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Experimental Batteries Charge In Minutes

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the but-i-want-it-now dept.

Zothecula writes "Of all the criticisms of electric vehicles, probably the most commonly-heard is that their batteries take too long to recharge – after all, limited range wouldn't be such a big deal if the cars could be juiced up while out and about, in just a few minutes. Well, while no one is promising anything, new batteries developed at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign do indeed look like they might be a step very much in the right direction. They are said to offer all the advantages of capacitors and batteries, in one unit."

8 of 335 comments (clear)

  1. Wow, what will THAT outlet look like? by elrous0 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Considering the hassle I had just getting a 220-volt outlet to power my dryer installed at my house, I'd hate to think what the electrician is going to say when I tell him I want an outlet that can deliver enough power to drive my car 100 miles--and deliver it in just a few minutes. Poor bastard is going to have a heart attack.

    I apologize in advance for my lack of electrical knowledge. But would anything resembling modern standard household wiring even be able to handle that?

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
    1. Re:Wow, what will THAT outlet look like? by slim · · Score: 3, Funny

      Don't you realise your crackpot flywheel plan could slow down the planet's rotation until we all FRY!?!

      Think of the children.

    2. Re:Wow, what will THAT outlet look like? by Nameisyoung007 · · Score: 3, Funny

      Dr. Emmett Brown: [running out of the room] 1.21 gigawatts? 1.21 gigawatts? Great Scott!

    3. Re:Wow, what will THAT outlet look like? by Tim+C · · Score: 5, Funny

      MMmmm, fried children...

      --
      It's official. Most of you are morons.
    4. Re:Wow, what will THAT outlet look like? by MightyYar · · Score: 4, Informative

      I apologize in advance for my lack of electrical knowledge. But would anything resembling modern standard household wiring even be able to handle that?

      Older houses are often wired for 60 Amps, and they don't stand a chance.

      Some newer houses with big AC units go as high as 200 Amps. More typical I think is 100 Amps. The Nissan Leaf has a 24 kW-h pack. To "quick charge" that in an hour with 100% efficiency would require 24kW (duh). At 240 V that is 24kW / 240V = 100 Amps. So a newish house could do it if it had a separate 100 A 240V feed just for charging the car. I figure that would set you back about $3000, so it's not out of the question. :)

      More likely, you'd pull up to a charging station that has a big industrial feed at a higher voltage so that you don't need a copper wire the size of your arm.

      --
      W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
    5. Re:Wow, what will THAT outlet look like? by pz · · Score: 3, Interesting

      We estimated that a car driven 100 km uses about 80 kWh of energy.

      80kWh / 5-10 minutes ~= 1000-500kW.

      Hmm. That's roughly the power draw of a small electric passenger train (e.g. an old subway train).

      Rescaling, the figures become 0.5 to 1.0 MW. That's a highly non-trivial amount of power to transfer electrically (ignoring the massive electromagnetic fields that level of power transfer creates). Not something that's going to be done in the home.

      Recall, a consumer-grade hair drier is in the 1.0 to 1.5 kW range. We're talking about operating about a thousand of those at the same time for 5-10 minutes. Personally, I don't want to be anywhere near that. Moreover, even if it's wildly efficient at 99% transfer to the batteries, that's 0.01 x 1 MW = 10 KW of loss that needs to be dissipated. I am not familiar with materials found in the home that can provide safe, reliable, tamper-proof thermal isolation from grasping a cable / connector package that is glowing hot.

      --

      Put my fist through my alarm clock with its ding-dong death inside my ear. - The Blackjacks.
    6. Re:Wow, what will THAT outlet look like? by Black+Gold+Alchemist · · Score: 3, Informative

      That number is wrong, because it calculates the energy in the gas that goes into gasoline cars. 80 kWh/100 km is 1,287 watt*hours/mile, five times higher than the average EV highway energy rate of 250 watt*hours/mile - electric cars are 5 times more efficient at using energy than gas cars. At low speed (city driving), a EV consumes around 150-160 watt*hours/mile, similar to the Japanese rail system, which gets 150 watt*hours/passenger-mile.

      --
      Responsibility is an addiction
      Virtue is a temptation
      Community is a cartel
  2. Aluminum-air by McGregorMortis · · Score: 3, Interesting

    That's one of the interesting properties of the aluminum-air battery. The aluminum plates can be replaced quickly and easily. Just pop out the spent plate, drop in a new one, and off you go.

    The reaction products (aluminum oxide) can also be captured and recycled into new aluminum.

    A nifty idea, but there are assorted problems that have to be solved before it can be practical.