Move Over Li-Ion, Carbon-Carbon's On It's Way

Imagine recharging the Leaf in 12 minutes.


iPad ? HD

 

That's pretty impressive. Most of the new "breakthroughs" are so complex and costly that they rarely make it out of the lab. This has potential.

 

What is interesting is the ability to embed ions in a carbon matrix without forming inert, non-reactive compounds and not suffering a mechanical change that degrades the electrodes. Mechanical changes can lead to the new compound flaking off particles that lose electrical connectivity to the terminal electrode material.

One good thing, Chevron/Koch/Exxon is not likely to buy the patent and sit on it.

Bob Wilson

 

I'm holding out just to imagine any of the new/great chemistries making it into production. I couldn't find that in the article.

btw, the leaf's 21kWh traction pack will rise 20-25 degrees f. during a 25 minute charge starting at 50kW's. What kind of heat gets generated in a 12 minute refill.

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I don't usually talk about "new" battery anything. As 2k1Toaster has said, most of the "breakthroughs" are costly and complex, if not based on just papers from universities. This company already has a partner/customer and is already planning a production test run by the end of this year.

At 4v per cell, I wonder who their customer is? Especially one that is pushing them towards the EV industry. That to me is the intriguing part.

Of course you and I both know it would take one heck of a lot of electricity to pump the battery that fast. More than likely out of any homeowner's range, unless they live within a hundred feet of a transfer station.

 

Heat is the mirror image of charging efficiency. 'Almost no heat' is like saying 'Almost free energy.' This battery company is looking for angel investors. My experience of companies with truly breakthrough technology is that they are not advertised in the media at this stage.

 

Any guarantees of that?

 

Let's see the patents bob is probably talking about were developed with US government money from USCAR, which specifically allowed collusion (but didn't). Now GM bought Ovonics, then changed management, that crushed the cars with ovonics batteries, and sold it to Texaco, which merged with Chevron, which blocked use of the patents that the tax payer had helped subsidize. What did the government do? It gave GM and Chevron more money, instead of suing.

Now none of those laws have changed. The koch brothers probably would never be sold a company like that. Exxon, it doesn't sound like their MO. Chevron and GM are still around, and Toyota seems to not want plug-ins. ....

Nope it could happen again. The good thing is there are lots of chemistries coming out of argon labs, and they are getting licensed to numerous battery vendors.

 

Predicting the future is a lost cause. Evaluating the claims is worth some effort. Here are some points:
1) This not an announcement of a new battery chemistry, but a new manufacturing process. The difference is significant.
2) Japan was experimenting with a really exotic rechargable battery chemistry called lithium-ion many years ago. It did not take off right away and had some real safety problems.

 

Odds are unlikely that this could be in cars in less than a decade, but its one possible chemistry. That giga factory will make cheaper lithium batteries that are higher in capacity.

On the heat, say you have a 50kwh pack and charge it in 12 minutes or an hour the amount of heat is the same, say 7% losses to heat we get 3.5 kwh of heat or around 3000 K Calories or enough heat to heat 3000 liters of water 1 degree C. I think if you are going to cool that fans won't be enough, you want liquid cooling not air, whether its lithium or carbon carbon, it doesn't matter. Now if carbon carbon works, you can probably do faster charging rates because it won't blow up just get hot if you charge it too fast.

 

think of the impact on houses. solar panels + carbon batteries + LED lighting

 

Well according to Power Japan Plus web site they are licensing their tech to all comers. Smart. This will bring in more long term money than having their patents being bought outright. Plus it's a Japanese based corporation and university that have dual patents on it.

Odd how the 18650 cell they are producing is the same as what Tesla uses for their battery?

 

probably no impact on solar panels + LED lighting. The grid is the typical battery in that application. Low battery prices might allow battery back up + peak shaving in a smart grid application. They are experimenting with this at muller which also is part of plug-in car charging data collection.

 

Looks like Power Japan Plus has chosen a fast track for final development. Racing gets lots of attention.