Group Demonstrates 3,000 Km Electric Car Battery 363
Jabrwock (985861) writes 'One of the biggest limitations on lithium battery-powered electric cars has been their range. Last year Israeli-based Phinergy introduced an "aluminum-air" battery. Today, partnering with Alcoa Canada, they announced a demo of the battery, which is charged up at Alcoa's aluminum smelter in Quebec. The plant uses hydro-electric power to charge up the battery, which would then need a tap-water refill every few months, and a swap (ideally at a local dealership) every 3,000km, since it cannot be recharged as simply as Lithium. The battery is meant to boost the range of standard electric cars, which would still use the Lithium batteries for short-range trips. The battery would add about 100 kg to an existing Tesla car's battery weight.'
Hm.... (Score:2)
Re:Hm.... (Score:4, Funny)
The car grinding to a halt would be a pretty efficient warning.
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So, we have a hot battery venting hydrogen through its air intakes.
What makes you think that you're the only person who ever thought of hydrogen venting? This is a solved problem even on car batteries. Hydrogen vents, and nobody cares. Maybe they'll need an explicit vent system. Oh noes!!1!1!!
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If your car battery is venting hydrogen, you're already fucked on a different scale. The vent is to prevent violent explosions in one form (over-pressure) but raises the risk of a hydrogen fire. The trade off is worth it, but the solution is to prevent the battery from going to the point of venting.
Once you've caused hydrogen generation you're well on your way to destroying the battery anyway.
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If your car battery is venting hydrogen, you're already fucked on a different scale.
It is normal for car batteries to vent a small amount of hydrogen during "normal" operation. Modern alternators put out over 14.5 volts in most cases, while older ones and generators typically put out less than 14, sometimes barely over 13. This permits quicker charging, but also leads to overcharging which causes offgassing.
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Most modern batteries have a catalyst to convert the hydrogen and oxygen back into water.
You are completely correct. They "lose water" at a reduced rate because they are capable of taking oxygen from the air. However, the process is lossy over time as it causes sulfation, which is the process during which the hydrogen is released. The sulfates raise the internal resistance of the battery, which reduces both its charge capacity and its charge rate. The degradation happens unevenly, so the batteries tend to discharge (and charge) unevenly, reducing their lifespan.
It's probably best for forego tra
Re:Hm.... (Score:5, Insightful)
The "extremely nasty" chemicals in the battery are aluminum and oxygen. Solid aluminum metal will yield 8kWh of electricity per kilogram of aluminum mass when reacted with oxygen. When aluminum first became an affordable material it was referred to as "solidified electricity" because of how much electricity the Bayer process consumed to refine bauxite. Also, the aluminum is basically consumed by being transformed back into aluminum oxide. But, if you run the alumina back through the Bayer process you get aluminum metal again. Pretty much a closed cycle.
It's a real issue. (Score:5, Interesting)
I have an antique electric tractor. [wikipedia.org] It's 41 years old and runs great, with almost zero maintenance; it uses about 20 cents worth of electricity to mow an acre of grass. If I replace the motor brushes every 30 years, and periodically wash out and maintain the corrosion-prone battery compartment, it will last forever.
But the achilles heel of these machines is battery maintenance, which consists of watering the big lead acid batteries and properly charging them. There are no mysteries in this process, and no great difficulties - you just have to remember to do it, and the batteries simply will not forgive forgetfulness. Properly cared for batteries can easily last twelve years, but it's very common for people to ruin a $600+ set of batteries in two years or less, simply from a lack of mindfulness. That changes the economics of it, which are heavily front-loaded. If your batteries last ten years, the tractor is much cheaper to own and operate than a gasser, but if you destroy your pack in two years, you waste that huge upfront battery investment and take a financial beating.
The Toyota Prius's NiMH battery packs were designed with this human reality in mind; the intelligent battery management electronics are the key to that car's success. Tesla took it one step further; they not only have intelligent battery management that does not require functioning user brain cells, they also built a high cell count charging system that allows rapid charging without compromising battery capacities.
Depending on humans to do battery maintenance doesn't work, in practice, except in the case of engineering geeks who are not even slightly behaviorally representative of the species as a whole.
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Excellent points about battery care. Thanks for sharing.
Re:It's a real issue. (Score:5, Funny)
I'm glad that internal combustion engines don't have any kind of fluids that you need to change every few thousand miles then. Just imagine how impossible a situation that would be, especially if failing to change them could actually damage or destroy the engine! Better to stick with the tried and true.
In unrelated news I saw another "jiffy lube" going up down the street from my office. When will the homosexual agenda cease their corruption of young minds?
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Even the Optima batteries, while better than many other batteries, still do not like to be overcharged.
The battery in one of my older cars lasted 10 years, I think because every couple of months I would run a desulfate operation on it with a smart battery charger. I wish they would build that technology in to car charging systems since it only cost pennies and can greatly extend the life.
After I got my Tesla I put the 12v battery in my Prius (an Optima replacement for the OEM when the OEM died) on a battery
Re:Hm.... (Score:4)
That's a small detail. If it can use tap water, it can also use water from the condenser coil or filtered rainwater collection. Or they could just add a small reservoir (similar to the windshield wiper fluid reservoir) which gets topped off when they change the battery.
Or they could just fill it up with the "amazing, mileage extending super water" which would be sure to hit the shelves soon after these batteries are released.
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Or they could just fill it up with the "amazing, mileage extending super water" which would be sure to hit the shelves soon after these batteries are released.
Don't give Monster Cable any business ideas...
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I wonder whether anyone will remember doing this sort of maintenance (filling the tap water part) without some sort of big warning or display somewhere.
I wonder if anyone will remember changing oil as a sort of maintenance without some sort of big warning or display somewhere. #thestupiditburns
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Pretty much every car these days has an aluminum engine block (and cylinder heads). No one uses cast iron blocks any more, except possibly some truck diesel engines and even that's unlikely. In addition, aluminum suspension arms are pretty common too, as well as aluminum wheels. I'd say there probably aren't any new cars now that have less than 100kg (220 lb.) of aluminum in total.
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haha. they call if "charging the battery" (Score:5, Informative)
Re:haha. they call if "charging the battery" (Score:4, Interesting)
Battery trailers make more sense than swapping, IMO.
Re:haha. they call if "charging the battery" (Score:5, Insightful)
It'll be pretty damn efficient at putting a lot of money into the hands of the dealerships where you have to switch those batteries out, though.
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So, how long does it usually take you to rack up that mileage?
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On one hand, that's only a little less than 1/2 of a typical oil change interval. On the other hand, the actual oil change is eliminated, and swapping this sucker in should be a lot easier than actually doing an oil change. For one thing, they won't be leaving off your drain plug.
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On one hand, that's only a little less than 1/2 of a typical oil change interval. On the other hand, the actual oil change is eliminated, and swapping this sucker in should be a lot easier than actually doing an oil change. For one thing, they won't be leaving off your drain plug.
FYI... "Typical Oil Changes" are no longer 3,000 miles but twice that. Newer cars generally suggest 7,500 miles or more and you can go longer in that older car too because the oil being used has improved. The 3,000 mile interval was born in the days when oil filters where optional equipment and motor oil broke down faster. Now days, you are wasting money and oil if you do this more than every 6,000 miles. Save the cash and the environment.
Link: http://www.edmunds.com/car-car... [edmunds.com]
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FYI... "Typical Oil Changes" are no longer 3,000 miles but twice that.
If you wait longer than 5,000 miles you're a boob.
Even if my owner's manual says 7,500 miles? Unless you have a really warn out engine, feel free to wait to 6,000 miles, no matter what you are driving, just be careful to check the oil and keep it full. You MIGHT have a case for 3,000 miles if you own a '56 Chevy w/o an oil filter, but for any water cooled car since the middle of the 60's when oil filters became standard equipment you are good at 6,000 miles.
Now if you have been running non-detergent oil for some reason (and I seriously don't know why y
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Sure in an old car, not in a newer one. Most new cars recommend greater then 6k miles.
Ask someone who is working in the trade and they will always tell you different. If you're not having oil analysis done, don't trust any of that shit. Replace oil at 5k and trans oil at 15k regardless of manufacturer's suggestions. The incredibly long intervals are always lies. GM Dex-cool coolant is supposed to last five years, it's a damned lie. Audi wants you to believe you will never have to change the fluid in the trans in the A8, that's an outrageous lie that can cost you thousands. And the companies
Re:haha. they call if "charging the battery" (Score:4, Interesting)
The average car in the US travels approximately 20,000 miles/year. It's generally what they base warranties on and other things like leases .Some drive more, some drive less, but 20,000 average has held up for a long time now. (When you see those "160,000 mile/8 year power train warranty" - guess what!)
A battery that gets you 1800 miles per change would therefore require 11 changes a year, or just over a month's average driving.
You better hope that they have a regular battery in there and use the primary cell (yes, it's not recharging) as a range extender for those few trips that exceed the secondary cell capacity.
In this case, it'll be slightly better than those cars like the BMW and Volt that are primarily electric but tow a gas generator with them to offer extended range operations. This one keeps the existing simple low-maintenance electric drivetrain without having to add all the gas engine support components to the car.
Re:haha. they call if "charging the battery" (Score:4, Insightful)
The average car in the US travels approximately 20,000 miles/year.
The 20k/year warranty isn't due to the average, it's to catch like 90% of people. The average is more like 12k [ornl.gov] - light duty trucks(pickups) average closer to 15k [epa.gov].
1800 miles per charge is 7 swaps, or about every other month.
If you keep even a 25 mile liIon battery in it though it'd become an annual swap for most people.
Range extender (Score:3)
You better hope that they have a regular battery in there and use the primary cell (yes, it's not recharging) as a range extender for those few trips that exceed the secondary cell capacity.
In this case, it'll be slightly better than those cars like the BMW and Volt that are primarily electric but tow a gas generator with them to offer extended range operations. This one keeps the existing simple low-maintenance electric drivetrain without having to add all the gas engine support components to the car.
Well that's exactly what TFA says:
car runs on the lithium battery.
when doing short trips like comuting between home and work ( typical everyday trips are 50 km according to TFA ) you simply run of the battery and recharge it at home/at work.
when doing long road trip, instead of stoping at a fast charging station, the alumium kicks in and is used to top the regular lithium battery.
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No, you would use the AL battery to the Mississippi River, then change it for another one.
Of course, YMMV.
Re: haha. they call if "charging the battery" (Score:2, Informative)
"Charging aluminum" consumes a LOT of heat + carbon (anode burning) + fluorine (escape from electrolyte). It's not just clean hydro-electricity.
Re:haha. they call if "charging the battery" (Score:5, Insightful)
Its hard to see how the energy cycle makes sense. Melting down the aluminum to reform a "charged" battery does not seem intuitively efficient. Even if the process is powered from beautiful clean hydro.
Battery trailers make more sense than swapping, IMO.
It appears to be based on the oxidation of the Aluminum.
The energy is released via a chemical reaction that draws oxygen from the air and uses water fed into the car by the user to turn the aluminum into alumina (similar to the reaction that turns iron into rust)
So using the battery literally destroys it. The aluminum is all still there. So it's not rechargeable at all. It's disposable. They recycle it at the smelter, they don't recharge it. I suspect it will be treated like other car parts and there will be a core charge that you get back for swapping your old battery in.
I've no idea how efficient the process is, that would really be the key question.
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I've no idea how efficient the process is, that would really be the key question.
Which was basically the question I implied. Then you rambled on about peripheral stuff, and re-asked.
Re:haha. they call if "charging the battery" (Score:5, Informative)
So what do you think bauxite (aluminum ore) is? It's a mixture of aluminum hydroxides and aluminum oxide hydroxides, with iron oxides, clay, and titanium dioxide as contaminants. Essentially the discharged battery will yield an unusually pure form of bauxite.
Recycling ALUMINUM is just melting scrap aluminum metal so it can be refabricated into new aluminum products. As such, yes, it is arelatively low energy process.
Electrolyzing BAUXITE into aluminum, on the other hand, is extremely energy intensive. Changing bauxite (aluminum+oxygen+hydrogen) into separate components is quite like changine water (hydrogen+oxugen) into separate components. In each case, the elements "want" to be combined. Separating them requires vast amounts of electrioc energy.
Re:haha. they call if "charging the battery" (Score:5, Interesting)
Bauxite, an aluminium ore, is the world's main source of aluminium. It consists mostly of the minerals gibbsite Al(OH)3, boehmite γ-AlO(OH) and diaspore α-AlO(OH), mixed with the two iron oxides goethite and haematite, the clay mineral kaolinite and small amounts of anatase TiO2.
Approximately 70% to 80% of the world's dry bauxite production is processed first into alumina, and then into aluminium by electrolysis as of 2010
Usually, bauxite ore is heated in a pressure vessel along with a sodium hydroxide solution at a temperature of 150 to 200 C. At these temperatures, the aluminium is dissolved as an aluminate (the Bayer process). After separation of ferruginous residue (red mud) by filtering, pure gibbsite is precipitated when the liquid is cooled, and then seeded with fine-grained aluminium hydroxide. The gibbsite is usually converted into aluminium oxide, Al2O3, by heating. This mineral is dissolved at a temperature of about 960 C in molten cryolite. Next, this molten substance can yield metallic aluminium by passing an electric current through it in the process of electrolysis, which is called the Hall-Heroult process
extremely energy intensive (Score:3)
Converting Aluminium Oxide to Aluminium is energy intensive, but it does not contribute to greenhouse gasses. The power for the smelter is supplied by hydro dams.
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The power for the smelter is supplied by hydro dams.
Is this for a newly constructed dam? Is there water available that would otherwise NOT be used to generate electricity?
I'm not taking a position on the power-neutrality of these batteries, but would like to point out that one of the real-world problems with all of our electrical power plants is that they are very difficult to load-balance. If we could set up an "on-demand" aluminum re-smelter which operates only when grid-demand for electricity drops, the power plant could be run at a steady level 24/7.
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If we could set up an "on-demand" aluminum re-smelter which operates only when grid-demand for electricity drops, the power plant could be run at a steady level 24/7.
That's a big 'could'. There's substantial energy penalties for turning them off.
Personally, I'm sort of hoping that EV batteries that are operational but too worn out for their original purpose(so holding 40-70% of original charge) are repurposed into standby/grid evening batteries. At a couple dozen kWh per pop, 1 battery per couple households would be enough to completely normalize electricity use.
Re:haha. they call if "charging the battery" (Score:5, Insightful)
What I'm wondering is why I want to carry around 2 months worth of fuel in my car and be sitting on top of that amount of potential energy in a crash?
Maybe because of the unlikelihood that all of that energy would be released rapidly enough to cause a safety concern?
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Well, how inefficient does the process have to be before it doesn't make sense? Transportation generally is a high value use of energy and this battery pack would fill an important niche, enabling electric cars to travel more than a few hundred miles a day.
This not just a niche, range is a key element to electric car mass adoption. Efficiency is proportional to cost. Cost matters.
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Re:haha. they call if "charging the battery" (Score:5, Interesting)
That's why you buy an EV whose primary, high-efficiency range is >= your normal daily usage. You add one of these just so that that isn't a hard limit - no need to worry about running out of charge a few miles from home because you ran a lot more errands than usual. Even if it cost 10x as much per Watt-hour as a primary battery charge that only mean only that, in the rare case when you exceed the range of the primary battery, your mileage costs increase 10x. Something to keep in mind, but if you only use the backup for a few % of your total mileage it won't significantly alter your operating costs.
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It makes about as much sense as other primary (i.e., nonrechargeable) batteries: alkaline AAs, lithium coin cells, and the like. Depending on where you live, those may or may not be readily recycled. In most of the United States, for instance, they end up in landfills. Too bad, too, there's a decent amount of refined metals (manganese, nickel, steel, lithium, etc.) in those things that could be recovered. I guess we'll just leave them as a buried resourc
Re:haha. they call if "charging the battery" (Score:5, Interesting)
Smelting aluminum has actually gotten pretty efficient - despite the ore being relatively cheap there was a time it was more valuable than gold (hence the cap on the Washington Monument), and even today it's one of the most expensive common metals. Any improvement in smelting has great profit potential, so there's been a lot of advances aimed at improving the efficiency over the last century. The enormous energy inputs are getting pretty close to the minimums required to de-oxidize the aluminum (melting is incidental, and the thermal energy can mostly be recycled). There's a reason aluminum is nicknamed "solid electricity".
So the real question is how efficient the battery is at extracting energy from the oxidizing the aluminum. I too would like to know the actual numbers, but if it's capable of supplying power to a car without needing a large dedicated cooling system then that's pretty promising. And of course this is intended as an *auxiliary* power system only intended for use when the range of the primary batteries has been exceeded, so a much lower efficiency is acceptable - it exists primarily so that you never have to worry about being not quite able to make it home / to a charging station, though I could see it being nice for long road trips as well.
Given the inability to recharge them though, I do think I'd want 2+ batteries in the car, to be drained (and replaced) sequentially. I don't want my "emergency tank" anywhere near empty, but it's wasteful to recycle it while it's still 20% charged. So let me drain one completely while the next is still fully charged. Assuming I'm mostly driving on the primaries that also gives me a nice big time buffer as to when I replace the drained battery.
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So, the question is, how many KWh of energy does it take to smelt, reclaim, and re-form the battery (or whatever the process order is)? That's simplified and ignores other inputs like added material, but it is a starting point. For starters, does anybody have an idea what melting 100Kg of aluminum requires? It would be interesting to see.
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It is $240 ish dollars to buy 100kg of billet aluminium so less then $240 dollars worth of electricity to make that (and lots of that will come from ore not recycled aluminium)
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http://www.world-aluminium.org/statistics/primary-aluminium-smelting-energy-intensity/
Efficiency varies around the world between 13000-16000 kWh per 1000kg of aluminium.
Assuming the entire quoted weight of 100kg is aluminium (which according to the article the batteries are "made mostly of aluminium"), that's at best 50% efficient assuming your ballpark estimate of 600 kWh. Compared to an internal combustion engine that's not too shabby.
However, I feel like a demonstration
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Quick and dirty math tells me one of these batteries has on the order of 600KWh of energy to deliver to the car (to drive the distance claimed).
So, the question is, how many KWh of energy does it take to smelt, reclaim, and re-form the battery (or whatever the process order is)? That's simplified and ignores other inputs like added material, but it is a starting point. For starters, does anybody have an idea what melting 100Kg of aluminum requires? It would be interesting to see.
Well, aluminium on the US commodities market currently sells for around $0.81/pound so the maximum cost for refining 100 Kg of aluminum from bauxite is $178. Refining from alumina (the waste product of this battery) is presumably cheaper because it removes all the refining steps in the process before electrolysis.
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Re:haha. they call if "charging the battery" (Score:5, Funny)
I've learned quite a bit about smelting from playing Elder Scrolls Online. And so I feel qualified to say that smelting is actually very straightforward. Just go to a blacksmith station, open up your refine menu and add your ore, press the refine key, and you're done!
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There's a reason they nickname aluminum "solid electricity" - the cost of aluminum almost entirely reflects the energy needed to refine it, the costs of mining and shipping the ore are tiny in comparison. And that energy mostly remains in the chemical structure, ripe for the plucking by a battery such as this. Consider - the average car battery weighs ~40 pounds, more than half of which is relatively low-value lead, and it's sill cost effective to ship the sucker away for recycling. And smelter capacity c
Automatic swap (Score:2)
Re: Automatic swap (Score:2)
I'm all for standards, but I don't think battery shape, size, and placement for a car is a good thing to standardize. Too limiting for design I'd predict.
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If it's a 15 minute change out at any garage with a lift, it's a potential alternative to renting a car for a long trip.
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Or ditch batteries altogether and fill a tank of hydrogen and run the electric car off a fuel cell.
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Do you have any idea how big of a fuel cell you would need to run a car? Forget the issues with hydrogen, why would you want to convert to electric then to mechanical motion? Yea it's more efficient use of the hydrogen but it's also a ton of weight and volume.
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Unless your primary is considerably cheaper or more convenient than the backup - like say it were conveniently rechargeable from any power outlet instead of needing to replace a large battery.
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Exactly since when have auto manufacturers standardized on anything? Go to AutoZone. Look at the oil filters. There are literally dozens, and that's a pretty common part. Hell, there's not even such a thing as a standard oil. Manufacturers have _never_ created a standard part, everything is unique by brand and model, and I just don't see this being any different. Exactly how large a battery are we talking here? Maybe, if the range was 5000km, it might be useful, because that's about the range of a se
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Exactly since when have auto manufacturers standardized on anything? Go to AutoZone. Look at the oil filters. There are literally dozens, and that's a pretty common part. Hell, there's not even such a thing as a standard oil. Manufacturers have _never_ created a standard part, everything is unique by brand and model, and I just don't see this being any different. Exactly how large a battery are we talking here? Maybe, if the range was 5000km, it might be useful, because that's about the range of a severe-duty oil change interval, but I guarantee that it won't be as cheap as an oil change.
Auto manufacturers standardize when they are required to. A much better analogy would be the fuel fill port on a gasoline car. Although there are a number of different fuel door and cap designs, the design of the actual fuel fill port is the same on all unleaded-powered cars. The design of the pump nozzles that fill them is also standardized.
Swappable batteries make a lot of sense, especially if they are modular. Smaller cars could have 2 modules (with a bay for a third for longer trips), SUVs/trucks co
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Public transport (Score:3)
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If vehicles can be charged every night, it is less likely they would this technology to start with. For public transportation, its easy to plan around range.
I could see some military applications, where they want a long range electric vehicle for certain types of missions, ready to go without a gas supply. Cost is usually less of a factor that functionality for these applications.
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Not ideal (Score:2)
At 3000km, that's shorter than even a severe-duty oil change interval. One long trip and it's done. Seriously, say I wanted to drive from Dallas to Las Vegas; the battery lasts just long enough to get me there in one shot. Sure, the rechargable pack lasts long enough for the short drives once I'm there, but the return trip is going to suck with the repeated stops for recharging, especially with the lack of SuperCharger stations along the way. So by the end of 2015 I'll be able to make it, according to Te
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Dallas to Las Vegas would require about two thirds of the battery.
A battery that the user can't recharge themselves (Score:2)
and needs swapping and "charging" in a factory sounds very much like a non-rechargeable battery.
With that concept, you could very easily have electric cars powered with a very large number of alcaline batteries, and "charging stations" in which you change the alcaline batteries.
This is a great idea (Score:2)
I bet a lot of potential EV owners are put off range anxiety - that idea that every once in a while they'll have to do a really long trip and they can't because the battery won't take them far enough and will take hours to recharge. Probably the rest of the time they only need the batt
And how do we recycle (Score:2)
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They are recycled. That's a main part of the plan. When you have a new one installed the old one is send back to the factory.
Aluminium-air batteries aren't all that toxic. The main problem is that they are single use only. However, for the once or twice a year 300+ km trip that is not a problem. You add them to your current car if you have a longer trip that the normal battery can't do.
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All these toxic batteries we are creating?
If you are finding batteries to be toxic, please allow me to humbly suggest that you stop eating them.
Aluminum cycle fuel cell? (Score:2)
Wasn't there some professor who had mostly perfected a fuel cell based on some kind of aluminum cycle?
'Carbon footprint'? (Score:2)
OK, let's put that aside for a moment. The real questions are:
1) What is the estimated, large-scale, ultimate carbon footprint of using this battery technology? Is it better or worse than Li+ technologies? If it's about the same or worse then m
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you need to read the article again (or for the first time) because what you are saying is complete shit, i never read it as that nor did most of the posters. its an additional battery, one-use only and gets swapped out for a replacement. I wont even bother reading the rest of your luddite post
Supplement instead of replace (Score:2)
What if an electric car would have a space for this battery and a driver would only install this type of battery when going on a long drive (i.e., supplement the existing Li battery infrastructure instead of replacing it)??? That way you would have the best of both worlds, quick charging lithium batteries for short trips and alum. battery for long trips. Yes, the downside is more space reserved for batteries instead of cargo, but I think I would be willing to work with that... I can easily see installing
How much would swapping cost? (Score:2)
Works Too Well (Score:2)
So 15000 km if you replaced a model s battery pack (Score:3)
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Isreal wish to strategically extract themselves (and everyone else) from oil dependence for obvious reasons. The US government (read: energy companies) does not have the same goal.
Getting better (Score:2)
I wouldn't call a disposable aluminum battery the "cutting edge" of technology.
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Well, the technology is getting better, but it's still not there. And why does tiny little war torn israel always seem to have cutting edge technology but we can't make OR EVEN BUY the technology here in the U.S.?
Maybe the billions of dollars that the US gives them has something to do with it?
Re:3000km is not a lot in the U.S. . . . . (Score:5, Funny)
PAH! 3000km! 3000 schkilometers I say! Not to menschion we don't even have any kilometers in the US anyway.
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I'm wondering who would really bother with it though. 260 miles from a Tesla battery and 50 minute charge time covers 99% of use cases, and is going to be much more convenient than going to a dealer to have the battery replaced every every 3000 miles.
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Re:3000km is not a lot in the U.S. . . . . (Score:4, Informative)
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It's an add-on to a pure-electric car to extend the range. The Nissan Leaf, for example, is rated at at least 120km/charge. So, in theory you'd never actually draw on this magic battery for your daily driving. It'd only be if you had longer trips or weren't able to plug in one night, etc.
The average commute in North America
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Read the Article! (Score:5, Interesting)
When I worked in one inner suburb of a medium-sized city, and lived in another, I commuted about 50km each way, 100km in total, and hence 3000km over the course of a little over a month.
I know it is Slashdot and the summary is misleading about it "adding 100kg over a Tesla battery" but if you actually read the article you would learn that the idea is not to replace the existing Li-ion battery but to have this as well as a reserve. As you point out most people only drive short trips for which a Li-ion battery is well suited. This is just to provide a power for long distance driving.
However, depending on the cost, since this battery is only 100 kg and the current Tesla battery is 500kg you could imagine completely replacing the Li-ion battery with five of these and having a 15,000 km range which would probably do most people for the best part of a year. This would only work if it is cheap to replace compared to the cost of a Li-ion battery which lasts for 100,000 km and costs $30k. So assuming the cost of electricity to recharge the Li-ion palances with the installation costs of the multiple aluminium battery packs you would require, the cost per aluminium battery would need to be $900. The cost of 100 kg of aluminium (which seems to be the principle component) is $180 for 100 kg so this does not rule out such a price.
Sadly the killer for this, and all electric cars, is that assuming an internal combustion car uses 6l/100km of petrol the price of petrol would need to reach $5/litre before it became more expensive than the cost of battery or about a factor 4 higher than it currently is in Canada. Still give it a few more years of declining battery costs and increasing oil prices and we will finally be there!
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When I worked in one inner suburb of a medium-sized city, and lived in another, I commuted about 50km each way, 100km in total, and hence 3000km over the course of a little over a month. Commutes 3-4 times that long are not unheard of in larger cities. But for me, would have meant a battery swap about 10 times a year. I don't know how long the swap should take, but I do know I would not have time to visit a dealer - the closest being about a half hour away - anywhere near that frequently, even if it were a short and painless process.
They aren't talking about this battery being the primary power source, but supplementing the lithium batteries to extend the range. While the lithium batteries can be recharged, these batteries are consumed in the process and have to be reprocessed. So, If your lithium batteries get you 95km each day, then you would only use 5km from the aluminum battery.
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Horses are largely self maintaining, throw a bail of hay out or give them a pasture and water you're good most of the time. Of course there's usual vet visits and horse shoes etc. but A horse doesn't need a set of shoes every month. They also have limited range and emissions problems. Also when they truly come to end of life, it takes a lot of effort to clean up the mess.
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Unsigh!
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Wrong. It is 1600km for the battery fitted to the car in question, it is 3000km for 100kg of battery. They did not specify the size of battery fitted to the car that had it's range extended by 1600km but a bit of mathematics suggests around 54kg. Your reading comprehension is really rather poor.
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