Hybrid battery 'breakthrough'

[bredekamp]

A local inventor here in Somerset West in South Africa where I live, has come up with a novel new battery. More free energy or real science?

Go read:

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&am...03543620C112306

By the way ESKOM is our utility supplier and UCT is the University of Cape Town.

Please comment.

[cireecnop1]

very cool, hopefully they don't drag their feet in commercializing this.

[qbee42]

"When you use electricity, you need pressure from the source, which is called electro motor force or EMF. With my battery, I need less EMF, so that is where the 27 percent saving comes in," he explains.
[/b]

It is electro motive force, not elecro motor force. That could be a miss-quote on the part of the paper. Anyway, as to the real value of the claim, this article presents absolutely no information, so as an electrical engineer I can't evaluate the claims. They only hint at two items. Lowered internal resistance is always a good thing for a battery, so if he has a new form that helps that, it could be good. Charging and discharging at the same time sounds dubious. Why go through the energy losses of electrical to chemical back to electrical again when you already have electrical energy in the first place? Maybe it's giving him a voltage level change, but I suspect an good inverter would be more efficient if that were the case.

My guess, without more information, is snake oil.

Tom

[SunnyvalePrius]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(qbee42 @ Mar 12 2007, 06:04 AM) [snapback]404156[/snapback]</div>

It is electro motive force, not elecro motor force. That could be a miss-quote on the part of the paper. Anyway, as to the real value of the claim, this article presents absolutely no information, so as an electrical engineer I can't evaluate the claims. They only hint at two items. Lowered internal resistance is always a good thing for a battery, so if he has a new form that helps that, it could be good. Charging and discharging at the same time sounds dubious. Why go through the energy losses of electrical to chemical back to electrical again when you already have electrical energy in the first place? Maybe it's giving him a voltage level change, but I suspect an good inverter would be more efficient if that were the case.

My guess, without more information, is snake oil.

Tom
[/b]

Snake oil is my guess, too.

While having less energy loss in a battery is better, that is not really the limiting factor for current battery technology. The limiting factors currently are cost, longevity (how long before it has to be replaced, either in terms of discharge cycles or calendar time), energy storage per unit weight, and maximum rate of charge or discharge. There is nothing in this article to indicate this new battery technology helps with any of these factors.

[jayman]

I did a web search and there really isn't solid information on this claim. I cannot comment.

[keydiver]

Every link I can find is the same exact article, just reprinted, no additional links or info. <_<

[bobeast]

The tell for this article is the mystic mumbo-jumbo about charging and discharging at the same time. Think of it in terms of a bathtub. If I pull the drain plug and turn on the faucet at the same time, I don't suddenly get free water. I can still never get out more than I put in. The corollary is that the bathtub merely holds the water. It does not create it.

Batteries are much the same in that they are just containers, although in actuality you get out LESS than you put in because of heat losses, resistence, chemical inefficiencies, etc.

[John in LB]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(qbee42 @ Mar 12 2007, 06:04 AM) [snapback]404156[/snapback]</div>

It is electro motive force, not elecro motor force. That could be a miss-quote on the part of the paper. Anyway, as to the real value of the claim, this article presents absolutely no information, so as an electrical engineer I can't evaluate the claims. They only hint at two items. Lowered internal resistance is always a good thing for a battery, so if he has a new form that helps that, it could be good. Charging and discharging at the same time sounds dubious. Why go through the energy losses of electrical to chemical back to electrical again when you already have electrical energy in the first place? Maybe it's giving him a voltage level change, but I suspect an good inverter would be more efficient if that were the case.

My guess, without more information, is snake oil.

Tom
[/b]

I concur - snake oil