BETTER BATTERIES: Improving the energy density of batteries could help electric cars drive further--and help wean the U.S. off oil.
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NATIONAL HARBOR, Md.—Lithium spontaneously combusts in air, yet the battery in your computer—and any of the stacks in the new breed of electric vehicles—is made from it. Lithium even burns in water, which is too bad because a lithium-water battery could be both cheap and powerful. Now battery-maker PolyPlus claims to have created such a battery by encasing the lithium in a special membrane that allows it to pass charge without melting down.
"Lithium is explosive in water," Arun Majumdar, director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy, or ARPA–e, which is funding PolyPlus's development effort, noted at the agency's second annual conference March 1. By ensconcing the lithium inside the membrane's seal, the PolyPlus battery reacts safely with the oxygen dissolved in the water and delivers as much as 1,300 watt-hours per kilogram of electricity. "This is like a fish, but it's a battery."
PolyPlus is just one of several better battery-makers that ARPA–e is funding, all attempting to improve on a standard lithium ion battery's roughly 400 watt-hours per kilogram—the reason why all-electric cars don't have the long-distance range of a traditional automobile. The program—dubbed BEEST, for Batteries for Electrical Energy Storage in Transportation—has funded 10 projects in all, ranging from rechargeable batteries composed entirely of solid materials to high-energy density capacitors. "Just like 'Intel inside', I hope you have BEEST inside your electric cars in the future," Majumdar said.
Reinventing the battery is the only way available today to both reduce oil consumption and bring manufacturing jobs back to the U.S., Secretary of Energy Steven Chu told conference attendees. John Goodenough at The University of Texas at Austin invented the lithium ion battery in use today—but Japanese and Korean companies now produce the most globally. "Just because we lost the lead doesn't mean we can't get it back," Chu said, referencing battery technology from Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois now being licensed by General Motors and LG.
Even in the absence of better batteries, GM and other car companies are putting electric vehicles on the streets in 2011—including both a Chevy Volt and a plug-in Toyota Prius parked on the conference floor here in Maryland. Best Buy's Geek Squad is preparing to roll out a program to help customers install home charging stations, the consumer retail chain's director of emerging business, Chad Bell, told conference attendees. And companies such as Fed Ex are purchasing fleets of electric delivery vans. "The nation's dependence on imported petroleum cannot be sustained over the long term," said FedEx Founder and CEO Fred Smith in a video address to the ARPA–e conference. "The federal government has to fund basic research on new technologies that have significant effects on the country's competitiveness."
PolyPlus's battery may be just that: Dip the encapsulated lithium pack into a glass of ordinary water and it produces current that lights up an LED display at the company's conference showcase booth. And many companies are working on improving today's lithium ion batteries, which will still be around for a long time as price continues to drop, argued Yet-Ming Chiang, chief scientist at battery-maker 24M and formerly of A123. "There is a lot of headroom in lithium ion battery technology," he said.
Ultimately, better batteries—or finding a way to keep lithium from combusting in air, like PolyPlus and the Missouri University of Science and Technology are trying to do—can result in reducing the demand for imported oil that sends $1 billion per day abroad, largely to Canada, Middle Eastern countries and Venezuela. "Our national security is very dependent on energy security," Chu noted. "Energy we create at home is wealth creation at home."
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14 Comments
Add CommentI have a lot of faith in Secretary of Energy Chu, but we all know what GM does with superior technology when they get their hands on it...it disappears, like the hydrogen fuel cell battery did and an inferior technology takes its place. It is like GM wants to keep America addicted to foreign oil for as long as they can by delivering us inferior products and vehicles. After all, it was GM's leadership, I believe, who coined the phrase, "America is addicted to oil."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf we can replace GM's leadership, the company may once again become a believable auto manufacturer...this time in electric cars and electric car batteries. Until that happens, America should not put any faith in GM.
JamesDavis: You should have taken the 1.5 seconds it took me to find that the quote, "America is addicted to oil," is attributed to George W. Bush. I'm sure it is unfair to misquote even those you despise.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhat is the difference in dependence on foreign oil or dependence on foreign lithium?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisLithium is about as abundant as nickel and lead. Are you worried about our dependency on those elements?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhen oil is burned for fuel, it is used up, gone, no longer available for any other use. When lithium is used in batteries it is not consumed. When the batteries are worn out, the lithium is still there, and can be recycled into new batteries. There is really no comparison between oil consumption and the use of lithium in batteries. The two are completely different.
Yet another hurrah story about new battery technology (there was one on this site just a month ago). As I commented then, these come regularly, all with the prospect of a quick-fix if only more money is spent. Better batteries have been the crock at the end of the rainbow for a century, but I don't think in that time there has been anything that could fairly be characterised as a quantum leap.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBut it sure distracts from other, less palatable, options.
Linking battery storage technology to oil dependence is silly. Batteries have nothing to do with oil dependence. So you want to store energy in a battery, great! Where do you get the energy to store? Oil of course at the current time.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisA national solar recharging infrastructure (similar to Israel's) could be done right now. Quick swap or induction type batteries in all models of electric carscould become a standard.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDo a quick web search on solar car canopies. Every state has builders and installers waiting for new solar business. They will do very well using the current battery technology.
For whatever reason, the auto companies seem to want to foot drag on this, maybe because of their ties to the banking and oil industry. They need a reason to sell off their existing obsolete gas guzzlers and millions of associated replacement parts.
A possible upside.... electric bike companies are beginning to advertise a solar recharging canopy along with their product, and some do offer a quick swap battery.
Don't know why I'm post here...but here it goes anyway...GM(USA)..bought out a company that made their NiMH batteries for the first version of the volt and then buried it...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnd this is just lithium!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisALL of the other energy storage tricks like compressed air and pumped hydro... has already been perfected, perhaps a hundred or more years ago (Newtonian physics). Flywheels, the lead acid, you know, we could only get a few percent better (at most) out of them by use of new materials science.
But the battery, it is nowhere close to being perfected... Same with super capacitors!
I think that the LiFEPO4 (which lead researchers name was Mr. Goodenough) is good enough. It is not as energy dense as one would hope, but it does last for thousands of charges (even more if not completely discharged) and requires LESS lithium (than li-ion). Besides, who's the people who say "Only China has the lithium"? We have lots of crustal material to mine too! (I know, westerners {still} charge more than China and them darn pesky enviro's are soooo afraid of a few little pit mines that they border on traitorous!)... After all, the lead acid has proven that "not so superior" tech still has "Thee superior market". If only competing giant corporations would invest in the robotic LiFePO4 factory.
Or do "we" still have time to wait for "Mr. something better has come along"!
Oh, and I wasted all my time to post?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this(try again, but greatly reduced...)
Pumped water and compressed air is (almost) perfectly perfected, due to the understanding of basic physics...
Batteries and super capacitors are not...
Your position doesn't hold up. We don't need quantum leaps. The battery life has been steadily improved over the last few decades. Compare the battery of today with the battery of 30 years ago and you will see a big difference. We don't need to rock the world with a single change. Small incremental changes eventually add up.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYou are narrow minded and ignorant. The main drawbacks to solar and wind energy is the lack of storage ability. If we can store the energy for use in non-producing times then they become much more reliable and more economically viable. This doesn't mean they become truly competitive but the do hold up better.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNiMH batteries were not very cost effective. There isn't some evil conspiracy. GM went with the battery that worked better at a lower price. Too bad they did this after wasting money on the inferior product but there you go.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe only NiMH battery I have any personal experience with was a cordless phone system called cybergenie. We used it for 8+ years and I don't remember a phone dying(because of battery issues) during that time. Also, isn't Nickel cheaper and more abundant than Lithium...
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