. Cui’s 10X Battery
Seeing the Amprius web site, one would never know that some “dramatic improvements” promised in the terse announcement might mean so much in terms of true breakthroughs. Neatly centered, Amprius’ total web site is a few lines of discrete text. Amprius is a leading Lithium-Ion battery developer Amprius’s silicon technology was originally developed at Stanford University and enables dramatic improvements in the energy density and specific energy of Lithium-Ion batteries. Amprius is backed by some of the world’s leading investors, including Trident Capital, VantagePoint Venture Partners, IPV Capital, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and Dr. Eric Schmidt. Amprius, Inc., 225 Humboldt Ct. Sunnyvale, CA 94089 But the battery manufacturer has two first-generation product offerings with volumetric energy densities of 580 Watt-hours and 600 Watt-hours per liter. Most lithium batteries fall into a range from 250-500 Wh/l., putting the new cells at the upper limit of such batteries. Both Amprius batteries are now in production and available to original equipment manufacturers, …
Wollongong Cites Battery Breakthrough
Professor Zaiping Guo at the University of Wollongong’s Institute for Superconducting & Electronic Materials is working on improving lithium-ion batteries for use in electric vehicles, as well as portable devices like mobile phones, and her school proclaims a breakthrough. Her team has developed a novel nanostructured Germanium (Ge)-based anode material for high-powered rechargeable lithium batteries. Professor Guo, an Australian Research Council (ARC) QEII Fellow, said the development of this inexpensive manufacturing technique is a breakthrough that will provide a significant improvement in battery technology, which can be used to power the next generation of clean-tech electric cars. “The novel anode materials are very simple to synthesize and cost-effective,” she said. “They can be fabricated in large-scale by industry, therefore have great commercial potential.” In tests, Ge-based cells have five times more energy storage and the potential to go at least twice as far on a charge as batteries used in current electric vehicles, according to the University. “This equates to …
A Smart Battery Management System and Multiple Sensors
Fraunhofer and the Hochschule Esslingen University of Applied Sciences have created an electronic race car that they will show at the Sensor + Test Measurement Fair in Nuremberg, Germany from May 14 through 16. Not only electrically driven, the innovative vehicle holds a number of sensor and control systems that might be of interest to electric aircraft designers. EVE, the product of the school and Fraunhofer’s labors, can sprint from 0 to 100 kilometers an hour (62 mph) in 3.6 seconds with its twin 60 kilowatt, 4,500 rpm motors, and reach a top speed of 140 km/hr (86.8 mph). Its 8 kilowatt-hour lithium polymer batteries allow only a short run of 22 kilometers (13.64 miles) though, not surprising in terms of high power outputs pulling the cells down quickly. Electrical engineering students from the e-racing team at the Hochschule designed the 300 kilogram (660 pound) car as an elective project to augment their studies, and ran it at the International Formula …