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01 Dec 2009 HEADLINE |
Will Silicon Be the New Lithium?
Source: Mother Nature Network
Class: SYNDICATED NEWS
SYNOPSIS: The current prototype is not rechargeable but can last for thousands of hours.
If it weren't for Bolivia, the electric car industry wouldn't be zipping quite as energetically as it is right now. Lithium carbonate is not an overly abundant mineral and nearly every auto manufacturer is banking on the reserve of lithium that rests quietly in the Bolivian Andes, representing more than one half of the world's supply.
Lithium batteries, while lighter and longer-lasting than then their nickel-cadmium and lead-acid predecessors, are not easily recycled and are prone to problems when they encounter high humidity and heat conditions.
But in one fell swoop, an announcement last week from the Technion-Israel Institute may rather quickly make the lithium-ion battery a thing of the bast.
The joint research project led by 3 scientists professors in 3 continents -- Yair Ein-Eli of Technion, Digby Macdonald of Penn State University, and Rika Hagiwara of Kyoto University -- has yielded a working prototype of the battery which dispenses with the typical heavy, metal-based cathode structure and replaces it with something much lighter... air.
The anode is inexpensive, totally nontoxic and biodegradable -- oxidized silicon. The current prototype is not rechargeable but can last for thousands of hours and according to Ein-Eli, a rechargeable consumer battery may be available within five years.
Car batteries could be as little as ten years away, and these batteries will not have any of the disposal issues of batteries past. Silicon, as Ein-Eli explains, "...will turn into sand that would be recycled into silicon and then into power again."
And cars are just the beginning. A light-weight and inexpensive energy storage system with high energy capacity, could be a perfect companion for intermittent fuel stocks like solar and wind, making renewable energy easy to store an distribute.
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3 comments so far...
26-Jan-2010
80841
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Bill, this is not the direction we should be going ! we need to incorporate"hydrogen" into the overall plan. Hydrogen/electric hybrids will do fine but the new battery technology is needed & will be a far better choice in getting lighter weight as well as greater life. I have always "cut" on hybrids for the simple fact that they still produce carbonmonoxide poison ! But, having an electric motor recharged via hydrogen engine(small)while producing current for hho as well as charging(140-200 amp alt.)This requires a lot of hho for as many HP that we are used to,but will maintain a 10hp engine turning an altenator ! Mix this all together, with all the correct formulation & walla ! By the way, I surffed the address you helped me obtain & found that in order to get a grant, one has to match the amount !! thanx a bunch, dan
Posted by: DAN CASE
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26-Jan-2010
80843
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Also; did u know that the first internal combustion engine was powered by HYDROGEN some 60yrs prior to the invention of gasoline in 1870!!L8r , Dan
Posted by: dan case
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01-Dec-2009
69173
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I was asked recently which battery manufacturers will be the standout players in the next decade and said that I thought the likes of JCS, Panasonic/Sanyo, Sony and maybe BYD would be the dominate players.
Who do you think will be the leaders in the next decade?
Posted by: Bill Moore
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