Batteries and New Battery Technologies

Telsa motor company

Also on WikipediA an article on Telsa that I thought had run out of steam, but apparently has not and is well into commercial production:

The Tesla Roadster, the company's first vehicle, is the first production automobile to use lithium-ion battery cells and the first production EV with a range greater than 200 miles (320 km) per charge.[7] The base model accelerates 0–60 mph (97 km/h) in 3.9 seconds and, according to Tesla Motor's environmental analysis, is twice as energy efficient as the Toyota Prius.[8] As of January 2011, Tesla had delivered more than 1,500 Roadsters in at least 30 countries.[9] Tesla has said that it will produce a total serial production run of 2,400 Roadsters.[10] Tesla began producing right-hand-drive Roadsters in early 2010 for the UK and Ireland markets, then expanded sales to right-hand-drive markets of Australia, Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore.[11]

 

Yes, the Tesla seems to be doing quite well. It's expensive, but the performance is excellent, particularly given that it uses a very large array of laptop PC cells in its battery packs. Tesla looked at several different battery options, but (I think) because laptop cells were being produced in massive quantities to a high quality standard they were an obvious choice. Each Li-ion cell in a Tesla battery pack is just a little larger than an AA size cell; 18mm diameter by 65mm long.

The downside of their approach is the complexity of the battery pack - a Tesla Roadster has 6,831 interconnected Li-ion cells in it's battery. The upside is that a single cell failure has little impact on battery pack performance (Li-ion cells invariable fail to a high resistance condition).

Jeremy

 

Yes, but again it what they don't tell you that counts. The Nissan version rated with 100 mile range was recently tested by Consumer Reports and delivered only 19 miles in cold weather! So it's 200 miles under OPTIMUM conditions, what ever that may be, 20mph?, 90 degrees ambient?, brand new batteries which go to half capacity after 200 recharges, etc. Acceleration is also ambigous; it may be fast, but how many times can it do this before you out of juice, maybe 4? There are electric dragsters that are faster. OTOH, they are supposed to be partnering with Toyota from what I understand, so something good may come of this.


Porta

 

THe firefighter in me says those are going to burn nicely under the right circumstances.

 

Nano-Structure for Battery Cathodes

Batteries charge very quickly and retain capacity, thanks to new structure

The batteries in University of Illinois professor Paul Braun’s lab look like any others, but they pack a surprise inside.

Braun’s group developed a three-dimensional nanostructure for battery cathodes that allows for dramatically faster charging and discharging without sacrificing energy storage capacity. The researchers’ findings were published in the March 20 advance online edition of the journal Nature Nanotechnology.

Aside from quick-charge consumer electronics, batteries that can store a lot of energy, release it fast, and recharge quickly are desirable for electric vehicles, medical devices, lasers, and military applications.

“This system that we have gives you capacitor-like power with battery-like energy,” says Braun, a professor of materials science and engineering. “Most capacitors store very little energy. They can release it very fast, but they can’t hold much. Most batteries store a reasonably large amount of energy, but they can’t provide or receive energy rapidly. This does both.”

....more here
http://www.designfax.net/enews/20110426/feature3.php

 

Good article, showing some progress. The issues will now shift to the other end for large scale usage with autos. That is, how in the world will a charging station be able to store that kind of power for large applications like autos. Would cause a strain or possible blackout on the grid because of the peak power requirement. Back to square one where you have to accumulate the charging station power slowly overnight due to limits at which the grid can deliver...

Porta

 

The answer may be to have local/home energy storage for quick charge capability and be less reliant on the grid. For example, NiFe cells last virtually for ever, but are too big and heavy for portable/vehicle use. They make excellent off-grid supplies and can deliver high current pretty well. A local charging bank made up from a large pack of NiFe cells could either be charged 24 hours a day from the grid, or for home use charged by a modest solar array or wind turbine.

Most cars use around 10 to 15kW per hour on average, so for one hour a days driving for a commuting vehicle a solar array capable of delivering around 15kWh per day should keep the charging pack topped up. The charging pack can then fast-charge the vehicle or boat.

This concept could be scaled up for fast charge points at filling stations or marinas, reducing peak load on the grid when fast charging.

Jeremy

 

That's the crux of it, isn't it?

We have lots of neat ways to produce power, but we haven't yet figured out how to store and deliver it as effectively which limits out ability to utilize renewable generation.

 

I agree with you Jeremy, like I have said in post #986 , distributed energy storage at our homes. Maybe all the engineering societies in each country right troughout the world should start lobying the governments for a stronger opposing industry to the oil/automotive industry. If an electrical/automotive industry would be created equal as powerfull as the oil industry/gasoline/petrol driven motor industry, the prices for food, oil products would not be a worry for the future. The revolution of youths not be able to afford food, as well as the growth of the population is a great worry for every one.
Bert

 

Portacruise,

Remember, what I said about somebody more clever than me, in splitting Hydrogen from water. Maybe this is the beginning. Although, too many scientists have made front page announcements and nothing happened afterwards. Maybe we will now be getting automobiles with a lens in the bonnett to catch the light!!!

Note: special attention to the Hydrogen from water

http://www.renewableenergyfocus.com/view/17543/solar-to-chemical-energy-findings/

Bert

 

Nice idea, Bert, but as I mentioned elsewhere the power in the sun is only around 1000 watts per square metre, even at the equator. It'd need a big collector to gather enough sunlight to produce enough hydrogen for vehicle propulsion, much, much bigger than would fit on a car.

I did some rough calculations on the other thread, that showed that for a 100% efficient process many billions of square metres of collection area would be needed just to meet the equivalent diesel fuel consumption of the US.

Jeremy

 

Jeremy;

Thanks for your response. That is the method which Electric drag racers use called "dump charging" to charge their vehicles between competitive runs. So it can be done with lead AGM batteries and others types at the present time, no need for the the special cell system Bert quoted, if you only need 80% charge in minutes or seconds without damaging the batteries. More recently EV dragsters they have gone to diesel generators which are more powerful and much lighter to haul to a racing event, I think. Still I think petrol will have to reach 10X what it is now and STAY there to get a decent payback period for such a huge bank of home energy storage with NiFe cells. The original Saudi oil with the older repaired and established infrastructure of years ago is still coming in at around $3 a barrel, and they still have large reserves of that, so it will be a while. Unless the political turmoil shuts the spigot completely from the Saudis, they will kill any threat of alternative energy in its infancy, already have several times. That's what the $100+ price is about at the present, some speculators are betting big time that the regime won't hold and there will be disruptions.

Porta

 

Hi Jeremy, Yes I read your interesting calculations. I am not a scientist, you are, maybe you can answer that question for me.

Would you know how much energy is contained, made free in the 11% Hydrogen in a cubic centimeter if that 11% explodes. At least your answer will put my mind to ease. At least I have no hope that somebody makes a minute Hydrogen conversion in a car, by creating hydrogen out of water in very, very small quantities, very close to the cylinderhead.
If Diesel is vaporised, and compressed it has approx. 12 watt per cubic centimeter. What is it for 0.11 cm3 Hydrogen??
Bert

 

Bert,

It's best to compare stored energy using mass, rather than volume, as volume depends very much on temperature, particularly for gases. Using volume gives highly variable results, as the rough calcs below may show.

For your example, I'll assume that the 0.11 cu cm of hydrogen is at STP, so it's mass will be about 9.79ug. This mass of hydrogen will produce around 1.4J of energy if burnt (rather than used as fuel in a fusion reaction). As a joule is 1 watt per second, your 0.11cu cm of hydrogen at normal temperature and pressure will deliver about 1.4 watts for 1 second.

One cc of diesel contains around 46,200 joules of energy, so could deliver around 46kW for one second if burned in a way that extracted 100% of the energy. A good diesel engine might get around 40% of the energy out of the fuel, so 1cc of diesel fuel will practically deliver around 18kW for one second.

Jeremy

 

Thank you Jeremy, that takes any myth to the graveyard, that somebody could make a motorcar by creating hydrogen out of water while driving. Thank you.
Bert