Posted on 11/03/2018 12:15:15 PM PDT by Zhang Fei
Brightly colored molecular models line two walls of Yet-Ming Chiang’s office at MIT. Chiang, a materials science professor and serial battery entrepreneur, has spent much of his career studying how slightly different arrangements of those sticks and spheres add up to radically different outcomes in energy storage.
But he and his colleague, Venkat Viswanathan, are taking a different approach to reach their next goal, altering not the composition of the batteries but the alignment of the compounds within them. By applying magnetic forces to straighten the tortuous path that lithium ions navigate through the electrodes, the scientists believe, they could significantly boost the rate at which the device discharges electricity.
That shot of power could open up a use that has long eluded batteries: meeting the huge demands of a passenger aircraft at liftoff. If it works as hoped, it would enable regional commuter flights that don’t burn fuel or produce direct climate emissions.
Viswanathan, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Carnegie Mellon, initiated and is leading the research project. He and Chiang are now collaborating with 24M, the lithium-ion battery manufacturer Chiang cofounded in 2010, and Zunum Aero, an aircraft startup based in Bothell, Washington, to develop and test prototype batteries specifically designed for the needs of an advanced hybrid plane.
High stakes
Eliminating greenhouse-gas emissions from airplanes is one of the hardest challenges in the climate puzzle. Air travel accounts for around 2% of global carbon dioxide emissions and is one of the fastest-growing sources of greenhouse-gas pollution.
But there are no clean alternatives today for more than a tiny sliver of air travel, because the batteries powering electric cars are still too expensive, heavy, and otherwise poorly suited for aviation.
More than a dozen companies, including Uber, Airbus, and Boeing, are already exploring the potential
(Excerpt) Read more at technologyreview.com ...
Oh ... another one.
Coal powered planes. Ok.
Fly in a battery operated plane....no thanks.
Yeah, they’ll be charged electricity from generators spun by Stirling engines, supplied with billions of kilowatt hours worth of hot air emitted by professors at MIT.
it’s hidden in Cameron Diaz’s purse.
I thought Nicholas Cage was on the hunt for this national treasure?
“If it works as hoped...”
No thanks. I’ll drive.
Later ... Viswanathan returns to India where he sets up a plant that make the batteries far cheaper then any similar plant in the US.
Later Still ... Chiang returns to mainland China and hands all the technology over to the Central Committee who then orders Chiang’s family released, but Chiang is to be held until such time as they successfully purchase the Indian plant started by Viswanathan.
The pollution gets moved to a smokestack.
Folly aside, the very thought of realigning the components within a battery strikes me as good thinkin’. Maybe that’s why I didn’t go to MIT.
At least they are attempting to bring their batteries to market. Other that it joins the thousands of long forgotten battery claims I’ve seen over the years.
Don’t worry, Dr Ming has it well in hand, battery only explode tiny bit...made in China, especially for US airline companies...
Unfortunately the unicorn farts needed to charge it are the worst greenhouse gas ever.
No, that’s Valtrex and RU-486.
Yet-Ming Chiang & Venkat Viswanathan,
And it does say something about President Trump’s merit-based immigration model. The right immigrants do make this a better, stronger, wealthier nation.
Interesting possible advance in battery technology. It also illustrates the shameless way that those behind nearly all new energy technology research projects try to latch into the global warming scam to snag more government money. I take this as a clear warning sign that the project is not economically feasible at this time
Another lie from the greenies. How do you get the batteries charged? Well, most likely by burning biomass sources which... pollute.
A Prius plane?????
Nicolas Cage and Kelsey Grammer Team Up For a New Thriller Called GRAND ISLE
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