IBM Creates 'Breathing' High-Density Lithium-Air Battery

MrSeb writes "As part of IBM's Battery 500 project — an initiative started in 2009 to produce a battery capable of powering a car for 500 miles — Big Blue has successfully demonstrated a light-weight, ultra-high-density, lithium-air battery. In it, oxygen is reacted with lithium to create lithium peroxide and electrical energy. When the battery is recharged, the process is reversed and oxygen is released — in the words of IBM, this is an 'air-breathing' battery. While conventional batteries are completely self-contained, the oxygen used in a lithium-air battery comes from the atmosphere, so the battery itself can be much lighter. The main thing, though, is that lithium-air energy density is a lot higher than conventional lithium-ion batteries: the max energy density of lithium-air batteries is theorized to be around 12 kWh/kg, some 15 times greater than li-ion — and more importantly, comparable to gasoline."

Comments

Re:Gasoline-like energy density

[Anonymous Coward]

Just think of the potential accidents that could happen with ordinary drivers operating dispensers of incredibly flammable gasoline on their own! We need automated facilities, or at least trained technicians, if we are to dispense this hazardous fuel to our cars. And imagine a future with high-capacity gasoline tanks buried underground in the middle of a city, slowly leaching fuel into the surrounding soil in almost everybody's neighborhood!

Re:Gasoline-like energy density

[Khyber]

"Sadly a Leaf cant make my 40 mile commute and back."

That's funny, I just drove one while I had my Taurus' transmission worked on.

Temps were around 60F and I did an 80.2 mile drive out to Garden Grove and back.

I'll be doing the same thing again tonight. Fridays are my Garden Grove work nights.

I live in the middle of downtown Riverside.

Your numbers make zero sense in my personal experience.