MIT Develops Fast Charging Liquid Flow Batteries

An anonymous reader sends this from the MIT News office: "A radically new approach to the design of batteries, developed by researchers at MIT, could provide a lightweight and inexpensive alternative to existing batteries for electric vehicles and the power grid. The technology could even make 'refueling' such batteries as quick and easy as pumping gas into a conventional car (abstract). The new battery relies on an innovative architecture called a semi-solid flow cell, in which solid particles are suspended in a carrier liquid and pumped through the system. In this design, the battery’s active components — the positive and negative electrodes, or cathodes and anodes — are composed of particles suspended in a liquid electrolyte. These two different suspensions are pumped through systems separated by a filter, such as a thin porous membrane."

Comments

Better than public transportation

[cryfreedomlove]

I'm a big believer in the personal freedom offered by owner-driven vehicles, even if the driver is often the only person in the vehicle. Therefore, I am in favor of advanced battery technology that will allow a gradual transition of the world's fleet of personal vehicles to all electric drive rather than gasoline and diesel. Gasoline and diesel require a state of constant war in the Middle East to sustain.

Am I the only one who saw this?

[Jane Q. Public]

I have a very big issue with what appears to be publicly-funded research being siphoned straight off into some corporate treasuries.

This BS needs to stop. Repeal the Bayh-Dole Act. It has done nothing but harm the public and our economy.