Looking for some hot entertainment? Try shorting out a lithium battery. Apparently, exploding laptops are not all that uncommon. Imagine this happening to the hundred pounds of lithium in your plug-in hybrid after a fender-bender.
I have been following the development of a new kind of lithium based battery (nano-phosphate) over the past year that is inherently safe (they won't explode or burn) and of course environmentally friendly (no heavy metals). It can also be recharged ten times more often than other batteries, faster than other batteries, and is designed for high power applications (power tools instead of laptops).
In this post, I had concluded that the technology had arrived along with the needed mass production to drive prices down. I also made the following boast in yet another post:
I am going to put three of these DeWalt power tool batteries in parallel on my bike first chance I get. And I will brag about them every chance I get (unless of course they blow up).
Well, they didn't blow up. I wasn't the only one waiting for these batteries to arrive. The radio control (RC) enthusiasts were also watching. Their forums quickly disseminated pictures of disassembled battery packs. It is cheaper to buy a battery pack on Ebay and tear it apart than to order a developer kit.
I didn't just want a battery pack. I also wanted a new circular saw. My old one was looking pretty sad (having inadvertently sawed through its power cord more than once). This way, the batteries would serve double duty. This double-duty idea has also been proposed for plug-in cars to serve as load balancers for electric grids. I checked out Ebay but opted to buy what I needed locally. The best price on Ebay was for an unopened box being sold by a pawnshop (i.e., stolen property). By the way, I have used the saw already and I highly recommend it.
I managed to mount these batteries on my bike without tearing the packs apart to get at the cells. It works like a charm. Again, I don't recommend trying this unless you are an experienced engineer, mechanic, or tinkerer. Unlike the battery in your car that has one positive and one negative terminal, this battery pack has three terminals as well as a separate three-pin connector. The positive and negative terminals are not even labeled, so, think about it before you spend big bucks trying to jury-rig these to your bike. They will be available for electric bikes soon enough.
So, why I was I willing to spend so much money on these batteries? Four reasons:
- Over the life of the battery, they will end up costing half as much as my lead-acid.
- My present lead-acid battery pack weighs 19.25 pounds. The new one weighs 5.
- I can recharge these batteries in the middle of a long ride in less time than it takes to eat lunch.
- They won't blow up.
Price and reliability have clearly turned the corner. The plug-in car's weak link has been eliminated. I am hoping to be on the wait-list at my nearest Japanese car dealership sometime in the next few years.
Comments
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sunflower Posted 5:28 am
06 Aug 2006
Don't carpool alone.
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amazingdrx Posted 11:35 pm
06 Aug 2006
I knew some of these batteries would "fall off a truck", they fell right onto ebay? Hehey.
http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog
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Laurence Aurbach Posted 8:36 am
07 Aug 2006
A123 Systems features a pretty amazing story about an electric motorcycle. Zero to 60 in 1.9 seconds -- how many gees is that? Also, about the nanoscale particles -- they are bonded to the electrode, are they not? Is there any possibility of a health hazard in that configuration?
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Biodiversivist Posted 6:30 am
08 Aug 2006
It would not surprise me that nanoparticles may turn out to cause a problem. That is what environmentalists are for. Raise the alarm bell and set researchers off on a quest for glory and fame. I am also wondering about the supply of lithium and where it will come from.
Amazingdrx:
These particular cells are only 2.3 amphours each. There are higher power batteries out there but none are as safe, light, rechargeable and inexpensive. You can't have it all I guess. The new packs are 36 volts x 2.3 amphour = 82.8. The old packs were 12 volts x 7 amphour = 84. Also, the voltage does not fall off until the very end of your charge on Lithium, whereas with lead-acid, your voltage drops and drops and you get slower and slower until your motor quits working.
Mr. Aurbach,
I will keep you posted. They really do charge fast, that much I know already.
In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Help acquire and protect ecological hotspots, give to a conservation organization: http://www.saveourbiodiversity.com
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amazingdrx Posted 11:50 pm
08 Aug 2006
Dodge involved in these plugin taxis? It looks like it. But without nanotech (1 to 8 hour charge time). Still the weight is 100 pounds less than the comparable car powered by gasoline.
I'm looking into zinc air batteries d. The low tech do it yourself alternative? Maybe?
I can't afford a nano-tech lithium ion vehicle.
http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog
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amazingdrx Posted 3:16 am
12 Aug 2006
The Gate's foundation faces a giveaway emergency. Will it fund ethanol or renewable electric transportation, so far it's funding ethanol.
A big mass production scale purchase of these nano-tech batteries to be given to car conversion experimenters for demo projects would be a great choice. Any of you Seattlites know a Gates trustee? Hehey.
http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog
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Biodiversivist Posted 4:20 am
12 Aug 2006
In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Help acquire and protect ecological hotspots, give to a conservation organization: http://www.saveourbiodiversity.com
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amazingdrx Posted 11:40 pm
14 Aug 2006
Gate's cash diverted to Intelliegent Design? Nothing intelligent about that d!
But here's one along Dave's new fear series. Fear of lithium ion batteries!
Haaalp!
Your laptop maybe a firebomb. Will terrorists shun liquid explosives in favor of laptops?
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,9075-2313541...
This may rush the introduction of nano tech fire proof lithium batteries? Or will it be the death knell of lithium ion?
http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog
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Biodiversivist Posted 2:12 am
15 Aug 2006
In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Help acquire and protect ecological hotspots, give to a conservation organization: http://www.saveourbiodiversity.com
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amazingdrx Posted 6:54 pm
16 Aug 2006
This NYT article on batteries predicts the death knell for lithium ion and says Altair does not even care to compete with it's safer nano tech batteries. It says methanol fuel cells will win over batteries. Making liquid fuel the choice and that means CO 2.
It's mainly due to safety and energy density. No mention of charge time is made.
Pretty pessimistic.
http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog
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sunflower Posted 1:06 am
17 Aug 2006
We have found that synthesis of nanostructured vanadium nitride and controlled oxidation of the surface at the nanoscale is key to creating the next generation of supercapacitors commonly used in everything from cars, camcorders and lawn mowers to industrial backup power systems at hospitals and airports.
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2006/07/new_nanocrystal.h...
Don't carpool alone.
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Biodiversivist Posted 2:30 am
17 Aug 2006
In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Help acquire and protect ecological hotspots, give to a conservation organization: http://www.saveourbiodiversity.com
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GRLCowan Posted 2:56 am
17 Aug 2006
--- G. R. L. Cowan, former hydrogen fan
Boron: internal combustion of fuel that won't burn
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sunflower Posted 3:22 am
17 Aug 2006
So often I have heard, "If it can be done it would already exist". I am an optimist. I believe in the possible because the impossible can not be proven.
Don't carpool alone.
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sunflower Posted 3:51 am
17 Aug 2006
http://technologyreview.com/read_article.aspx?id=16326&am...
Don't carpool alone.
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amazingdrx Posted 12:43 am
19 Aug 2006
With this fuel cell as a backup generator only 50 miles of storage from the very expensive nano batteries or very heavy conventional batteries would be needed. It could give an electric hybrid vehicle the range of an ICE vehicle with 200+ mpg.
http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog
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Biodiversivist Posted 10:44 am
19 Aug 2006
In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Help acquire and protect ecological hotspots, give to a conservation organization: http://www.saveourbiodiversity.com
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amazingdrx Posted 8:52 am
20 Aug 2006
Liquid fuels are easily stored and supplied to vehicles at gas stations, unlike hydrogen.
If the hot gases from the high temperature fuel cell, are fed into a microturbine the efficiency of the system aproaches 75%, 5 times the efficiency of an ICE. That means 200 mpg is possible in an economy car that normally gets 40 mpg.
Couple that to a car that runs 50 miles on batteries alone, before the fuel cell even starts up, and we might see a drop to 10% of the liquid fuel an iCE powered car uses. Most trips between charging oppurtunities for a quick charge battery electric car are under 50 miles.
Oh BTW, saw Lester brown on CNN yesterday, dissing fuel farming and boosting plugin wind electric powered cars! Nobody does it better.
He said that Brazil supplies 405 of it's motor fuel from sugar based ethanol, but that only equals 3% of US motor fuel consumption. He says it has doubled the price of sugar in brazil, and that ethanol from corn could double corn prices.
He pointed out that this will cause mass starvation in the developing world. The capacity for both food and fuel simply does not exist.
http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog
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Biodiversivist Posted 12:40 pm
20 Aug 2006
In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Help acquire and protect ecological hotspots, give to a conservation organization: http://www.saveourbiodiversity.com
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amazingdrx Posted 10:56 pm
20 Aug 2006
This is interesting. Solar CEO and engineers on the latest thin film solar.
Nano fibers of silicon embedded in plastic might beat solid silicon PV cells. it would take a lot less purified silicon, the choke point in the PV supply chain.
It's based on the new conductive plastics, composed of micro metal fibers embedded in plastic. A company touted by stock slingers (for what that's worth) has this material in testing for everything from cellphone cases that act as their own antennae to car body parts as strong as metal and as light and resilient as plastic.
Supposedly the parts that all the big manufacturers are making are in the test mold stage for replacing regular metal and plastic parts with this new metal/plastic hybrid material.
Better buy a few 100 shares? It's around 5 bucks now, hehey.
http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog
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amazingdrx Posted 11:29 pm
20 Aug 2006
I was wrong, it's hovering around 3 bucks, up from a buck the last 6 months. Stock tout scam or real investment? Not sure.
But if electroplastic replaced metal and regular plastics who knows?
http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog
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sunflower Posted 12:14 am
21 Aug 2006
I advise all to absolutely avoid plastic solar collectors of all types. UV degrades polymers. Stay true with glass, metal, and concrete.
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amazingdrx Posted 2:50 pm
29 Aug 2006
Could it get 400mpg with a solid oxide fuel cell/microturbine instead of this ICE generator? I think so.
http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog
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