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Firefighters are struggling to extinguish a fire that broke out last week on a cargo ship that is carrying thousands of luxury cars and is adrift off the coast of Portugal's Azores islands. A port official said it was unclear when crews would succeed. The vessel, Felicity Ace, which is carrying about 4,000 vehicles including Porsches, Audis and Bentleys, some electric with lithium-ion batteries, caught fire in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean on Wednesday. The 22 crew members on board were evacuated on the same day. "The intervention [to put out the blaze] has to be done very slowly,"...

<p>A major nickel mine in a Philippines rainforest has continued to expand, mowing down acres of trees as global demand for minerals essential for electric vehicle manufacturing surges.</p><p>The Rio Tuba mine in the region of Palawan supplies an important mineral for electric vehicle batteries in Tesla and Toyota cars, but the mine is nearing an expansion that would cause it to grow from four square miles to 14 square miles, according to an NBC News investigation. The growth of the mine would cause massive deforestation of the land which environmentalists warn could destroy the area’s ecosystem.</p>

By incorporating sugar into the web-like architecture of the electrode they have stabilized the sulfur, preventing it from moving and blanketing the lithium electrode. Credit: Monash Energy Institute ________________________________________________________________________________ Simply by adding sugar, researchers from the Monash Energy Institute have created a longer-lasting, lighter, more sustainable rival to the lithium-ion batteries that are essential for aviation, electric vehicles and submarines. The Monash team, assisted by CSIRO, report in today's edition of Nature Communications that using a glucose-based additive on the positive electrode they have managed to stabilize lithium-sulfur battery technology, long touted as the basis for the next generation of...

A new paper presents a stable lithium-metal battery design for the first time. Lithium-ion batteries have flaws that lithium-metal batteries could fix. This new battery adds a self-healing technology that will close cracks where dendrites form. Lithium-ion batteries are the backbone of most of today’s electronic devices, including electric vehicles. But for all of their game-changing benefits, the batteries still have an inherent flaw: dendrites. These thin, snaking, tree-like pieces of lithium form sharp points and end up piercing the battery, causing short circuits and other problems. This ultimately shortens the lifespan of lithium-ion batteries, and leaves major room for...

Australian company Graphene Manufacturing Group (GMG) has announced exciting performance test results for a new type of aluminum-ion battery that can charge 10X faster than today's lithium-ion units, while lasting much longer and needing no cooling.

Lithium-ion batteries are everywhere — in phones, laptops, tablets, cameras and increasingly cars. Demand for lithium-ion batteries has risen sharply in the past five years and is expected to grow from a $44.2 billion market in 2020 to a $94.4 billion market by 2025, mostly due to the boom in electric cars. And a shortage of lithium-ion batteries is looming in the U.S.Former Tesla CTO and Elon Musk's right-hand man, JB Straubel, started Redwood Materials in 2017 to help address the need for more raw materials and to solve the problem of e-waste. The company recycles end-of-life batteries and then...

Moreover, it is safer in terms of potential fire hazards and has a lower environmental impact. It is difficult to imagine our daily life without lithium-ion batteries. They dominate the small format battery market for portable electronic devices, and are also commonly used in electric vehicles. At the same time, lithium-ion batteries have a number of serious issues, including: a potential fire hazard and performance loss at cold temperatures; as well as a considerable environmental impact of spent battery disposal. According to the leader of the team of researchers, Professor in the Department of Electrochemistry at St Petersburg University Oleg...

Figure outlining the structural and morphological characteristics of the two oxyfluorides syhthesized by the researchers. Credit: Ji et al. ______________________________________________________________________________ In recent years, lithium-based batteries have become widely used to power a wide range of electronic devices, including tablets, smart phones and portable computers. These batteries have different compartments, called cells, each of which contains a positive electrode and a negative electrode separated by a chemical known as an electrolyte. Positive electrodes are generally composed of lithium compounds, such as LiCoO2 or LiFePO4, while negative electrodes are usually made of carbon. The electrolyte separating them, on the other hand, can...

The new technology has the potential to improve both the energy density and safety of lithium-ion batteries destinacigdem/Depositphotos =============================================================== Researchers at Australia's Deakin University say they've managed to use common industrial polymers to create solid electrolytes, opening the door to double-density solid state lithium batteries that won't explode or catch fire if they overheat. Dr. Fangfang Chen and Dr. Xiaoen Wang from Deakin's Institute for Frontier Materials claim to have made a breakthrough with "the first clear and useful example of liquid-free and efficient transportation of lithium-ion in the scientific community." The new technology uses a solid polymer material, weakly...

Norwegian authorities are warning shipowners and operators about the dangers associated with lithium-ion battery systems after a fire and subsequent gas explosion on board a diesel-electric ferry in Norway.

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.

The Coast Guard has issued a safety warning for commercial boat operators, saying they should monitor the amount of unsupervised phone charging on the boat in the wake of a boat fire off the coast of California that killed 34 people. USA Today reported that a preliminary report into the fire near Santa Cruz Island could come out as soon as Thursday, according to the the National Transportation Safety Board. While the report will likely not include a cause, it will examine how batteries and electronics were stored. The Coast Guard urged those operating a boat to "reduce potential fire...

Two Stories that I will post links to given the amount of Websites that have Shunned FR. Futher comments in the Body section, here are the links:https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/02/us-legislation-aims-to-thwart-chinas-electric-vehicle-dominance.htmlhttps://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-lithium-electric-exclusive/exclusive-us-seeks-to-challenge-chinas-electric-vehicle-supply-chain-dominance-idUSKCN1S81EO

Development could change future smartphone, laptop and car battery technologies Scientists have found a way of using alternative metals in lithium-based batteries that might not only help relieve the issues associated with conflict materials, but also offer more storage capacity in future devices. The research team, led by professors at the University of California, Berkeley, managed to build lithium cathodes with 50 per cent more storage capacity than conventional materials - potentially enabling batteries to be made that can last considerably longer between recharges than current battery technology. This could change how we use technology in the future as these...

Brookhaven National Laboratory scientists have observed an unexpected phenomenon in lithium-ion batteries – the most common type of battery used to power cell phones and electric cars. As a model battery generated electric current, the scientists witnessed the concentration of lithium inside individual nanoparticles reverse at a certain point, instead of constantly increasing. This discovery, published in the journal Science Advances, is a major step toward improving the battery life of consumer electronics. Esther Takeuchi, a SUNY distinguished professor at Stony Brook University and a chief scientist in the Energy Sciences Directorate at Brookhaven Lab said, “If you have a...

"As I went to turn around I felt burning on my face," the woman said "I grabbed them off and threw them on the floor. They were sparking and had small amounts of fire." (AFP Photo/Handout) Sydney (AFP) - A woman whose headphones caught fire on a plane suffered burns to her face and hands, Australian officials said Wednesday as they warned about the dangers of battery-operated devices in-flight. The passenger was listening to music on her own battery-operated headphones as she dozed about two hours into the trip from Beijing to Melbourne on February 19 when there was a...

Japan's first submarine to be powered by lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries will be commissioned in March 2020, doing away with lead-acid batteries and a Stirling air-independent propulsion (AIP) system. With the arrival of this eleventh Soryu-class submarine the Japan Maritime Self-Defence Force (JMSDF) will be the world's first navy to field a conventional submarine powered by Li-ion batteries. VAdm (Retired) Masao Kobayashi, former commander of the JMSDF's Fleet Submarine Force, explained at UDT Asia in Singapore on 18 January that the new type 'will change conventional submarine operations dramatically'. While Li-ion batteries offered similar endurance to an AIP system combined with...

In situ transmission electron microscopy at EMSL was used to study structural changes in the team’s new anode system. Real-time measurements show silicon nanoparticles inside carbon shells before (left) and after (right) lithiation. + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + -+ - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + -+ - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + -+ - + - + - + - + - + - + - + -...

A new concept for a flow battery functions like an old hourglass or egg timer, with particles (in this case carried as a slurry) flowing through a narrow opening from one tank to another. The flow can then be reversed by turning the device over. Credit: Image courtesy of the researchers ================================================================================================================== A new approach to the design of a liquid battery, using a passive, gravity-fed arrangement similar to an old-fashioned hourglass, could offer great advantages due to the system's low cost and the simplicity of its design and operation, says a team of MIT researchers who have made a...

Lithium ions react with silicon to form a new compound, which causes the electrode to expand. Researchers found that flouroethylene carbonate molecules produce a rubber-like protective layer that can accommodate the electrode expansion. Credit: Sana Sandler/Sarah Schlieder _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Imagine a cell a phone that charges in less than an hour and lasts for three to four days or an electric car that runs for hundreds of miles before needing to be plugged in. Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory are working to make this dream a reality by developing lithium-ion batteries containing silicon-based materials. The most...