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Lithium-Sulfur Batteries Unveiled

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the amping-it-up dept.

mobilemag writes "Sion Power is showing off its new Lithium-Sulfur battery design this week at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC). SION believes that its new Lithium-Sulfur (Li-S) batteries are the answer to the power hungry devices on the market today."

9 of 270 comments (clear)

  1. Very nice. by i_am_syco · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What about heat? I know that isn't always a big deal with batteries, but if you've got a device like a laptop, it can become a huge issue. I can imagine these powering the PowerBook G6 or something.

  2. Yeah right. by Dark+Lord+Seth · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Li-S still has a long ways to go, only at half the current polymer electrolyte fuel cell technology runtimes and with a maximum of 300 recharge cycles. Polymer electrolyte fuel cells are planned for release as early as 2007, while Li-S is still 3-5 years away.

    Right, so much for 'news'. Call me when "still 3-5 years away" becomes "now available", then we'll give it a good look. As for fuel cells, they have been coming "Real Soon Now" (C) since... What? ... 2000 or so? Chances are we'll be stuck with Li-Ion batteries for quite a few years to come.

    --
    Hate me!
  3. Light on details? by Monkelectric · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It all comes down to how many mah (milliamp-hours) the battery can output, and the voltage/drain curve (not sure what the correct name for this is), and I don't see either of those things on this website. So until then, don't bother getting excited.

    --

    Religion is a gateway psychosis. -- Dave Foley

    1. Re:Light on details? by JesseL · · Score: 4, Insightful

      With the size, cost, and efficiency of buck/boost switching voltage regulators improving the way they are, I don't think that the discharge curve will be as critical as it used to be.

      --
      "Prefiero morir de pie que vivir siempre arrodillado!"
  4. Standard Cell Sizes? by Wraithlyn · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It doesn't say anything about the cell sizes. (It does say "with a better power/weight ratio than anything on the market, Li-S could be easily packed into the tinniest devices"

    The thing that's so attractive to me about NiMH's is they come in standard AAA and AA sizes. I make sure all my electronics take those (instead of say Lithimum Ion, which is usually proprietary), and then I can run everything on the same "fleet" of batteries.

    I hope this tech follows suit. (I imagine it won't at first, but will eventually)

    --
    "Mind, as manifested by the capacity to make choices, is to some extent present in every electron." -Freeman Dyson
  5. Re:Fix a different problem... by AKAImBatman · · Score: 4, Insightful

    How about instead of making better batteries, we make it so the electronics don't use as much electricity?

    That's the approach that Apple takes. Their iBook line gets ~4 hours on a single charge. The problem is that they're bumping up against the lower limits of power consumption while still offering reasonable performance. If you want lower power consumption, you're going to have to give something up. That something is screen size, processor speed, hard disk, and memory.

    Personally, I'd like a little Pu-238 to power my laptop with. I figure that about 600 grams would power my laptop nonstop for ~40 years.

    --
    Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
  6. ... or reduce power consumption! by EmbeddedJanitor · · Score: 4, Insightful
    My laptop has a fan and blows out hot air.My ARM-based PDA at 400MHz is so cool you can't even tell that it is turned on.

    The major reason we need these ultra-fast and hot Pentiums in our machines is crap, inefficient software. Look at Longhorn: it wants 2G of RAM and a two CPUs.

    A friend of mine has a RiscOS box running a 100MHz ARM cpu. It is slicker than my Winshit PC with a 2GHz processor.

    --
    Engineering is the art of compromise.
  7. Re:Fix a different problem... by Indian · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Batteries are not used just in electronics. Just think of hybrid cars, pacemakers etc. Having a portable, high energy density power source benifits a lot more things than just "electronics".

  8. Re:what is the big deal? by HuguesT · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You missed the 2V thing. Storage is energy, and so measured in Joules or Watt-hours, not mAh, (or if you want, mAh at a given voltage).

    Sulphur: 2*4.5 = 9 Wh
    NiMH : 1.25*5 = 6.25 Wh

    So sulphur is better, if not by that much.