EV battery tech compared
Lithium-ion battery packs are the current favorite for electric cars.
(Credit: NASA)Battery technology presents the the biggest hurdle in going to electric vehicles. Current batteries don't provide the range of fossil-fuel-powered vehicles. Worse, batteries take a lot longer to recharge than the time it takes to fill a 16-gallon tank with gasoline. But this isn't the end of the story, as battery technology is still being developed. For 100 years we got along with lead-acid batteries, but research has gone into high gear to look at new battery compounds that might prove to be the breakthrough that lets electric vehicle performance equal or surpass that of gasoline-powered cars. Lithium ion is the current favored chemistry, but other, more exotic compounds are being researched, such as zinc-air and lithium-polymer. Electric car enthusiast Mike Thompson has compiled a chart of current battery and electricity storage technologies, along with various specifications. The most useful number in the chart is watt-hours per kilogram (Wh/kg), which shows the energy density of the power source. The more electricity you can pack into a battery, the better range you will get for an electric car.
Click through for the full chart
According to the chart, research on lithium-polymer batteries shows that they could hit 400 Wh/kg, the highest of any other technology. Zinc-air is second at 200 Wh/kg, while nickel-metal-hydride, used in hybrid vehicles, is at 80 Wh/kg.
I was hoping to see the comparison with Lead-Carbon batteries. These are more promising than the Advanced Lead Acid Batteries and almost comes close to the power density of Lithium Ion batteries but at just 10% of the cost when mass produced. Here's a few links about lead-carbon batteries:
http://www.sandia.gov/ess/About/docs/craft.
http://www.altdotenergy.com/2009/01/could-lead-carbon-batteries-be-energy-storage-game-changer/
http://www.autobloggreen.com/tag/lead+carbon+battery/
Joe
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Our new PbC® battery can be recycled in existing lead acid battery recycling facilities. This allows the lead, plastic, and acid to be reused in new PbC® Batteries.
Manufacturability
PbC® batteries have been designed to be manufactured in any of the dozens of existing lead acid battery facilities in the US as well as the hundreds of others world wide. This eliminates the need for hundreds of millions of dollars in capital to build new advanced battery facilities in the US that do not currently exist. Since existing equipment will be utilized new investments will not be required to manufacture our products.
Really worth including in the discussion, just my opinion.
My friend works at this company and they have a very common sense solution:
http://www.indypowersystems.com
The Li-Ion's are not in the lab, they are in production in large volumes from the laptop industry. These are used by the Tesla. They are not too expensive/kWh (<$1/Wh), but don't have much power (W) so you need lots of them ($30K worth), and the life is only 500 cycles or so.
The new lithium technology is not in volume production (you can't buy 1000 kWh of batteries unless you front the money for a new factory), currently costs <$2/Wh, but has higher power (low $/W, high W/kg, W/l) and lasts 5-10,000 cycles.
I did read that a fast charge battery was being developed. The article implied that a battery could be recharged fully in about five minutes, making it comparable to a gas station stop. If this battery does see production, then it goes a long way to un-hobbling the EV's current short range characteristic.
There are a number of side issues too. Firstly, the Prius re-charge when decelerating is around 10% back to the battery. This new battery has something around 70% re-charge, and that will add efficiency into the car.
Secondly, Big Oil can't be ignored. They have billions tied up in plant, equipment and property as gas stations. The fast charge batteries can be recharged at home, but that's an overnight charge. Most homes don't have the electric supply capacity to fast charge. So if the oil companies start providing a fast charge service, they have a shot at maintaining a return on their roadside infrastructure. Ironic as it seems, Big Oil can support EV's. I think they have little choice in that matter.
Lastly the service life of the batteries is important. The thought of replacing the batteries at a cost of thousands is daunting, and surely affects the market up-take of EV's and hybrids. New batteries with greatly enhanced power cycle ability/longevity will do much to help the transition to EV's and hybrids.(See Calhage comment) And of course a longer battery life means a better total life cycle environmental outcome.
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by SethGorton
August 4, 2009 3:00 PM PDT
- Apparently there is an old type of battery that was done away with but is now back and somewhat better. Lithium Sulfide (or maybe sulfate) are now fixing to be used by the US government and produced by a company from Arizona i believe. Dont quote me entirely on this information it is from memory of an article I read about 3 or 4 months ago and cant seem to remember where i read it.
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