[ennui2]

Flow batteries are really more like feul-cells than batteries. It's like liquid electricity which is extracted as the material flows from one side to the next.

When I read about this years ago I found out that Vanadium is mostly extracted as an impurity in natural gas, so in a way it's dependent on fossil fuels, although these days there's probably a lot of it floating around.

Because flow-batteries require the liquid to be actively pumped back and forth, there is a mechanical component to them that will require maintenance. It's nowhere near as simple and reliable as the batteries in current electronic devices or EVs.

[Graeme]

Next-Gen Battery Capacity Expected to Increase 1,000x by 2023

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'A') recent report from Navigant Research analyzes the global market for next-generation advanced batteries, with a focus on the current leading battery chemistry, lithium ion, and the energy storage device types that might eventually replace it.

While lithium ion (Li-ion) batteries offer many advantages over traditional battery technologies, research and development of new battery chemistries that, in many ways, surpass Li-ion is advancing rapidly and is expected to have a major impact on the battery industry in the coming years. These new chemistries are anticipated to enable even more applications for batteries, thus increasing the overall size of the battery market. Click to tweet: According to a recent report from Navigant Research, the total worldwide capacity of advanced batteries is expected to grow from 30.4 megawatt-hours (MWh) in 2014 to more than 28,000 MWh in 2023.

“The limitations to Li-ion, including input costs, safety issues, and materials scarcity, could leave it vulnerable to new chemistries that solve some or all of those problems,” says Sam Jaffe, principal research analyst with Navigant Research. “Although most of the chemistries explored in this report are only at laboratory-scale production levels today, they could reshape the market for advanced batteries in the next 10 years.”

Important emerging battery chemistries include ultracapacitors, lithium sulfur, magnesium ion, solid electrolyte, next-generation flow, and metal-air. Their advent is occurring in the context of an enormous increase in the world’s appetite for advanced energy storage devices, according to the report: Navigant Research expects that overall battery demand is expected to increase from approximately 66.2 GWh in 2014 to greater than 225.3 GWh in 2023.

[Graeme]

A solar cell that stores its own power: World's first 'solar battery' runs on light and air

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I')s it a solar cell? Or a rechargeable battery? Actually, the patent-pending device invented at The Ohio State University is both: the world's first solar battery.

In the October 3, 2014 issue of the journal Nature Communications, the researchers report that they've succeeded in combining a battery and a solar cell into one hybrid device.

Key to the innovation is a mesh solar panel, which allows air to enter the battery, and a special process for transferring electrons between the solar panel and the battery electrode. Inside the device, light and oxygen enable different parts of the chemical reactions that charge the battery.

The university will license the solar battery to industry, where Yiying Wu, professor of chemistry and biochemistry at Ohio State, says it will help tame the costs of renewable energy.

"The state of the art is to use a solar panel to capture the light, and then use a cheap battery to store the energy," Wu said. "We've integrated both functions into one device. Any time you can do that, you reduce cost."

[Graeme]

Ultra-Fast Charging Batteries Last 20 Years

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'S')cientists at Nanyang Technology University (NTU) in Singapore have developed ultra-fast charging batteries that can be recharged up to 70% in only two minutes.

The new generation batteries also have a long lifespan of over 20 years, more than 10 times compared to existing lithium-ion batteries.

This breakthrough has a wide-ranging impact on all industries, especially for electric vehicles, where consumers are put off by the long recharge times and its limited battery life.

With this new technology by NTU, drivers of electric vehicles could save tens of thousands on battery replacement costs and can recharge their cars in just a matter of minutes.

Commonly used in mobile phones, tablets, and in electric vehicles, rechargeable lithium-ion batteries usually last about 500 recharge cycles. This is equivalent to two to three years of typical use, with each cycle taking about two hours for the battery to be fully charged.

In the new NTU-developed battery, the traditional graphite used for the anode (negative pole) in lithium-ion batteries is replaced with a new gel material made from titanium dioxide.

Titanium dioxide is an abundant, cheap and safe material found in soil. It is commonly used as a food additive or in sunscreen lotions to absorb harmful ultraviolet rays.

[lpetrich]

Batteries work by redox reactions: reduction-oxidation ones, electron-transfer ones. Fuel cells and electrolytic cells also work by redox reactions. Here are the more common reactions used:

Lead-acid:
Cathode: Pb + HSO4(-) -> PbSO4 + H(+) + 2e
Anode: PbO2 + HSO4(-) + 3H(+) + 2e -> PbSO4 + 2H2O

Zinc-carbon:
Cathode: Zn -> Zn(++) + 2e
Anode: 2MnO2 + 2NH4Cl + 2e -> Mn2O3 + 2NH3 + H2O + 2Cl(-)

Alkaline:
Cathode: Zn + 2OH(-) -> ZnO + H2O + 2e
Anode: 2MnO2 + H2O + 2e -> Mn2O3 + 2OH(-)

Nickel-cadmium (Ni-cad):
Cathode: Cd + 2OH(-) -> Cd(OH)2 + 2e
Anode: NiO(OH) + H2O + e -> Ni(OH)2 + OH(-)

Nickel metal hydride (NiMH):
Cathode: Ni(OH)2 + OH(-) -> NiO(OH) + H2O + e
Anode: (M) + H2O + e -> (M)H + OH(-)
M is a metal or intermetallic compound

Lithium-ion (typical reactions here):
Cathode: LiCoO2 -> Li(1-x)CoO2 + (x)Li + (x)e
Anode: Li(+) + e + C6 -> LiC6
Big problem: lithium is a rare element

Lithium-sulfide and sodium-sulfide:
Cathode: Li -> Li(+) + e, Na -> Na(+) + e
Anode: S + 2e -> S(--)
Much like a water fuel cell:
Cathode: H2 -> 2H(+) + 2e
Anode: O2 + 4e -> 2O(--)

Vanadium redox:
Cathode: V(++) -> V(+++) + e
Anode: VO2(+) + 2H(-) + e -> VO(++) + H2O
It has vanadium on both sides, courtesy of the variety of oxidation states vanadium can have. The anode ones are V(5+) and V(4+).

[Graeme]

Stealthy Norwegian entrepreneur aims to revolutionize U.S. energy storage

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'J')ostein Eikeland, a Norwegian entrepreneur with a mixed record of success, is hoping to jolt the world of energy storage.

On Tuesday, Eikeland's latest venture, Alevo, will unveil a battery that he says will last longer and ultimately cost far less than rival technologies.

The technology, which is meant to store excess electricity generated by power plants, has been developed by Eikeland in secret for a decade.

"We've been very stealth," Eikeland said in a telephone interview. "We didn't know if we were going to succeed."

Martigny, Switzerland-based Alevo Group is gearing up to start manufacturing batteries next year at a massive former cigarette plant near Charlotte, North Carolina, that it says will employ 2,500 people within three years.

Eikeland, 46, said Alevo, named for the inventor of the battery, Alessandro Volta, has $1 billion from anonymous Swiss investors and has taken no state funding or incentives.


The batteries use lithium iron phosphate and graphite as active materials and an inorganic electrolyte - what Eikeland called the company's "secret sauce" - that extends longevity and reduces the risk of burning. They can be charged and discharged over 40,000 times, the company said.

That is about four times as much as rival batteries, said Sam Wilkinson, who follows energy storage for IHS Technology. Wilkinson, who said he was briefed by Alevo on its plans, said that if the batteries work as promised they will constitute a technological leap.

[careinke]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Graeme', '[')b]Stealthy Norwegian entrepreneur aims to revolutionize U.S. energy storage

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'J')ostein Eikeland, a Norwegian entrepreneur with a mixed record of success, is hoping to jolt the world of energy storage.

On Tuesday, Eikeland's latest venture, Alevo, will unveil a battery that he says will last longer and ultimately cost far less than rival technologies.

The technology, which is meant to store excess electricity generated by power plants, has been developed by Eikeland in secret for a decade.

"We've been very stealth," Eikeland said in a telephone interview. "We didn't know if we were going to succeed."

Martigny, Switzerland-based Alevo Group is gearing up to start manufacturing batteries next year at a massive former cigarette plant near Charlotte, North Carolina, that it says will employ 2,500 people within three years.

Eikeland, 46, said Alevo, named for the inventor of the battery, Alessandro Volta, has $1 billion from anonymous Swiss investors and has taken no state funding or incentives.


The batteries use lithium iron phosphate and graphite as active materials and an inorganic electrolyte - what Eikeland called the company's "secret sauce" - that extends longevity and reduces the risk of burning. They can be charged and discharged over 40,000 times, the company said.

That is about four times as much as rival batteries, said Sam Wilkinson, who follows energy storage for IHS Technology. Wilkinson, who said he was briefed by Alevo on its plans, said that if the batteries work as promised they will constitute a technological leap.

[Graeme]

Megabattery demonstrated successfully

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'A')lternative energy cannot take over from fossil fuels without a way to bridge over the peaks and troughs that can occur when the wind fades or the sun dips. That's what gets us so excited about advances in grid scale batteries.

In the most recent breakthrough, the good folk at the Fraunhofer institute in Magdeburg, Germany, have risked taking their own facility off the power grid, leaving their many sensitive experiments at the mercy of a megabattery to prove the concept.

© Fraunhofer IFF / Viktoria Kühne
Alternative energy cannot take over from fossil fuels without a way to bridge over the peaks and troughs that can occur when the wind fades or the sun dips. That's what gets us so excited about advances in grid scale batteries.

In the most recent breakthrough, the good folk at the Fraunhofer institute in Magdeburg, Germany, have risked taking their own facility off the power grid, leaving their many sensitive experiments at the mercy of a megabattery to prove the concept.


© Fraunhofer IFF / René Maresch

In Germany, where solar power supply has set records fulfilling over 50% of the total electricity demand, the technology cannot come too soon. After all, if you obtain 5% of your electricity from solar, and the supply dips by 50%, the grid can easily redistribute to cover the small hiccup. But when 50% of electricity drops by half...well, that is where the vision and reality meet on the battlefield of progress.

The mobile 1-Megawatt battery with a capacity of 0.5 Megawatt-hours consists of approximately 5000 lithium ion cells packed into a container the size of a rail car. The firm SK Innovation, part of Korea's third-largest conglomerate, SK Group, built the megabattery.

The megabattery can serve a single or several large production facilities (equivalent to 100 households), which could be useful to replace the many stand-alone generators that still serve to ensure stability in production facilities throughout the developing world.

More importantly, the megabattery can be integrated into regional power supply networks as well. The optimization of regional energy management remains the current focus at the Fraunhofer IFF: the megabattery is being tested with the micro-Smart-Grid to help with the development of software and control systems to manage the networks of tomorrow.

[lpetrich]

Oops, a water fuel cell ought to be
Cathode: H2 -> 2H(+) + 2e
Anode: O2 + 2H2O + 4e -> 4OH(-)

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('careinke', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Graeme', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he batteries use lithium iron phosphate and graphite as active materials and an inorganic electrolyte - what Eikeland called the company's "secret sauce" - that extends longevity and reduces the risk of burning. They can be charged and discharged over 40,000 times, the company said.

[Graeme]

New battery could be ‘killer app’ for electric cars [VIDEO]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'A') new battery that promises to solve two of the biggest grumbles about electric cars - high prices and low driving ranges - is headed for shop floors in just over a year.

The lithium battery, which experts say could be a game-changing “killer app” for the global car market, can triple the driving range of an electric vehicle and significantly lower its costs, say the US scientists who developed it.

It can also double the running life of a smartphone or a laptop, said Dr Qichao Hu, who developed the device with his former professor, Donald Sadoway, a prominent battery expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

But its impact on the cost and performance of an electric car could prove transformational, said Prof Sadoway, whose work on other batteries has been backed by Microsoft co-founder, Bill Gates.


Independent experts in the US recently confirmed prototype cells in the battery developed by Dr Hu and Prof Sadoway can store more than twice as much energy as conventional cells.

The main difference between their battery and existing ones is that it has an ultra-thin metal anode with higher energy density than the graphite and silicon anodes in current batteries, and uses safer electrolyte material.

Dr Hu founded a company called SolidEnergy in 2012, just outside Boston, to commercialise the technology and hopes the battery will be in production for consumer electronics in the first half of 2016 and in electric cars by the second half of that year.

[kublikhan]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'S')tationary batteries can store surplus wind and solar energy, turning a highly variable power source into a steady flow of electrons. But most are made from highly toxic or flammable materials. The Aqueous Hybrid Ion (AHI) battery relies on a salt water–based electrolyte to carry the charge. It’s nontoxic, low-cost, and modular, and it can’t overheat. It has a long life cycle and a high capacity. And it can be scaled for home use or the grid. In other words, it’s basically everything today’s batteries are not.

[autonomous]

Supercapacitors can be built from hemp "on a par with or better than graphene" - the industry gold standard. Alta Supercaps plans to market hemp-based supercapacitor devices to the oil and gas industries where high-temperature operation is a valuable asset.

In the process, cannabis bark is "cooked" to form graphine-like carbon nanosheets with high surface area which is very conducive to supercapacitors. By fabricating these sheets into electrodes and adding an ionic liquid as the electrolyte, it is possible to make supercapacitors which operate at a broad range of temperatures and high energy density. The hemp-based devices yielded energy densities as high as 12 Watt-hours per kilogram, two to three times higher than commercial counterparts. They also operate over an impressive temperature range, from freezing to more than 200 degrees Fahrenheit.

Dr David Mitlin of Clarkson University, New York describes his device in the journal ACS Nano:

Interconnected Carbon Nanosheets Derived from Hemp for Ultrafast Supercapacitors with High Energy

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'W')e created unique interconnected partially graphitic carbon nanosheets (10-30 nm in thickness) with high specific surface area (up to 2287 m2 g-1), significant volume fraction of mesoporosity (up to 58%), and good electrical conductivity (211-226 S m-1) from hemp bast fiber. The nanosheets are ideally suited for low (down to 0 °C) through high (100 °C) temperature ionic-liquid-based supercapacitor applications: At 0 °C and a current density of 10 A g-1, the electrode maintains a remarkable capacitance of 106 F g-1. At 20, 60, and 100 °C and an extreme current density of 100 A g-1, there is excellent capacitance retention (72-92%) with the specific capacitances being 113, 144, and 142 F g-1, respectively. These characteristics favorably place the materials on a Ragone chart providing among the best power-energy characteristics (on an active mass normalized basis) ever reported for an electrochemical capacitor: At a very high power density of 20 kW kg-1 and 20, 60, and 100 °C, the energy densities are 19, 34, and 40 Wh kg-1, respectively. Moreover the assembled supercapacitor device yields a maximum energy density of 12 Wh kg-1, which is higher than that of commercially available supercapacitors. By taking advantage of the complex multilayered structure of a hemp bast fiber precursor, such exquisite carbons were able to be achieved by simple hydrothermal carbonization combined with activation. This novel precursor-synthesis route presents a great potential for facile large-scale production of high-performance carbons for a variety of diverse applications including energy storage.

[autonomous]

If a graphene composite works well for sodium-ion batteries, will a cannabis composite also function as a sodium ion battery?

Graphene Composite Offers Critical Fix for Sodium-ion Batteries

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'S')odium-ion batteries offer an attractive alternative to Li-ion batteries not because they outperform Li-ion batteries, but mainly because of lower costs due to the the nearly unlimited supply of sodium. They are also an attractive alternative in part because unlike their sodium-sulfur battery cousins they can be made in similar sizes to Li-ion batteries.

However, the commercial development of sodium-ion batteries has been hampered by the materials used in the negative electrodes. These swell to as much as 400 to 500 percent their original size, leading to mechanical damage and loss of electrical contact.

Now researchers at Kansas State University have developed a composite, paper-like material made from two 2-dimensional materials—molybdenum disulfide and graphene nanosheets—that has been shown to overcome this shortcoming.

In research published in the journal ACS Nano (“MoS2/Graphene Composite Paper for Sodium-Ion Battery Electrodes”), the 2-D composite material developed proved resistant to the “alloying” reaction that electrode materials typically suffer when in contact with sodium.

[autonomous]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', 'W')hy hemp? Why not oats or corn or mulberry bushes? I see no mention of what makes hemp special, the alkaloids (thc) or the lipids. If it is only the cellulose in the bast fiber that is "carbonized" then what difference does it make?

[ennui2]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', 'W')hy hemp?

[Graeme]

Lawrence Berkeley Lab team helps lead charge to revolutionize energy storage

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I')magine an electric car with the range of a Tesla Model S -- able to reach Lake Tahoe from the Bay Area on a single charge -- but at one-fifth the $70,000 price tag for the luxury sedan.

Or a battery not only able to provide many times more energy than today's technology but also at significantly cheaper prices, meaning longer-lasting and less expensive power for cellphones, laptops and even the home.

Those are among the ambitious goals of the $120 million, Department of Energy-funded Joint Center for Energy Storage Research, a 14-member partnership led by Argonne National Laboratory and including Lawrence Berkeley Lab, Sandia National Laboratories and a host of universities and private companies. In January, the center's Berkeley hub is moving into the lab's new $54 million General Purpose Laboratory, bringing its battery scientists, chemists and engineers together under one roof for the first time.

The team, headed by JCESR deputy director Venkat Srinivasan, aims to achieve revolutionary advances in battery performance -- creating devices with up to five times the energy capacity of today's batteries at one-fifth the cost by 2017.

To accomplish the feat, Srinivasan is looking to replace the current standard-bearer for rechargeable batteries -- lithium-ion -- with batteries made of cheaper, more durable materials, including magnesium, aluminum and calcium.

"We want to go beyond and find the next generation of technology," Srinivasan said. "It's clear to us that the batteries we have today are not meeting the needs."

[Shaved Monkey]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', 'W')hy hemp? Why not oats or corn or mulberry bushes? I see no mention of what makes hemp special, the alkaloids (thc) or the lipids. If it is only the cellulose in the bast fiber that is "carbonized" then what difference does it make?

[Graeme]

Next Up For EV Batteries: A Paper-Like “Wonder Material”

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'M')ove over graphene, we’re looking at the next nanomaterial of the new millennium. That would be the super-miniscule wood fibers known as nanocellulose, and the South African company Sappi is already moving forward with plans for a pilot-scale plant to demonstrate a new method for prying the little guys loose from wood.

If the project is successful, you’re going to see nanocellulose working its way into all kinds of clean tech applications — maybe not quite as many as graphene, but we’re thinking EV batteries for starters.

So…What Is This Nanocellulose You Speak Of?

We must have been asleep at the wheel because this stuff is new to our radar, but the US Department of Agriculture is all over nanocellulose like white on rice. Here’s why:

Nanocellulose is simply wood fiber broken down to the nanoscale…Materials at this minute scale have unique properties; nanocellulose-based materials can be stronger than Kevlar fiber and provide high strength properties with low weight. These attributes have attracted the interest of the Department of Defense for use in lightweight armor and ballistic glass.

USDA also cites interest from the private sector for automotive and electronics applications among many other fields.

In fact, USDA is so excited about nanocellulose that is kicked in for a nifty little video produced by TAPPI (the Technological Association of the American Pulp and Paper Industry — start at the 2:15 mark to skip the fluff and cut to the mustard):