Posted on 10/02/2019 1:27:49 PM PDT by amorphous
Researchers have been in a race to find ways to improve lithium-ion batteries. They are also looking to develop alternatives to the lithium-ion battery that would be lower cost and more sustainable to manufacture. And they may just have found one.
Aluminum-based batteries would be cheaper to make, because aluminum is the third most abundant element in the Earth’s crust after oxygen and silicon. Aluminum is also light-weight and could be ideal for use in batteries.
(Excerpt) Read more at oilprice.com ...
Aluminum is essentially energy in solid form.
One might even go so far as to say it's electricity in solid form.
I used a mixture with sulfur in my amateur rocketry days.
Ping.
“One might even go so far as to say it’s electricity in solid form.”
absolutely. which is why i’m extremely diligent about recycling aluminum, really all metals ...
IIRC, no known biological process uses the element aluminum. I’ve also read it can affect the brain - not that it would stand a chance against my lead exposure - but I usually avoid kegs and cans, preferring bottled beer instead. :-)
E = MC2
The mention of amateur rocketry reminds me of something funny about 45 years ago.
I visited a small telephone company in South Alabama. The secretary told me the president and another two employees were out in the office park setting off a rocket.
I stepped outside just in time to see them set it off. The rocket made it about 10 feet and then turned toward another building. All three of them took off running.
It didn’t engender a whole lot of confidence in Graceba Telephone Company.
Sounds like BS. Energy density is key and they only say it has better density than aluminum.
Gasoline has 1000 times the energy density of Lithium iOn.
So does magnesium...................
Once battery technology reaches a point where it can hold enough energy to power a car for 300 miles, be recharged in 5 minutes, and be easily recycled and replaced at a fairly low cost every 10-20 years then electric cars will go mainstream.
Maybe this is that technology. Am I right in assuming these batteries would be significantly lighter than what is currently being used?
When I was at GE once upon a time, a team on another floor was working on sodium-sulfur batteries. These contained molten sulfur and molten sodium in a long steel pipe; the two reactants were kept separated by an alumina tube that was really a very deep cup. If the alumina cup cracked, it was a good idea to be elsewhere. I forgot to mention that the whole thing had to be at about 400 degrees C in order to work.
One day the cup cracked on a fully charged battery. The ensuing high-speed chemical reaction caused a blast of flame to shoot out of the end of the tube, whereupon it cut through the (steel) lab wall and flared out into the hallway.
Shortly after this, the battery group was moved to Malta, NY, where there were concrete bunkers left over from WWII.
Yeah, if someone could come up with rechargeable gasoline, they probably could retire.
There are issues with copper to aluminum (or aluminum to copper) connections as part of conducting an electric current.
In household wiring, when such connections are done without using special connectors, the aluminum wire (some old houses still have aluminum wires) can heat up.
I think the properties that make aluminum a candidate for batteries, may also present issues that will have to be addressed before aluminum batteries can move from an idea to production.
GE tested rockets in Malta, they built a housing community there. Good thin they don't have wells.
There is NOTHING commercially available that has a greater energy density with a consumer-level safety factor.
I recharge my gas tank weekly and only takes 5 minutes.
Someone will say "fuel cells". Fuel cells don't work well with gasoline, because of side reactions. So, yes, awesome energy density, but it doesn't scale down well as an energy source.
The 5 minute recharge eliminates all mainstream battery technology. Only replaceable-electrolyte batteries can do such a trick, but you’re physically pouring liquid to make that happen.
Yep. Electric cars suck. Unless they have a generator onboard and only use electric motors for zero-RPM torque.
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