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Why We Don’t Have Battery Breakthroughs
Technology Review ^ | February 10, 2015 | Kevin Bullis

Posted on 02/11/2015 5:10:39 AM PST by thackney

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To: AceMineral

So in “Star Trek the 10th Generation” how does this fracturing problem get resolved?


81 posted on 02/11/2015 10:05:16 AM PST by Boiler Plate ("Why be difficult, when with just a little more work, you can be impossible" Mom)
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To: MHGinTN

I think the capacitor or capacitor/battery combination is the ticket for the quick charge issue.

As far as the battery powered car is concerned....foolishness, unless it’s an indoor cart or something.

A vehicle needs to have an internal combustion engine of some type, large enough to propel the vehicle and charge the capacitor/battery.

The electric drive, AWD, regenerative braking all makes sense with capacitors. The “plug in” aspect is just stupid.


82 posted on 02/11/2015 10:07:39 AM PST by ROCKLOBSTER (Celebrate "Republicans Freed the Slaves Month")
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To: ROCKLOBSTER

IF the oligarchs would allow Tesla technology (the Serbian inventor, not the car company), batteries could sit in a vehicle as a back-up and we could just run the antenna up to get power.


83 posted on 02/11/2015 10:10:42 AM PST by MHGinTN (Is it really all relative, Mister Einstein?)
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To: thackney
I've wondered for a while if there was a market for a small trailer mounted generator for those long trips.

Powered by gasoline of course.

84 posted on 02/11/2015 10:11:18 AM PST by AU72
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To: MHGinTN

Well, I don’t think it’s any secret. What’s to stop you from fabbing up your own experiment?


85 posted on 02/11/2015 10:18:24 AM PST by ROCKLOBSTER (Celebrate "Republicans Freed the Slaves Month")
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To: central_va
I wouldn’t mind a 200 mile range limit if I could recharge in 5 minutes.

A little quick math shows why that's probably not going to happen any time soon...

At 20 mpg, a car uses about 333 kWh (kilowatt-hours) of thermal energy - in the form of gasoline - to go 200 miles, as you suggest.

If we assume the engine and power train are about 15% efficient, that's 50 kWh of actual mechanical energy delivered to the wheels.

To put 50 kWh of electrical energy into a battery - at a recharging station - in five minutes, would require

50 kWh * 12 = 600 kW

of electrical power. That's a bit more than 2700 amps at 220 volts. The factor of 12 is because five minutes is one-twelfth of an hour.

And that's assuming that electric vehicles are 100% efficient from the charging station to the wheels on the road. They're actual efficiency is quite a bit less than that. I would guess that an overall efficiency of 80% is probably being generous. That would raise the current needed to charge you up in five minutes to about 3400 amps at 220 volts.

Keep in mind that the typical arc welder operates at something like 400 amps. Picture the cables and connectors used for a normal shop-floor arc welding setup. Now multiply the size (area) of those cables and connectors by almost nine, and you've got the size of the cables you'd need to carry the current necessary to charge your car in five minutes.

Not to mention that six or seven hundred kilowatts is probably something like twenty times more than a typical gas station uses overall, and then multiply that by four or five cars wanting to rapid-charge at the same time, and you can see the problem.

86 posted on 02/11/2015 10:22:38 AM PST by Steely Tom (Vote GOP for A Slower Handbasket)
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To: Steely Tom

Why electric cars will never be mainstream.


87 posted on 02/11/2015 10:24:47 AM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: ROCKLOBSTER

Reality is tougher than internet myths.


88 posted on 02/11/2015 10:26:24 AM PST by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer)
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To: central_va
Why electric cars will never be mainstream.

Sadly, I think you are correct.

Interesting to note that copper cables with nine times the current capacity of arc welding cables would be roughly three times the diameter of those cables, which puts them at about the diameter of the hose that's used on gas pumps around the world.

What's interesting is that the hose on your typical gas pump delivers usable energy to your gas tank at about the same rate that a copper wire of the same size could deliver electrical energy to a battery in your car.

Of course, I'm not counting the return cable, which would have to be just as thick.

So you can see that actually the use of liquid hydrocarbon fuel to store, transport, and deliver energy for use in vehicles isn't really that bad. At least, not when you consider the practicalities, like charging time.

Also, keep in mind that real batteries have a "leakage rate." They don't store energy for long periods without losses.

You don't expect your car to lose a half-gallon or so of gas if you neglect to drive it for a day or two. That's what would happen with battery technology, at least as it's presently constituted.

You can leave a car (or better still a diesel truck) undriven for six months, and you can expect every bit of the fuel energy that was in the tank to still be there.

That's something a lot of people take for granted, but it's really a most pleasant aspect of fossil fuels.

89 posted on 02/11/2015 10:44:38 AM PST by Steely Tom (Vote GOP for A Slower Handbasket)
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To: Steely Tom

IF capacitors could be advanced to the point that a 200 mile range or more would be available in one or two capacitors, why couldn’t there be an exchange system, so the car owner rents the capacitor and pays for the charge therein. Exchanging capacitors would solve the ‘quick refuel’ problem.


90 posted on 02/11/2015 11:03:30 AM PST by MHGinTN (Is it really all relative, Mister Einstein?)
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To: thackney
Tesla claims that it is on track to produce a $35,000 electric car with a roughly 200-mile range by 2017

With that limitation, it's still gonna be an "around town only" car...

91 posted on 02/11/2015 11:06:56 AM PST by ErnBatavia (It ain't a "hashtag"....it's a damn pound sign. ###)
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To: MHGinTN
IF capacitors could be advanced to the point that a 200 mile range or more would be available in one or two capacitors, why couldn’t there be an exchange system, so the car owner rents the capacitor and pays for the charge therein. Exchanging capacitors would solve the ‘quick refuel’ problem.

Yes, that's a possibility. Although I would imagine that such a capacitor would be pretty heavy. Still, with robots to do the work automatically, you might be on to something.

Keep in mind that a capacitor that could store 50 kWh of energy would be nothing to f*** with.

If it is an efficient capacitor, it can also release all of that energy in a second or two, maybe quicker.

I wouldn't want to be within a hundred yards of that particular phenomenon.

92 posted on 02/11/2015 11:07:03 AM PST by Steely Tom (Vote GOP for A Slower Handbasket)
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To: Steely Tom

I believe those amp requirements exceed what is used in a large MRI facility which the breakers where at 2200 amps if I remember correctly. (also at 480 V 3 phase)


93 posted on 02/11/2015 12:00:56 PM PST by DarkWaters ("Deception is a state of mind --- and the mind of the state" --- James Jesus Angleton)
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To: DarkWaters

When I was getting radiation treatments for cancer, I could hear a big honkin’ breaker thunking in when they were shooting at me, LOL.


94 posted on 02/11/2015 12:02:25 PM PST by nascarnation (Impeach, convict, deport)
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To: DarkWaters

Wow. That’s amazing.

I wonder if all that power (more than 2MW, almost 3000 HP) was needed continuously, or only needed when the magnets were being charged up.

Bulk electrical power is something like $100/MWh at best. That’s a lot of operating costs right there.


95 posted on 02/11/2015 12:10:35 PM PST by Steely Tom (Vote GOP for A Slower Handbasket)
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To: Boiler Plate

Dilithium can be “recrystalized”, but each “recrystalization” is less effective than the previous one. So ultimately, the dilithium has to be replaced.


96 posted on 02/11/2015 1:13:25 PM PST by AceMineral (One day men will beg for chains.)
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To: Steely Tom
The premise of using interchangeable capacitors is based upon being able to discharge them in a measured way so that the sudden surge is not a danger. I was alternately thinking that if lithium ion batteries were in the vehicle, a means to discharge into the battery would give a back up to the battery power such that coming to the end of the battery charge would not strand the driver. Tremendous advancements on capacitors have been achieved with carbon nanotubes. There is even a method of building the containment out of cellulose fibered materials, reducing weight significantly.

ALL advancements in this electric car industry are predicated upon the oligarchy having the reins over the technology, so who knows what may be in the pipeline, or not allowed into the pipeline.

97 posted on 02/11/2015 1:50:21 PM PST by MHGinTN (Is it really all relative, Mister Einstein?)
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To: MHGinTN

I agree that there must be some things in the pipeline, although I don’t know any specifics.

Carbon nanotubes and graphene are getting a lot of attention, I’m sure.

An efficient storage medium for electricity that could achieve five or ten kWh per pound would be revolutionary. It would be similar in importance to the invention of the internal combustion engine.

The best electrical storage method available today is that of the lithium-ion battery, which at best achieves close to 1 MJ/kg, which is about 0.125 kWh/lb. So you see we have a long way to go (nearly four orders of magnitude).

It’s worth remembering that an energy density of 1 kWh/lb or more would probably be enough to make an easily-concealed bomb that could take down a passenger jet.


98 posted on 02/11/2015 2:23:59 PM PST by Steely Tom (Vote GOP for A Slower Handbasket)
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To: MHGinTN
Sorry, I made an arithmetic mistake. I said we have a little less than four orders of magnitude to go; I should have said we have a little less than two orders of magnitude to go.

A lot, but much less than I originally thought.

Two orders of magnitude we might get in the near- to mid-future, I would think.

99 posted on 02/11/2015 2:46:41 PM PST by Steely Tom (Vote GOP for A Slower Handbasket)
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To: Steely Tom

Satan’s death cult religion, Islam, is the primary excuse currently used to justify withholding many technological breakthroughs from the public. The government hydra can use them, but they are too dangerous to be available to the public. So, until humanity declares a collective war of eradication on such evil there seems to be no answer for the above excuse.


100 posted on 02/11/2015 2:50:33 PM PST by MHGinTN (Is it really all relative, Mister Einstein?)
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