New start-up's battery may triple EV range

[dali71]

And we are building new ones that are coming online all the time.

Considering that Watts Bar was the last one to come online (almost 16 years ago), I'm not sure where you're getting your info.

 

[Throckmorton]

You mean Obama's claim about using green scum .... err not environmentalists, but actual green algae to produce fuel isn't viable? It's a green scum scam?

What's wrong with growing algae for fuel?

 

[blankslate]

I really hope this technology comes to fruition even if it takes several years.

Then we can shift away from using fossil fuels in internal combustion engines. Even though the power to charge the engines would be generated at power plants and the shift of fuel use to large powerplants ensuring that emissions are cleaner at a few points is much more efficient than checking the emissions of many vehicles.

 

[desy]

Vehicle propulsionMetallic zinc could be used as an alternative fuel for vehicles, either in a zinc–air battery [9] or to generate hydrogen near the point of use. Zinc's characteristics have motivated considerable interest as an energy source for electric vehicles. Gulf General Atomic demonstrated a 20 kW vehicle battery. General Motors conducted tests in the 1970s. Neither project led to a commercial product.[10]

Solid zinc cannot be moved as easily as a liquid. An alternative is to form pellets that are small enough to be pumped. Fuel cells using it would be able to quickly replace zinc-oxide with fresh zinc metal.[11] The spent material can be recycled. The zinc–air "battery" cell is a primary cell (non-rechargeable); recycling is required to reclaim the zinc; much more energy is required to reclaim the zinc than is usable in a vehicle.

One advantage of utilizing zinc–air batteries for vehicle propulsion is that the availability of zinc metal is 100 times greater than that of lithium, per unit of battery energy. Current yearly global zinc production is sufficient to produce enough Zinc-Air batteries to power over one billion electric vehicles, whereas current lithium production is only sufficient to produce ten million lithium-ion powered vehicles.[12] Approximately 35% of the world's supply, or 1.8 gigatons of zinc reserves are in the United States,[13] whereas the U.S. holds only 0.38% of known lithium reserves.[14]

http://www.technologyreview.com/business/23812/

 

[werepossum]

"IBM thinks it has a solution with a promising new lithium-air (Li-air) battery. According to the technology giant, a typical Li-air battery cell has a theoretical energy density more than 1,000 times greater than today's industry-standard Li-ion battery cell. Even better, Li-air batteries are one-fifth the size and they offer a lifespan at least five times as long"

500 mile range and 10 x the energy density of a regular EV battery.

Another promising technology, although not I think as far along as this battery. Good to have you back, BTW.

It will get stomped by the big 3.
Or Uncle Sam, who is now officially invested in car making.

Government Motors is an investor, as is Uncle Sam (ARPA.) If GM had this battery technology right now, tested and ready for mass production, it would be doing cartwheels putting it into production.

Impossible. Government regulations stifle small companies while US schools suck and Indians and Chinese only come to this country for higher education but compete with our idiot white kids and leave back for India and China where they have much better "free trade".

Not to mention California is a cesspool of regulations and taxes, nobody would ever start a business there now.

It's all a lie, any government funded company, technology, student, or affiliation is a fucking joke and the "Free market" dominates all!

Sarcasm noted, but there are grains of truth in all of that. One can look at Red China and India to see the effects of trading off environmental regulations for better growth, but it's a formula that always works. Or for that matter, the effects of trading off safety regulations for better growth, another formula that always works. It's no big secret why Kerr-McGee wasn't Bhopal, or why the United States hasn't had to execute any executives for intentionally poisoning people. We can and should reduce our regulatory burden, but always while keeping in mind the potentially very high cost for getting it wrong.

Also, note that this is in fact the free market, as much so as General Electric and more than General Motors, in spite of the fact that it's had government investment. It's still possible that Envia will crash and burn as IBM's Li-Air battery provides more for less.