Posted on 08/25/2022 9:20:38 AM PDT by Red Badger
Engineers at MIT have developed a new battery design using common materials – aluminum, sulfur and salt. Not only is the battery low-cost, but it’s resistant to fire and failures, and can be charged very fast, which could make it useful for powering a home or charging electric vehicles.
Lithium-ion batteries have dominated the field for the last few decades, thanks to their reliability and high energy density. However, lithium is becoming scarcer and more expensive, and the cells can be hazardous, exploding or bursting into flames if damaged or improperly used. Cheaper, safer alternatives are needed, especially as the world transitions towards renewable energy and electric vehicles.
So the MIT team set out to design a new type of battery out of readily available, inexpensive materials. After a search and some trial and error, they settled on aluminum for one electrode and sulfur for the other, topped off with an electrolyte of molten chloro-aluminate salt. Not only are all of these ingredients cheap and common, but they’re not flammable, so there’s no risk of fire or explosion.
In tests, the team demonstrated that the new battery cells can withstand hundreds of charge cycles, and charge very quickly – in some experiments, less than a minute. The cells would cost just one sixth of the price of a similar-sized lithium-ion cell.
They can not only operate at high temperatures of up to 200 °C (392 °F) but they actually work better when hotter – at 110 °C (230 °F), the batteries charged 25 times faster than they did at 25 °C (77 °F). Importantly, the researchers say the battery doesn’t need any external energy to reach this elevated temperature – its usual cycle of charging and discharging is enough to keep it that warm.
(Excerpt) Read more at newatlas.com ...
I worked at a research institute where we had a developmental EV with a high-temperature sodium-sulfur battery. Predictably, it leaked, caught the asphalt parking lot on fire, burned up the development EV and the cars on either side of it.
Lithium, sodium and sulphur. What’s not to like?
“They could also be useful as charging stations for electric vehicles, thanks to their rapid charging.”
Uh?? Charging stations for electric vehicles? Not electric vehicle batteries?
“The team says that this battery design would be best suited to the scale of a few dozen kilowatt-hours, like powering an individual home from renewable sources. They could also be useful as charging stations for electric vehicles, thanks to their rapid charging.”
This is not a battery for vehicles then. And where is the energy to charge the battery coming from?
“I have a problem with the claim that sulfur isn’t flammable.”
Why? Just because matches are made of sulfur?
“And they act like a heater... Could be a side benefit.”
Yes, but it also means they are very inefficient charging.
A lot of the energy being pumped into them gets wasted as heat rather than stored electricity.
I dont know... The article said they charge faster 25 times faster at a higher temp. Thats a lot.
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They can not only operate at high temperatures of up to 200 °C (392 °F) but they actually work better when hotter – at 110 °C (230 °F), the batteries charged 25 times faster than they did at 25 °C (77 °F). Importantly, the researchers say the battery doesn’t need any external energy to reach this elevated temperature – its usual cycle of charging and discharging is enough to keep it that warm.
Have you heard of the law of “conservation of energy”?
Where does the energy that is heating the battery come from?
From the sky, from the air, far from any swinging male/mail package, you horrible anti-gaiate seed-planter!
From the sky, from the air, Far from any swinging male/mail package, you horrible anti-gaite seed-planter!
Ghost Battery ?
No mention of energy density, and no mention of use in electric cars.
Leads me to think they would be too big for electric cars and better used in energy storage farms, or like a power wall
Exactly what I was looking for: they might be cheap to make (no small feat, that), but if they can't fit enough kwH into a car, then that's a problem.
I am wondering if this invention could support solar power energy storage for home use. That might be an interesting application.
“I am wondering if this invention could support solar power energy storage for home use. That might be an interesting application”
Yes, that’s what it would be good for, and/or utility sized storage farms.
“Oops, looks like they ALREADY HAVE IT.”
OOPS! Looks like they invented it.
Quanquan Pang, Jiashen Meng, Saransh Gupta, Xufeng Hong, Chun Yuen Kwok, Ji Zhao, Yingxia Jin, Like Xu, Ozlem Karahan, Ziqi Wang, Spencer Toll, Liqiang Mai, Linda F. Nazar, Mahalingam Balasubramanian, Badri Narayanan & Donald R. Sadoway
“Oops, looks like they ALREADY HAVE IT.”
OOPS! Looks like they invented it.
Quanquan Pang, Jiashen Meng, Saransh Gupta, Xufeng Hong, Chun Yuen Kwok, Ji Zhao, Yingxia Jin, Like Xu, Ozlem Karahan, Ziqi Wang, Spencer Toll, Liqiang Mai, Linda F. Nazar, Mahalingam Balasubramanian, Badri Narayanan & Donald R. Sadoway
No mention of manufacturing raw materials that I saw, but aluminum smelters require a HUGE amount of energy + raw materials for anodes/electrodes in the smelting process are derived from...wait for it....fossil fuels, also known as petroleum. (Calcined petroluem coke) + bauxite must be mined to extract aluminum. How are they gonna do that again? /s
Unicorns. The new cheap stuff magical batteries are the ‘cold fusion’ scam of our time?
LOL!
Over thirty years ago I pondered how would we adjust to the new computer age when manual labor would no longer be required. I wondered how will the general public be included in that revolution because some way to earn a living had to be available to everyone. Problem is I would never have thought of the solution the elite of the world are now demonstrating, they just plan on removing most of us. The Georgia Guide Stones were not just idle comments.
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