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Instant Battery-Recharge Technology May Alter The EV Landscape

 
1,895 views Oct 15, 2009

A REdox Flow Battery Demonstration In The Laboratory

A REdox Flow Battery Demonstration In The Laboratory

The greatest impediment to the general adoption of EV technology has always been physics; an EV battery exhausts it's stored energy far more quickly (thanks to lower energy density) than the fuel-tank of a conventional car, and unlike the ICE vehicle, can't be topped off with a fresh supply in seconds.

Researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology ICT in Germany seem to have shattered at least the second part of this paradigm by making advances in the area of redox flow batteries.

According to engineer Jens Noack of ICT  “These batteries are based on fluid electrolytes. They can therefore be recharged at the gas station in a few minutes – the discharged electrolyte is simply pumped out and replaced with recharged fluid,”.  “The pumped-off electrolyte can be recharged at the gas station, for example...".

Like the battery Swap technology being promoted by Better Place Inc.,  liquid electrolyte replenishing would seem to offer EV's the same effectively unlimited range that internal combustion vehicles enjoy, but would require far less in the way of new infrastructure and  avoid issues of battery ownership and vehicle standardization that may prove hurdles to the Better Place solution.

Redox flow batteries are not a new technology, but until now they have had the disadvantage of storing much less energy than lithium-ion batteries – around 25% the KW/H per unit volume.   According to Noac, however, ICT has now produced a prototype cell with an energy density approximately equivalent to Li Ion.  Further work is now being carried out to assemble multiple such cells into a battery and optimize them.  In cooperation with  The University of Applied Sciences, Ostfalia,  the research team has allready built a traditional redox-flow battery into a 1:5 scale vehicle for testing and public demonstration.  In the coming year they will be building an optimized version of their new battery into a similar vehicle.

[SOURCE: ScienceDaily, Gizmag]





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Comments (3)

  1. By JC Jacquemin Posted: 10/16/2009 12:43am PDT

    Great, if the infrastructure costs are reduced this is an interesting advance which complements the Better place project. But I don't think it replaces it. Battery swapping without having to leave your car is more secure in a lot of urban neighborhoods than going out to replenish your tank. And recharging the car at home or at work is a lot more convenient than wait in a line at a gas station (or a battery swapping station)
    Regards,
    JC NPNS
     
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  2. By lance sjogren Posted: 10/18/2009 10:43am PDT

    Battery swapping faces two alternatives that are getting closer to reality by the day:
    1). Fast-charging Lithium-based batteries using nanotech-engineered electrodes that can withstand huge current flow without degradation.
    2). The approach described in this article- flow batteries.
    I wouldn't be surprised if BOTH of those prove viable.
    On the other hand, if energy density can be improved enough to where EV batteries only way let us say 10 or 20 pounds, then swapping would be a very viable approach as well.
    I sincerely doubt that swapping of batteries that weigh hundreds of pounds every time you need to refuel is going to be a winning approach, though.
    Don't fall in love with any one approach- may the best solution win.
     
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  3. By Aaron Posted: 10/28/2009 3:14pm PDT

    JC - Your really arguing against this by playing on some sort of White Liberal fear of getting out of a car at a gas station in a bad neighborhood? Please, if this works swapping will be a forgotten footnote.
    If costs on these batteries are feasible and range and speed are decent, this kills any kind of swapping schemes dead! (I would say they're dead already, but that's another conversation) Not to mention making any other batteries traditionally used in EVs obsolete.
    Flow batteries, if cheap enough, will become ubiquitous because drivers are used to stopping at stations for more range, and all the gas companies won't lobby against it because they can now get in on it.
     
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