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Startup Unveils Revolutionary New Rechargeable Alkaline Batteries (nytimes.com)
Slashdot reader cdreimer quotes the New York Times:
Alkaline batteries can be made far more cheaply and safely than today's lithium-ion batteries, but they are not rechargeable... Ionic Materials could change that equation with an alkaline battery the company said could be recharged hundreds of times. One additional benefit of the company's breakthrough: An alkaline battery would not be as prone to the combustion issues that have plagued lithium-ion batteries in a range of products, most notably some Samsung smartphones. Cheaper and more powerful batteries are also considered by many to be the driver needed to make the cost of renewable energy technologies like wind and solar competitive with the coal, gas and nuclear power that support the national energy grid.
The company "has demonstrated up to 400 recharge cycles for its prototypes," and it's now even investigating aluminum-based alkaline batteries which would also be lighter than lithium-ion batteries. The company is backed by Sun Microsystems co-founder Bill Joy, who also envisions the batteries being used in electric cars.
The company "has demonstrated up to 400 recharge cycles for its prototypes," and it's now even investigating aluminum-based alkaline batteries which would also be lighter than lithium-ion batteries. The company is backed by Sun Microsystems co-founder Bill Joy, who also envisions the batteries being used in electric cars.
I can't wait to buy some of these rechargeable aluminum-based alkaline batteries in 2037!
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Let's say you charge your car once a day.
If the battery costs a fraction and weights half of a lithium-ion battery, that means longer range for your car and taking recycling into account, it could be better in every way especially if the recycling percentage is higher and the leftovers are less damaging to the environment.
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Rechargeable alkaline batteries aren't something new, if anything battery manufacturers have tried to make the chemistry and cells _less_ rechargeable over the years to earn more. I read an article in the 90's that described charging alkaline batteries then (using cells not intended to be recharged) and also told the history of the batteries and charging with examples from the technical evolution that didn't significantly increase capacity but made the cells much harder to recharge. Can't remember where I read it sadly.
With that said I'll applaud all _real_ improvements in batteries no matter their chemistry.
How is this news??? Rechargeable alkaline batteries have been available for over 45 years.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Perhaps they have improved how many times it can be recharged, but the summary makes it sound like the feat is the concept.
If the battery is cheap enough (and somewhat recycable), replacing the car pack every 2 years or so might be acceptable. Unfortunately the article is a bit low on details; they mention that the battery is lighter, but no hard details on power density per kg or per m3.
Also, Li-ion batteries are great for infrequently used equipment. My old cordless drill with NiMH cells either had to be left on the charger (which craps out the batteries eventually) or left unplugged which meant the batteries would be empty when I needed the tool. My new drill with Li-ion can be left in the drawer and still be ready for duty after a year. How do these alkaline batteries behave when left alone for a long time?
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
Rechargeable alkaline batteries are pretty well established. You can even by them in a shop:
https://www.maplin.co.uk/p/map...
In fact all alkaline batteries are rechargeable at least a few times, although it may not be entirely safe to do so.
There are two problems with these batteries: they deteriorate faster than other rechargeable batteries, and the energy density is lower than the current Li-Ion batteries.
400 cycles might be fine for some vehicles, if the cost is low enough and they are designed to have the packs swapped periodically. For comparison typical vehicle cells are rated for 3000 cycles, basically means that the car will probably wear out before they do, e.g. 900,000 miles in a Tesla Model S or 450,000 in a Nissan Leaf 30. And of course the rated lifetime is to 80% original capacity which in a 150+ mile range car is still more than adequate for many uses.
These alkaline cells seem suited to stationary systems where they can easily be swapped periodically and space is less of an issue.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Smartphones with replaceable batteries and/or higher capacity batteries would be a big thing except that manufacturers keep playing pissing contests to see whose phone is the most anorexic, even after Apple made a phone so thin that it bent in normal use. But no, we can't have a phone twice as thick that we can use all week without a recharge because fashion.
After all, those phones would last a decade of charge/discharge cycles before the battery wouldn't hold sufficient charge. Can't have that, can we? Smartphones must not go the way of desktops and laptops, where a "good enough" and "cheap enough" device can now do the job for a decade or more.
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
That we could make rechargeable Alkaline batteries is pretty obvious when we already have them.
But if these are supposed to compete with Li-Po batteries in energy density they will run into the same issues that the Li-Po batteries have.
So at best, its a wash regarding batteries for our toys. Where this technology just might be really useful is in the energy storage and leveling schemes for solar and wind power. There a rechargeable battery of less energy density might just be the ticket, because extreme small size will not be an issue. Add a few more batteries to the farm. And if they are cheaper, great.
That way we can free up the demand on the not so common minerals that go into the really high energy density batteries we use now.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
LiFePO is expensive and has terrible energy density.
I thought super-capacitors was where it's at? Smaller, lighter, and very quick to charge...?
Agree that rechargeable alkaline have been available for a very long time, I had a few sets, but they did tend to fail very quickly.
They tend to be rather expensive I think.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... ... Following the acquisition of Sanyo by Panasonic, a fourth generation was introduced in April 2013. The number of charges per cell was increased from 1800 to 2100 cycles for both AA (BK-3MCC) and AAA (BK-4MCC) models. ..."
"Eneloop cells lose their charge much more slowly than the 0.5â"4% per day lost by older-technology NiMH batteries, retaining about 85% of their charge for a year after charging.[2] This allows them to be sold precharged and ready for use, unlike older types.
Don't have them for a drill though -- just use them in most AA and AAA applications.
A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
A battery which only lasts a few hundred recharge cycles isn't an imperfect solution, it's simply not a solution.
Really? Then how do you explain that there is a healthy market in batteries that last zero recharge cycles?
Don't get me wrong. I'm all for rechargeable batteries. A battery that can be used 400 times is 400 times better than a battery that can be used only once.
If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
I think you're optimistic. 40 cycles / 13,000 miles is 325 miles per charge, I don't think the P90 even does that.
My guess is very few people who own electric cars don't recharge overnight as a matter of habit and almost none of them wait until its under 25% charge to consider recharging.
I'd wager its more like 100 miles between charging sessions, which for 13k miles would be 130 charge cycles in a single year. Dead pack in 4 years.
It really matters whether your pack accepts fractional charges without substantial wear (ie, charging from 75% to 100% is only 1/4 of a cycle worth of wear or less) or whether any charge of more than 20-25% is basically the same as a full charge cycle. If fractional charging is free, then 400 cycles is fine. If it's not, then 400 charges is a problem unless swapping the pack is only $1000 or something.