Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries charge up in seconds

[Wooski]

Interesting article just up on the BBC News website:

BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | Battery that 'charges in seconds'

This is about an article lifted from Nature magazine:

Lithium batteries charge ahead : Nature News

About new research from 2 researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge.

By changing the chemicals in Lithiun Ion batteries they can get them to charge up much faster and they don't decay as fast.

[TonyPSchaefer]

That would be awesome to be able to recharge the pack on the downhill side of a small hill.

[jayman]

This sounds very promising

[ManualOnly]

This battery technology is promising because it has been extensively produced and proven. Remember the recently launched BYD's F6DM PHEV ?

Lithium iron phosphate battery - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lithium_iron_phosphate_battery

[patsparks]

After seeing the BYD at the Detroit Auto Show I hope the battery is better made than the rest of the car. She's a bit rough mate.

[ManualOnly]

Originally Posted by patsparks

After seeing the BYD at the Detroit Auto Show I hope the battery is better made than the rest of the car. She's a bit rough mate.

Well, no one is saying that first step will always be pretty, especially for 1st timer automaker like the BYD

[halpos4]

Originally Posted by patsparks

After seeing the BYD at the Detroit Auto Show I hope the battery is better made than the rest of the car. She's a bit rough mate.

Don't think BYD Pat,think Prius...with that battery!!

[zcat3]

The problem to be solved, then, is not how fast the battery can take a charge but how fast the charge can be delivered. Even with a 220V connection at 50 amps, you are only talking 11 kWh per hour. So for a full range EV with say a 50 kWh battery, it is still 5 hours to charge (this is essentially the specs for the Tesla). In order to transfer 50 kWh in a few minutes you would need one hell of an electrical connection.

[qbee42]

This would be a breakthrough for house batteries on boats and RVs. Our boat uses a large gel cell lead acid battery to supply power for lights, music, radios, and such. When connected to shore power, the house battery is charged by a 100A smart charger, which, in theory could charge the battery completely in about two and half hours. In practice, of course, it takes much longer.

The problem is the charge curve of normal batteries. The house battery can take 100A for only a very short time while the surface of the plates are recharging. Once the surface is recharged, the chemical process has to penetrate deeper into the plates. The deeper the penetration, the slower the process. This leads to an asymptotic charge curve, where you start with fast charging and taper off to nothing over time.

Left connected to shore power, the asymptotic charge curve is not a problem. Under way, while cruising, it is a pain in the behind. We have a 100A marine alternator on our diesel engine, so once again in theory you could charge the battery fairly quickly, but in practice the charge rate drops with time to a point of diminishing returns. It doesn't make sense to idle a diesel engine for hours trying to get that last bit of charge. In practice, while cruising, you only charge your battery to about 85%. This limits the useful capacity of the battery, forcing you to carry a larger battery.

With one of these new quick-charge batteries you could recharge as fast as available power allows.

Tom

[DaveinOlyWA]

posted this on the "liquid battery" thread.

its a very promising start, although there are technical issues to deal with like how to charge the batteries. even with batteries as small as the ones used in cellphones, its was still drawing 350 amps.

so they need to figure out a way to slow it down or modify it to charge slower. its great that they have potentially eliminated most of the danger issues with Li by virtually eliminating the overheating issues.