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Battery Breakthrough: Researchers Claim 70% Charge In 2 Minutes, 20-Year Life

New submitter chaosdivine69 writes: According to Scientists at Nanyang Technology University (NTU), they have developed ultra-fast charging batteries that can be recharged up to 70 per cent in only two minutes and have a 20-year lifespan (10,000 charges). The impact of this is potentially a game changer for a lot of industries reliant on lithium ion batteries. In the car industry, for example, consumers would save on costs for battery replacement and manufacturers would save on material construction (the researchers are using a nanotube structure of Titanium dioxide, which is an abundant, cheap, and safe material found in soil). Titanium dioxide is commonly used as a food additive or in sunscreen lotions to absorb harmful ultraviolet rays. It is believed that charging an electric car can be done in as little as 5 minutes, making it comparable to filling up a tank of gasoline.

15 of 395 comments (clear)

  1. If so... by kefalonia · · Score: 3, Informative

    ...the impact of this would be profound in energy distribution since it can potentially decouple real-time supply-demand constraints.

  2. Re:Charging amperage by sribe · · Score: 3, Informative

    Surely 4 times the amperage wouldn't be beyond the realm of possibility?

    Not beyond the realm of possibility, no. But requiring not just new wiring into your house, but probably new wiring of an entirely new kind, at higher voltage, with specificallly-designed safety measures in terms of conduit, how it's routed, protection against touching contacts, and so on.

  3. Re:No mention on capacity though by grantspassalan · · Score: 5, Informative

    Even if it did have enough capacity, it would take a 2 MW power supply to charge a 100 kW battery in five minutes, assuming there were no losses. A “gas station” that could “fill” five electric cars simultaneously would have to have a 10 MW grid connection. I don’t see that happening anytime soon.

    --
    A sufficiently advanced simulation is indistinguishable from reality.
  4. Re:Charging amperage by Carnivore · · Score: 3, Informative

    The current HV battery is around 400V.

  5. Re:Just moves a choke point by svirre · · Score: 3, Informative

    Mangled my own text. Sorry.

    Generally fast chargers will not be in constant use. Hence it is acceptable to build a battery pack in the charging station, which can charge at a more reasonable speed off the grid and be capable of delivering high current at a presumably much much less than 100% duty cycle.

    This was done here: http://www.siemens.com/innovat...

    (Apparantly slashdot chokes on the much much less than sign)

  6. Re:No mention on capacity though by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Do you mean a 100kW/hr battery? There is no such thing as a 100kW battery. Idiot.

    There is no such thing as 100kW/hr battery. There is a 100kWh battery.

    If you are going to call people idiots, it's best not to be one.

  7. Re:No mention on capacity though by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 4, Informative

    A “gas station” that could “fill” five electric cars simultaneously would have to have a 10 MW grid connection.

    A 10MW or larger grid connection is not particularly uncommon. A factory, mall, or large building might need that much. Almost any power company would have some customers with those kind or requirements. If the "gas station" is on a busy street, there might already be nearby lines available.

  8. Re:No mention on capacity though by icebike · · Score: 4, Informative

    Moving all of the energy that a 85 kW-hr lithium-ion EV battery can hold into a battery in 2 or 5 minutes would require some truly dangerous amperage,
    and some enormous amount of heat could be generated.

    --
    Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
  9. Re:No mention on capacity though by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    Moving all of the energy that a 85 kW-hr lithium-ion EV battery can hold into a battery in 2 or 5 minutes would require some truly dangerous amperage,
    and some enormous amount of heat could be generated.

    Whoa! That's assuming the resistance of current battery tech to be the same. Clearly it is not with this new titanium dioxide plus sodium hydroxide gel being used. If the resistance was the same then charging times would not be so low. All the team did was replace the anode material with the new stuff and WHAMO! charge time goes to single digit minutes. Nowhere in the article, summary or journal article (free, by the way) does it say that any charging ampere changes are made to get the shortened recharge time.

  10. Re:Charging amperage by TigerNut · · Score: 4, Informative

    Absolutely correct. Most electric cars (if you're keen, check out www.diyelectriccar.com) run at least 72V in a series string of at least 20 lithium-ion cells, and some run over 250V. Charging is done using a state-of-the-art high frequency AC/DC switching power supply with power factor correction, so that charging efficiency is maximized. For any given power transfer, double the voltage means half the amps, and that cuts the resistive power losses to 1/4, so it's always worthwhile to maximize the operating voltage within the bounds of the electronics (and safety considerations).

    --

    Less is more.

  11. Re:No mention on capacity though by m00j · · Score: 5, Informative

    USA electricity pricing is 8 - 17 cents / kWh (source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...). So let's say $0.2 per kWh
    10MW = 10,000 kW. So if you were using the full 10MW connection that would cost $2000 per hour. I'm sure if you are using that much you get a special rate.

    From a quick search I found this PDF: https://www.ergon.com.au/__dat...
    For that particular 26500m^2 shopping centre their energy usage was 4000 kVA, which is 4MW. There are at least 9 shopping centres in Australia that are 5x larger than that in terms of m^2.

    So yes, there definitely are connections of that magnitude delivering continuous power. And they are not all that uncommon.

  12. Why are slashdotters such idiots on this issue? by Brannon · · Score: 5, Informative

    This entire thread is full of jackasses computing the peak power draw and saying retarded things like "does it come with it's own fusion reactor?".

    1. It's not a big deal to supply constant MWs to a relatively small number of charging stations along interstates. Next time you're driving along a highway look up slightly and notice the power wires carrying hundreds of MW's right next to you.

    2. You don't have to size the power grid connection to cover peak demand, capacitors and batteries located at the refilling station are good at averaging out the peaks so that you just have to worry about some windowed average demand--and average demand is just not that stressful. Think of it this way, gas stations would also run out of gasoline quickly if they were refilling 8 cars at a time every 5 minutes for the entire day. OMG is the gas station right next to a refinery?!?

    3. The vast majority of miles driven are daily commuting miles, which will be covered by low & slow charging at home.

    4. Tesla basically does this *already* with their supercharger network. Why is it so hard to grasp this concept?

  13. Re:No mention on capacity though by fluffy99 · · Score: 3, Informative

    85 KW*hr in 5 minutes is about a megawatt of power. Even at 10,000 volts, you're talking 100 amps.

  14. Re:No mention on capacity though by michelcolman · · Score: 4, Informative

    OK, some basic electricity:

    Power = amps * voltage. Ergo, to load more energy in a shorter time, you either have to use more amps or more voltage.

    The Tesla supercharger is already at 400V, I don't think they want to go any higher because otherwise they would. All you need to do is put more cells in series. 400V looks like the highest they're comfortable with.

    This means there's only one variable left: more amps. And if, like you say, the resistance of the new batteries is lower, that is precisely what would allow them to use more amps. If resistance is cut in 4, they can use twice the amperage for the same heat generation (per second).

  15. Re:No mention on capacity though by paavo512 · · Score: 4, Informative

    This is 400*250 = 100 000W = 100 kW. To transfer 85 kWh one needs almost an hour.