New battery technology

[Grelinette]

Hello everybody

A few days ago I attended a meeting of professionals who discussed new developments in the solar panel sector and the inevitable problem of energy storage.

One of them announced that a new battery technology, using a powder, had been developed and patented by a French engineer and his laboratory ...

This technology would be much more efficient than the technologies currently in force, and placing on the market would currently be dependent on negotiations with battery manufacturers (patent purchase, operating licenses, etc.).

Anyone know about this so-called new powder-based electricity storage technology?


Ps: it may be a rumor, but following this meeting I did a search on the net, I did not find anything on this "revolutionary" battery announcement, however the speakers at this meeting are clearly identified on the net as specialists in solar energy and energy storage ...

[gildas]

Hello Grelinette,

The following is not powder but revolutionary,
it's also another new battery technology:

A MICROPILE THAT CARBIDES WITH ALCOHOL

In the middle of a telephone negotiation with an important client, your cell phone falters. "Dead battery" indicates a message on the screen before it turns black with soot. Misfortune! You forgot to charge your phone. Professor Mohamed Mohamedi wants to free us from such inconvenience and repeated loading. In his laboratory of electrochemistry and energy microsystems, he devotes his energies to the development of a fuel micro-cell operating with ethanol generated from agricultural and forestry waste. Capable of operating continuously longer than the expensive lithium-ion battery, this green battery could dislodge it from our computers and other mobile phones within ten years.

While the automotive sector relies on compressed gaseous hydrogen as fuel for the batteries of next-generation vehicles, the electronics industry could turn to ethanol or methanol. Currently, Mohamed Mohamedi, professor at the Center for Energy Materials Telecommunications of the INRS, favors the use of ethanol, an alcohol molecule rich in hydrogen, to power our portable electronic devices.

“Our micropile requires fuel that is easily usable and transportable. However, at room temperature, hydrogen is gaseous. Everyone will understand that it would be difficult to insert a compressed hydrogen cylinder into a cell phone! A liquid fuel at room temperature such as ethanol is more appropriate, ”says Mohamed Mohamedi. He is lucky: Canada is a nation of farmers. Each year, millions of tonnes of waste from the cultivation of maize and forestry could be used to produce bioethanol without affecting the country's food supply.

This fuel obtained from biomass would limit the use of our fossil resources and reduce the carbon dioxide emissions inherent in the production of hydrogen. "If our technology takes off, the economic development of the Canadian industry around this bioethanol will necessarily follow," believes Professor Mohamedi. The electrical autonomy of our computers, tablets and phones would therefore require a good swig of alcohol with environmental and economic benefits.

Ethanol also has the advantage of not being toxic and being safer than methanol, another alcohol evaluated by Mohamed Mohamedi. Its energy density, higher than that of lithium or even methanol, makes it possible to provide greater power to portable electronics, which often consume energy.

Towards total oxidation
Imagine tomorrow: your mobile phone will operate continuously thanks to this ethanol micro-battery. To achieve this feat, the user will only have to power it by connecting ethanol cartridges. An inexhaustible side that lithium-ion batteries do not have. Once their maximum recharge rate is reached, they must be replaced. "Unlike lithium-ion batteries which are energy storage systems, the ethanol micro-battery is an energy conversion system. The transformation of chemical energy into usable electrical energy continues continuously as long as the fuel (ethanol) and the oxidant (oxygen) are present in the cell and they react at two electrodes. This oxidation-reduction reaction transforms ethanol and oxygen into carbon dioxide and water, while generating a flow of electrons responsible for the electric current ”, explains Professor Mohamedi.

Today, it is not yet possible to completely oxidize ethanol even if the chemical reaction is traditionally catalyzed by platinum, a noble, rare and non-renewable metal. A real accelerator of the reaction speed, this expensive catalyst has a defect. Used alone, platinum (Pt) tends to be poisoned, in particular by carbon monoxide or acetic acid, intermediate products formed during the incomplete degradation of ethanol. Thus "asphyxiated", the Pt no longer fulfills its function as a catalyst. Result: the reaction speed drops inexorably, the power delivered by the battery too.

Professor Mohamedi's team is currently developing cheaper catalysts by using smaller amounts of platinum and combining it with other metals. "We are focusing on the development of trimetallic or tin oxide (Sn) or cerium (Ce) catalysts, for example, capable of breaking the three types of bonds in the ethanol molecule: carbon-oxygen , carbon-hydrogen and carbon-carbon. Each of the three components of the catalysts (Pt, Pt-SnO2, Pt-CeO2) has its affinities with a type of bond and promotes its rupture. Combined, they will be able to oxidize 100% ethanol and ensure a stable delivered power over time, ”specifies Mohamed Mohamedi.

If catalysis poses little difficulty at high temperature, it is far from being an easy task at room temperature. “Today, two catalysts have already been selected to be part of the trio. And, in three to five years, we hope to release this trimetallic or oxide-based catalyst. Until then, a lot of testing remains to be done to determine the optimal proportions of each of the three components of the catalyst. "

A question of morphology
For Professor Mohamedi, nanostructuring appears to be a way of the future in order to improve the electrochemical performance of the cell and to minimize the quantities of platinum used. His project was also funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Quebec Research Fund - Nature and Technologies and the Quebec Center on Functional Materials. In practice, small metal particles are deposited on the electrodes by laser ablation, an advanced technique which makes it possible to control the composition, size and structure of the nanoparticles forming the desired alloy for the catalyst.

Surprisingly, one of the structures obtained was found to be in the form of cauliflower heads, namely inflorescences due to the formation of columns of platinum particles during the nanostructuring stage. And if the nanometric anatomy impresses, it is not simply by its beauty. "This very porous morphology makes it possible to improve the electrochemical performance of the cell, because the contact surface between ethanol and the catalyst is then very high", specifies Mohamed Mohamedi, for whom this morphological curiosity made it possible to advance his project .

According to the researcher, “it will first be necessary to prove to manufacturers that these green batteries provide stable and long-lasting energy before they are accepted as alternatives to lithium-ion batteries. It will also be necessary to demonstrate qualitatively that the oxidation is complete and that no intermediate product capable of poisoning the catalyst is formed. A challenge that does not scare Professor Mohamedi, a seasoned researcher in the field of the structure of electrodes and micro fuel cells. ♦

http://www.planete.inrs.ca/english/webz ... -a-lalcool

[elephant]

Powder ..... in the eyes? Perhaps ?

And I am wary of the announcement effects: if they exist, these batteries may not be worth a tripod when we do an in-depth analysis of qualities and defects.

In my opinion, storing electricity is a false problem in most cases.

If there is no need for islanding, the most profitable is the sector injection: when you are not consuming, you resell (e.g. via counter that turns upside down) and the system automatically adapts to your tips and hollow moments.

In islanding, you have to think budget. Imagine Robinson on his desert island ...
Unless you have a lot of space and a lot of money, it's generally easier to split:
- solar storage for night lighting, electronic equipment, fridges, with management and load shedding.
- thermal solar for DHW
- solar thermal for heating, with or without heat pump, with or without wood input
- group for large tips (washing machine, welding machine)
- butane / propane for the stove and the winter DHW.

And we are not going to treat the problems the same way in a diving base on a Polynesian island as on a scientific station in Iceland:

- the laundry drying problem will not be the same
- the problem of covering periods of low sunshine either.

[Grelinette]

Powder ..... in the eyes? Perhaps ?
...
In my opinion, storing electricity is a false problem in most cases.

If there is no need for islanding, the most profitable is the sector injection: when you are not consuming, you resell (e.g. via counter that turns upside down) and the system automatically adapts to your tips and hollow moments.
...

Storage, in comparison / complement to mains injection, nevertheless remains an important point for several reasons, and therefore in fact, induces research and development on batteries and other storage means:

- Firstly because all the electrical systems, of consumption and production, are not necessarily connected to a network, starting with the means of transport.

For example, we can imagine that in the future, some of our means of transport will efficiently produce electricity when traveling, and in some cases production exceeds consumption (descent, stabilized speed, ...), and this energy will have to be stored for later consumption.

Note that it is interesting to imagine that an energy produced in movement could, by one means or another, join a network parallel to the movement (eg the current is injected in a line which follows the road, rail network, naval, etc), and this same network coming to supply, in the opposite direction, the vehicles which need it ... And all that, of course, without direct connection, wireless.


- Second, because autonomy and energy independence is an idea that appeals to more than one, it is even for some a philosophical approach.

I also remember the storm of 2009 that destroyed
a large part of the electrical network, a storm followed by beautiful sunny days which enabled homes equipped with photovoltaic solar panels to produce unusable electricity since it was intended only to be injected into the network! ...

In short, the improvement in electricity storage performance will inevitably progress, and announcements of new products will arrive regularly. There have also been quite a few for a few years, but curiously, nothing promising it seems!

Let's wait to find out more. I will try to question the person who spoke about it.

[Ahmed]

To follow up on what you write in small print, know that the TGV, during its braking phases can produce electricity which is returned to the catenary, at least if there is another user train in the section considered.

[elephant]

Ah, if we talk about means of transport, it's different.

The issue is also different: the fuel is more expensive (because of the taxes) and the efficiency of the engines not famous (45%, if I remember correctly)

[Grelinette]

Ah, if we talk about means of transport, it's different.

The issue is also different: the fuel is more expensive (because of the taxes) and the efficiency of the engines not famous (45%, if I remember correctly)

Le storage for transportation or other uses, it's the same fight.

STORAGE, in the broad sense (reserve, provision, economy, cash flow, ...) is almost genetic in humans, and it will always be a point that it will seek to develop, especially now for electricity !

To follow up on what you write in small print, know that the TGV, during its braking phases can produce electricity which is returned to the catenary, at least if there is another user train in the section considered.

For trains it is simpler because the infrastructure in place means that the trains are always close to a network, in particular the catenary of the TGV.

For road transport, it is more complex but interesting: the electric vehicles that produce could offload their "electric overflow" (or rather share their production when the batteries are full) if a fast and wireless transfer system were developed along the roads.

This revives the concepts of electric charging / sharing (eg. "better place", "smart-grid" or other systems).

Besides, I have a small technical question for the electrical specialists:

Is there, as for vehicles with internal combustion engines, not to have the tank (the battery) filled completely?

For gasoline engines, the reason is the overweight due to fuel, an essential point in particular for airplanes, but for an electric vehicle, if the possibility of recharging is no longer a problem, is there an interest in always having his batteries full?

[Grelinette]

This is another subject, but I urge you to read the very interesting Wikipedia page on Electric charging stations : http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Station_de_recharge

[jean.caissepas]

Anyone know about this so-called new powder-based electricity storage technology?

I have already seen a similar system at EOS, which allows a battery to be filled in 3 minutes with an already charged "powder".

Link : https://gigaom.com/2012/02/27/filling-up-an-electric-car-battery-like-a-gas-engine/

[elephant]

Grelinette said:

Storage for transport or other uses is the same fight.

yes and no, the transport requirements will relate to the power / weight ratio. In fixed or rail, we may prefer the price / performance ratio.