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NEC Battery Charges in 30 Seconds
Tomo Hiratsuka writes "NEC's new battery uses polymers that turn to gel, allowing it to be flexible and to charge to full capacity in just 30 seconds. It's apparently destined for smartcards and the evil that is RFID."
but does it block transmissions as well as tinfoil?
In Soviet Russia, backwards is everything.
Power sources, batteries, and generators are rather ubiquitous items in this day and age. If they manufacture it (and especially if they refine the design so that it holds a greater charge), then people will INVENT uses for it, which may or may not be a good thing. Right now, I suspect that this could be good as backup power for small electric/electronic items, such as alarm clocks and flashlights, and possibly a PDA (depending on how much battery power it requires).
When they make one of these batteries that can run a modern-day laptop computer for 3 or 4 hours straight, I'll be more impressed. However, it's still good to know that it's environmentally friendly.
There is three things that is important with a battery:
- charge time
- Power Density
- Cost
Usually, it is a pick any two, but quick-charge batteries has not been economic or efficient.I'd be glad to have a battery with a 2-day capacity in my mobile phone, if I could recharge it in a flash. Half a minute is quick enough that I can do it wherever I am. Like at a gas station when I'm out of battery on my mobile...
Though I see one problem for big capacity batteries: The charge current. To charge a 1Ah battery, you (more or less) have to supply 1A for one hour. Or 3.6kA for 1 second. Or 120A for 30 seconds. And 1Ah ain't far from what you have in your cell phone (usually between 500mAh and 1000mAh). So how the heck are we gonna supply such a current?
This, as I see it, is the main reason, why electrical cars never can be charged in less than a few hours. It'll need insane currents!
Assembling etherkillers for fun an profit
Windows is like decaf - it tastes like the real thing, but it won't get you through the day.
This battery is very similar to a lithium polymer battery, but has different benefits and drawbacks. ORB's standout feature is not it's energy density, which is good, but no better than Lithium Ion - on the order of 10kW/kg and 10Wh/kg.
What sets this technology apart is the extremely high current rates at which it can charge and discharge. Where Li-Poly (which has the largest discharge rate relative to capacity and weight) is able to charge at between 3 and 10 times the capacity, and lithium ion is limited to a mere 0.7 times capacity, ORB is on the order of 60 times capacity.
This makes it suited to situations where high amperage is needed, but for short bursts, such as in UPS systems, which is what NEC demonstrated the battery with. They were able to sustain a 100 watt system for around 15 seconds using 4 "small, thin ORB cells (each the size of 3 stacked credit cards)." Using Ni-Mh the power system would have to be massively oversized to support this level of power output, which is why you still see UPS units using lead acid batteries instead of the more exotic technology available today.