A number of interesting things have occurred at the AAAS meeting in San Jose the last few days, here is one that caught my eye. As many readers know, I have an electric car (seen above), which runs on 12 volt Lead-acid batteries which are so heavy that most of the energy to the motor is used to move that heavy mass of lead around. Electric cars don’t make a lot of sense for an all-around car, but for in-city use, such as errands or delivery, they could be quite viable with better battery technology.
This newer Lithium-sulfur batteries show promise beyond the current favorite lithium-ion batteries due to their energy density and lighter weight:
The current energy density of lead-acid batteries (not depicted on the chart) is around 60-100 Watt-hours per liter, well below all the others.
The lithium–sulphur battery (Li–S battery) is a rechargeable battery, notable for its high energy density.[1] By virtue of the low atomic weight of lithium and moderate weight of sulfur, Li–S batteries are relatively light; about the density of water. They were demonstrated on the longest and highest-altitude solar-powered airplane flight in August, 2008.
Lithium–sulfur batteries may succeed lithium-ion cells because of their higher energy density and reduced cost from the use of sulfur. Currently the best Li-S batteries offer energy densities on the order of 500 W·h/kg, significantly better than most lithium-ion batteries which are in the 150 to 200 range. Li-S batteries with up to 1,500 charge and discharge cycles have been demonstrated, yet are not commercially available (as of early 2014). (Wikipedia)
Let’s hope that they come to the market soon, not just for electric cars, but for many other applications that need high energy density and low weight.
Leading scholar presents advances in research of electric car batteries at AAAS
Lithium-sulphur batteries promise to extend the range of electric cars at least three times over current lithium ion cells and at much lower cost, making electric cars practical and potentially more appealing to a mass market. Linda Nazar, professor of chemistry from the Faculty of Science at the University of Waterloo, will present a perspective on the promise and reality of lithium-sulphur batteries at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Annual Meeting in San Jose, California. She will highlight recent innovations in nanomaterial strategies and new electrolytes that can help these future-generation energy storage systems realize their potential in emerging markets.
Professor Nazar and her research group are best known for reigniting interest in the lithium-sulphur battery by proving that such a battery, once considered impossible, could be a reality. Recently, her group resolved a major technical hurdle by developing the first high-performance sulphur cathode with the use of manganese dioxide nanosheets.
Nazar is Canada Research Chair in Solid State Energy Materials and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. She is a member of BASF’s Research Network on Electrochemistry and Batteries, and serves as a lead scientist on the U.S. Department of Energy’s Joint Center for Energy Storage Research.
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New Materials and Approaches for Advanced Batteries (part of the Next-Generation Batteries for Mobile Devices and the Grid symposium
Just for a reference….. where would a traditional automotive lead-acid battery be placed on the chart?
Just for a reference….. where would a traditional automotive lead-acid battery be placed on the chart?
Someone else has to be precise, but anecdotally I tested 2 lead-acid EVs before lucking into a cheap lithium-ion EV (see my other posts). My guess is well to the southwest on the graph. The range just isn’t there, nor is battery life. Street-legal EVs basically didn’t exist until lithium-ion came on the scene.
Add a super fast charger to half the garages of all the new electric car owners. Let’s guess each one uses 30 kilowatts to charge the new super electric car batteries in an hour. (33 KW x 1 Hr = 30KwH which is a SMALL electric car battery. Musk’s is 58KwH today but I quote: “Average Tesla battery capacity to be 100kWh by 2020” from other reports. To charge it in an hour will take about 130 kilowatts from the utility. Let’s dream about 2020, like Musk, for a little….
Let’s say 30% of the 11,000,000 projected 2020 population of Los Angeles own an electric car with a 100 KwH battery to charge at LEAST every night because electric cars became wildly popular and government promoted by idiots who can’t do math. 11M x .3 = 3.33M electric cars. Half of them use quick chargers of 130 KW and half use overnight chargers (8 Hr rate) 16.25 KW. To plug this car into a house outlet, 15A @ur momisugly 120VAC would take DAYS to charge. 15×120=1.8KW 130KWH/1.8=72 HOURS at full current on a house circuit…not an option. Shifting this load to some “filling station” down the block only shifts the load, not reduce it, or makes it worse trying to charge quicker, yet. So, 130KW x 1.67M cars = 21,710,000,000 KILOWATTS to charge just the quick charger owners and 2,713,750,000 KILOWATTS to slow charge the rest in 8 hours, in time to get ready for work in the morning. Total load that first hour JUST CHARGING CARS = 24,423,750,000 KILOWATTS or 24,423,750 MEGAWATTS.
http://www.energy.ca.gov/2012_energypolicy/documents/index.html#EnergyDemandForecast
According to the graph on page 4 CA plans on making a total power of 70,000 Megawatts by 2020, somehow. To charge electric cars ONLY they are going to be 24,373,750 MEGAWATTS SHORT!!
Can you see how ABSURD selling lots of electric cars is, now? ABSURD!!
Solar and wind are also an ABSURD pipedream. ELECTRIC CARS ARE POWER PIGS!