Researchers at the US Army Research Laboratory (Adelphi, MD) and the University of Maryland (College Park, MD) have developed a lithium-ion battery that uses salt water as its electrolyte and provides 4.0 V for electronic devices without the risk of catching fire. "In the past, if you wanted high energy, you would choose a non-aqueous lithium-ion battery, but you would have to compromise on safety. If you preferred safety, you could use an aqueous battery such as nickel/metal hydride, but you would have to settle for lower energy," said Dr. Kang Xu, ARL fellow who specializes in electrochemistry and materials science. "Now, we are showing that you can simultaneously have access to both high energy and high safety."
Salt water-based Li-ion battery offers both high energy, safety | Smart2.0
Researchers at Drexel University (Philadelphia, PA) have found that adding nanodiamonds to the electrolyte solution in lithium batteries can prevent hazardous battery malfunctions. The liquid electrolytes in most batteries act as a conductive pathway for the movement of ions between the two electrodes of a battery during charge and discharge. However, over the course of battery charge/discharge cycles, dendrites - tendril-like deposits of ions - can build up that can ultimately short-circuit a battery, causing it to overheat or even catch fire.
Nanodiamonds promise safer, more energy dense lithium batteries | Smart2.0
While lithium ion batteries sold by Tesla and others are perhaps the most widely known storage technology, several other energy storage options are either already on the market, or are fast making their way there. All are hoping to claim a slice of what, by all indications, will be a very large pie. The Australian Energy Market Operator forecasts that more than 1.1m new battery storage systems will be installed in Australian households by 2035. And, according to a 2015 report by the Climate Council, battery storage capacity is expected to grow 50-fold in under a decade.
Salt, silicon or graphite: energy storage goes beyond lithium ion batteries | Guardian Sustainable Business | The Guardian
MIT professor Yet-Ming Chiang has launched his latest storage bet, a flow battery startup designed to make renewable energy directly competitive with fossil fuels (see “24M’s Batteries Could Better Harness Wind and Solar Power”). The scale of the company's ambition—and challenge—is telegraphed in the name: Baseload Renewables. The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based startup's stated mission is to produce batteries that are capable of producing reliable grid power from renewable sources around the clock, and cost at least five times less than where lithium-ion batteries are likely to plateau.
That’s approaching the price point where the idea of “seasonal storage” becomes economically feasible—meaning arrays of these batteries could store enough solar power during times of excess generation through the summer to continue meeting regional demand through the long, cloudy winter, Chiang says. Baseload is housed at the Engine, MIT's new accelerator, which recently provided the company nearly $2 million in funding (see “Developing a Tough, Time-Consuming Technology? This Investor Is Interested”). Baseload isn't providing many technical details at this stage, but the key to its low cost is relying on sulfur. That's because the material is very abundant and energy-dense, Chiang says. Indeed, it's a waste product of oil and gas production that costs as little as 10 cents per kilogram.
Serial Battery Entrepreneur’s New Venture Tackles Clean Energy’s Biggest Problem - MIT Technology Review
Thermal storage hasn't garnered the level of industry attention lately as battery storage, which is experiencing quickly falling prices and rising deployments. But thermal storage, and molten salt in particular, actually exceeds the capacity of battery storage in operation so far, according to a new report from the International Renewable Energy Agency. A recent resurgence in concentrated solar power development promises to increase that advantage. Molten salt technology represents three-quarters of the thermal energy storage deployed for electricity applications worldwide, the study says. These applications typically support CSP projects, letting them dispatch electricity outside peak sunshine hours.
Will Molten Salt Outdo Batteries for Grid-Tied Storage? | Greentech Media
As Joy explains it, Ionic’s innovations combine the advantages of the familiar alkaline batteries we buy at the drugstore (cheap, safe, and reliable) with those of the more expensive, fire-prone lithium batteries in our computers and phones (powerful, rechargeable, and more earth-friendly). He claims Ionic’s new approach is a big step to cheaper, safer, and more efficient batteries will not only power our devices and vehicles, but also enable an “energy internet” based on renewable sources. Joy decoded the breakthrough to Backchannel, and also followed up on his famous WIRED essay about a future techno-apocalypse. The interview is edited for space and clarity.
This Battery Breakthrough Could Change Everything | WIRED
The end for gasoline cars is near..
Electric vehicles will soon be superior to gasoline-powered vehicles in every single respect — with longer range and possibly even faster fueling. That’s the key takeaway from the latest product announcements by Tesla’s Elon Musk and other car companies. Major media coverage in recent days has focused on Musk’s unveiling of a sleek new electric truck with a 500-mile range. But the news of the last week also includes Musk rolling out the Tesla “Roadster” with a 620-mile range “to give a hard-core smackdown to gasoline cars. You’ll be able to drive from Los Angeles to San Francisco and back” without recharging.
To much less fanfare, however, Fisker Inc. (formerly Fisker Automotive) filed patents last week on a solid-state battery that “delivers 2.5 times the energy density of typical lithium-ion batteries, with the potential of costing one third of the 2020 projected price of those batteries,” Green Car Congress reported. Such batteries could be charged in one minute. Many other companies including Toyota are working on solid-state batteries (see below).
And the cost and performance gains are projected to continue rapidly for many years, if not decades, especially with so many car companies working on solid-state batteries. As Chemical & Engineering News explained Monday, “by getting flammable liquid electrolytes out of lithium-ion batteries and replacing them with solid electrolytes, solid-state battery makers hope to usher in an era of safer, more compact, higher-capacity energy storage devices.” Last year, Boston-based SolidEnergy Systems announced it had developed a virtually “anode-free” lithium metal battery that was twice as energy dense but longer lasting and potentially safer than lithium-ion batteries, as ThinkProgress reported. The batteries replace the traditional graphite anode with a “very thin, high-energy lithium-metal foil.””
Would you buy a 500-mile range electric car that charges in one minute? – ThinkProgress
Researchers at the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology (SAIT) have managed to develop a "graphene ball" which could transform the way we think about batteries. In a statement on Tuesday, South Korean tech giant Samsung described the graphene ball as a "unique battery material" which allows a 45 percent increase in capacity, as well as charging speeds that are five times faster than standard lithium-ion batteries.
Samsung develops a battery that could charge your phone in just 12 minutes
Electric sportscar startup Fisker (Anaheim, CA) has filed a patent for a 3D solid state battery structure that can charge in one minute (above). The design could hold 2.5 times the energy of today’s lithium ion cells and charges each layer simultaneously. However the patent has not been published, leading critics to highlight some of the potential problems. Charging a solid state battery pack with a 500 mile range in just one minute would take several megawatts of energy in a very short time, placing a huge, and unmeetable, requirement on the charging sub-systems and infrastructure. Transferring such large amounts of energy would also have safety implications.
Solid-state EV battery patent claims one-minute charging | Smart2.0
Researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago and the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory has produced a design for a lithium-air battery that could have five times the energy capacity of today’s lithium ion batteries. “Others have tried to build lithium-air battery cells that run on air, but they failed because of little cycle life,” said Larry Curtiss, co-principal investigator and Argonne Distinguished Fellow. Previous battery cells tested in the lab required a separate supply of pure oxygen, requiring a tank of oxygen gas would have to be part of the battery system. A lithium-air battery that uses air from outside eliminates this problem.
New lithium air battery design promises up to 5x energy boost | Smart2.0
Researchers at The University of Texas at Dallas believe they have made a breakthrough in the development of lithium sulfur batteries that could drastically lengthen battery life. Writing in Nature Nanotechnology, the team used molybdenum to create a sulfur-carbon nanotube material that provded more conductivity on one electrode, and a nanomaterial coating to create stability for the other. "Common lithium-ion batteries only have a certain capacity," said Dr. Kyeongjae "K.J." Cho, professor of materials science and engineering at the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science who led the research.
Lithium-sulfur breakthrough promises drastically longer battery life | Smart2.0
For the first time in 50 years, the theoretical advantages of a liquid sodium battery — cheap, abundant materials, safe operation, and the ability to cope with many charge/discharge cycles without degrading — could be translated into a commercially viable product. Sadoway says the new steel mesh membrane could work with a wide variety of molten electrode battery chemistries, which could make many new battery designs possible. The new technology is too heavy and bulky for use in electric vehicles or laptop computers, but it would be ideal for grid scale battery storage.
MIT Group May Have Solved The Liquid Sodium Battery Conundrum | CleanTechnica
Thus, tremendous effort has gone into battery development in recent years. The effort is paying off, with prices for battery cells falling by 70 percent between 2012 and 2017, according to PV Magazine. But costs need to continue to decline to make widespread use of utility-scale battery storage a reality... Professor Zimmerman’s work has been done mostly in stealth. The NOVA special was reportedly the first television interview he had done on his work. He has formed a company, Ionic Materials, and recently raised $65 million to commercialize this solid-state battery. (Jump to the 30:40 mark in the video to see the portion on Professor Zimmerman’s work).