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Quick Charge Battery Developments

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The holy grail of battery development is a battery with high capacity plus the ability to discharge and then recharge quickly, or translated into vehicle terms, a battery that holds the energy equivalent of the standard gas tank that you can recharge as quickly as a gas station fill up.

Supercapacitors can charge and discharge quickly but their energy density is low. So how do you combine the fast charge and discharge rates of capacitors with the storage capacity of batteries? Nanotechnology. Scientists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have been tinkering in their lab and think they’ve come up with something.

Here, we demonstrate very large battery charge and discharge rates with minimal capacity loss by using cathodes made from a self-assembled three-dimensional bicontinuous nanoarchitecture consisting of an electrolytically active material sandwiched between rapid ion and electron transport pathways. Rates of up to 400C and 1,000C for lithium-ion and nickel-metal hydride chemistries, respectively, are achieved (where a 1C rate represents a one-hour complete charge or discharge), enabling fabrication of a lithium-ion battery that can be 90% charged in 2 minutes.

The key part of that quote is “90% charged in 2 minutes.”

This is still in the lab and they give no time estimate before it’s commercially available. It’s one more possibility and sooner or later, one of these technologies will break out. Interesting.

Link: Nature Nanotechnology via Science Daily via Gizmag

Posted on Filed Under: Electric motorcycles, Science frontiers

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Comments

  1. Given that the leaf gets 100 mpc (miles per charge) then that means you can go 90 miles per two minutes of charging, making that once a year road trip practical with an electric commuter car.

      • And 23 in a blinding snowstorm, where the wheels are frequently spinning, the wipers, defroster and heater are running full blast, and the minus 10F temperature negates 60 percent of the battery’s power. Where I live, ICEs are the only thing that works during our 6 months of winter.

  2. I imagine at this moment commenters on green transportation blogs everywhere will be touting the finale demise of the ICE and that this new battery tech will be cheap and wide spread within 18 months.

    That said, this sounds promising.

    • I keep thinking about that whenever these quick charge ideas come up. Quick charge means big current. Big current means big cables. Big current also means DON’T TOUCH! Self service quick charge stations? That should be fun to watch. That’s the less often discussed problem I see with fast charge electrics.

      • Some back of the envelope calculations can put charging power requirements into perspective. First note that conventional 220VAC charging is preferred for shorter daily trips. Fast charging is mainly for long trips, and perhaps for those who live in apartments without easily accessible outdoor outlets.

        Let’s consider two highway driving scenarios: a motorcycle which uses circa 100 Wh/mi (Brammo Empulse with optimistic assumptions) and has 150 mi usable range, and a car which uses circa 250 Wh/mi (in-family for Tesla, Leaf, and Volt) and has 300 mi usable range. We will assume the batteries are 40% over-sized so the usable state of charge ranges from 30% to 100% when slow charging or 20% to 90% when fast charging. That means the motorcycle uses 15 kWh of a 21 kWh pack, and the car uses 75 kWh of a 105 kWh pack. Both batteries are quite a bit larger than anything currently mass-produced.

        Now we need to specify an acceptable charging time. The car spends a little over four hours driving on the highway for each charge, so 30 minutes (long enough to eat lunch) may be acceptable. The motorcycle spends only two hours riding between charges, so 15 minutes is a reasonable limit. The car will be taking on 70% charge in 1/2 an hour, so that means an average rate of 1.4C. Factoring in variations in the charging rate and safety margins, the batteries should be capable of at least 3C. For the motorcycle these numbers are doubled because the charge time is halved. Still, a charging rate of 6C is not too much to ask of current lithium-based battery technology.

        The power put into the charging motorcycle is 15 kWh in 1/4 hour, or 60 kW. The car takes in 75 kWh in 1/2 hour, or 150 kW. The current most-developed fast charging standard, CHAdeMO (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CHAdeMO) can support up to 62.5 kW of DC power. The motorcycle scenario is pushing the limit of that standard, so 15 minutes from 20% to 90% charge may not be realizable but 20 minutes could be. The car scenario is going to require some creativity. I suggest charging the battery pack as three independent 35 kWh sections, each consuming 50 kW through its own plug.

        So, batteries capable of super-fast charge rates are not the technical limitation to real-world fast charging of electric vehicles. Assuming that CHAdeMO or something similar becomes an accepted fast charging standard (small assumption) and that battery packs of an appropriate capacity are available and affordable and have a reasonable weight (big assumption), the limitations lie only in the complexity of the battery pack architectures and of the battery management systems that carry current from the plug to the batteries. Plugging three cables into your car at the same time may seem weird, but it would keep the plugs and cables a manageable size.

        All electric vehicle plug standards such as SAE J1772 (220VAC) and CHAdeMO (500VDC) incorporate both physical and software safeties to ensure the user never handles a live plug. That makes them theoretically safer than a fuel pump where you could spill gas on your shoes.

        This nanostructured cathode design doesn’t really take us any closer to electric vehicles that can be used for any trip. Forward progress would be smaller, lighter, and especially cheaper batteries. Faster charging rates is more like sideways progress. However, this new cathode could be useful anywhere a brief “flash” of energy is required, so it could show up in electric drag racers.

      • That’s a valid concern, but there can be way around. Like a system where you first plug the car, then only turn the power on, and you can’t unplug until the power is off. Or something.

        As mentioned in other posts, anybody can fill up 20 gallons of gas without much safety precautions, Bubbah can still smoke and/or use any sort of device generating sparks, and it doesn’t seem that gas stations blow up every day, so I don’t believe we’d see many people welding the power plug to their car’s body or get fried like a chicken.

        • meant to say, one cup of gas packs the same energy as a stick of dynamite, or sthg like that ?

  4. I’m looking at those charge cycles, 400 or 1000 depending on chemistry, and thinking this is another reason bikes may beat cars to large-scale electrification. A battery sufficient to the task of pushing a car around is going to be much larger and more expensive to replace after 40,000 or 100,000 miles.

    For a bike on the other hand, 40,000 or 100,000 miles is a long ways. My Buell commuter will likely be looking at an engine rebuild before 100,000 miles. And I’d be willing to bet most American bikes never reach 40,000, even. We’re primed as a community to deal with these longevity limitations, and that may make us the best buyers out there.

  5. High currents, heat – make that last 10% in two minutes elusive, but maybe attainable if the charge cables were hollow, ending in a combination terminal – dry break connector. Circulate coolant through the cables and battery pack while charging. The charging station would then even sound like a gas pump.

    • You’re probably right. The above is nothing new. Hell, there’s been all sorts of research done involving carbon nanotube bridges and phosphorated polymer doping of the layers for ultracapacitor effects. Trouble is, Lithium is a rare earth element so that’s around 2 million cars, total, worldwide. That’s not transportation: its a motive that comes with its own wheels to help you steal it. Nickel is more common but still not common enough. If they ever figure out how to make carbon fiber/nanotubes work as a safe bridge between Iron oxide and Aluminum Oxide to extract the electrons and put them back in for recharge you could have a cold thermite battery everyone could own. Its also charge dense and relatively light. So far as I know, nobody is researching thermite because there’s no known catalyst which will make it work safely and reversibly. There’s already Aluminum-Air fuel cells used in the military for emergency power supplies but they’re not rechargeable.

  7. Fast charging is good.

    But the energy density, in terms of space efficiency is not improved, and possibly made worse, if these fast charge batteries take up more space, with their electrical pathways sandwiched into the substrate, and the substrate having lots of surface area. Electricity doesn’t absorb into the substrate, it is carried on the surface of it, so the lithum-metal, or lithium polymer substrate will have to be a nano-tech sized sponge-like material.

    The other issue that fast-charging brings up, is electrical supply. The energy demand for traveling so many miles with so many kilowatt-hours of capacity stored, is that you have to provide that current at such a high rate to fill that capacity that fast.

    The charging system is going to have to be even higher current and high voltage to transfer that much energy that fast. Plus multiply them by several charging ports at a station, like a gas station has several pumps, from 4 to 24 pumps.

    A dozen or two high-current electrical charging ports is going to need a sub-station on site to provide that much current demand, and our electric grid infrastructure and power stations are going to have to be upgraded.

    Unless someone can figure out how to go all Doc Brown and provide 1.21 jiggawatts via plutonium or a bolt of lightning.

  8. yeah, here we are recharging our car on the side of the road. Hold on kids, let me put on my Arc safety gear, goggles, gloves, and apron. Don’t want daddy to get roasted now do we? haha only being sarcastic. But seriously..
    This is some serious current we are talking. Even changing out fork lift batteries we are required to wear hazardous clothing.

    WIth that said, bring on the EV. I want some instant torque right now.

    • So instead we should stick to the much safer practice of loading highly combustible fluids into our vehicles. (also being sarcastic)

      I’m sure there was plenty of concerns about gasoline and letting mom, pop, and kids do the dispensing. For years we only allowed service station workers (highly trained individuals, some of whom actually graduated from 8th grade) to dispense this highly flammable liquid.

      Point being, if the technology comes we will find ways to use it safely.

  9. There should be contact pads on the bottoms of the vehicles (a la indoor go-kart tracks). There should also be shuttle service to and from a safe and distant lead-lined blast shelter.

  10. From another perspective:
    T. Boone Pickens recently got out of the wind generating business because, according to him, even with gov’t. kickbacks there’s no money in it.
    Numerous studies have shown that neither wind or sunshine can supply enough energy on demand for industrial or societal requirements.
    The current (bad joke) situation in Japan has even China rethinking nuclear power. This country is experiencing brown-outs occasionally even now.
    This is interesting technology, to be sure, but with current gov’t. restraints on the increase of generating capacity the commercial application appears dim.
    Buck in Phoenix

    • Pickens wants to get a serious electrified rail system setup such that all trains are off diesel (fossil fuels) and onto electric, both passenger and freight trains. His efforts to build a serious wind farm were hampered by the costs and by the lack of support for transmission lines to deliver the power to his railroad. Considering we’re probably months or a year away from losing access to Mid-East and North African oil, perhaps permanently, he’d make a serious profit if he’s the only railroad up and running. Electric car recharging stations could operate using high temperature sodium batteries (600’C) as they can charge when power is plentiful and cheap and then discharge when needed. Utility companies are experimenting with them at neighborhood substation level facilities as they help with the power variation demands (power generators typically run best when run constantly so are often running at peak demand level even when there’s almost no demand). Sodium batteries could take up the excess during the lull demand periods. They’re big and heavy and hot so won’t be in cars, but they’re a good way to prevent brownouts and shore up the gaps in our failing electrical grid. And would work great to store power from big solar arrays, or collect it from neighborhood rooftop panels during the day to use at night.

  11. As I see it there isn’t any one technology that is going to break our dependence on oil. Even if we do break our dependence on oil to power our vehicles there are so many other things that we rely on oil for. Most people have no idea how many products we use on a daily basis that are derived from petroleum base.

    • I agree with you on one aspect that we can’t live without fossile fuels; air transportation. Everything else can be electric or hydrogen. There is some very interesting things being done with biodiesel as well.

  12. I don’t know really much about the structure of batteries and how they really work but wouldn’t it be a possibility to change the discharged liquid with freshly charged one by pumping out on one side and pumping in on the other?

  13. GenWayLaid’s comments are interesting concerning charge rates. Whatever the standard is, putting a lot of 60kW to 150kW charging stations out there is going to change the electric distribution a lot (I’m a “utility guy”). Houses average a few kW at any given time, maybe 10 kW peak, for perspective. Consumer demand for EVs will tend to favor longer range, more power, and faster charging, all of which drives higher charging rates. It makes you think hard about the electric system, from our perspective.

    • Think of what utilities charge as peak prices. I was just at a seminar and we reviewed pricing for SoCal. They were saying during low peak, pricing is about $.14/kwh and on some days, they charge up to $20.00/kwh (depending on what plan you are on). So, with that understanding, the price to charge your car at a station would vary depending on the time and the overall demand on the grid.

      • I know that PG&E (NorCal) is offering special discounted charging rates for EV’s. Their lowest (depending on time of day and season) is $.05/kWh. They use it as an incentive for you to charge at times when there is a surplus. The highest rates are $.28/kWh for prime time in the summer.

        -todd

  14. One way to avoid needing a substation at every charging facility is to store the electricity on site in huge battery packs, being continuously charged at a lower, more manageable rate. The high current would then be transfered from the sites storage battery to your batteries.

    All this is great, but I seriously doubt any of these new technologies are going to see their way into a production vehicle anytime soon. The biggest issues are cost.
    Large format lithium cells have not decreased in price appreciably in the last 3 years, in fact the cost of Lithium is actually increasing, since it’s now a commodity and speculated on. Not to mention the finite supply of Lithium, I seriously doubt that we are going to end up as lithium being the answer 10 or 15 years from now.

    I think there is more promise in applying nano-technology to the capacitor, to increase it’s energy density. They are cheaper to make, more durable, can charge and discharge rapidly, have 1 million cycle life, and ultimately don’t rely on any exotic natural resource.

  15. let us all remember that the battery only stores the charge, it does not generate electricity. The power likely will come form coal, nuclear or burning oil. Water is boiled, steam spins generators, energy is stored in the battery.

    Most power comes from coal being burned. So really these are coal powered motorcycles. Just saying is all.

  16. Just to put this into perspective:

    ONE standard petrol pump can ‘dispense’ about 20,000kw ; 600 gallons per hour times 33.4kwh/ USgallon (figures in UK/Europe are similar) Compare this with your standard domestic supply which is, in the UK 60A@230v, ~ 14kw. Nobody’s going to be charging their electric vehicle at home very fast unless there is a significant upgrade to the power grid.

    Another point: there are 8 pumps at my local petrol station, and there must be more than half a dozen similar sized filling stations within a mile or two. That’s about a gigawatt of power, or about the same output as the Sizewell B nuclear power station (PWR).

    If all future vehicles are going to be electric, our neighbourhoods are going to change out of all recognition.

    Bill

    • Electric cars/bikes don`t have tail-pipes or radiators, but there are charging, storage and grid losses that mount up to (???) dunno.

      • The MotoCzysz E1pc has a liquid cooled 3 phase motor. I would think that needed a radiator of some sort…

  17. Nanotechnology is great, but I noticed that in the days of Mad Max, the only vehicles still running sported carburators and breaker point ignition. I’m just wondering who will afford this great new technology in our part-time, minimum wage future? I for one have accepted I’ll be driving my 1999 Nissan until I die.

  18. A lot of the speculation of energy requirements assumes that vehicles (4 wheeled AND 2 wheeled) will always be as grossly overweight, oversized, and anti-aerodynamic as they are now.

  19. “Pressures resulting from unrestrained population growth put demands on the natural world that can overwhelm any efforts to achieve a sustainable future. If we are to halt the destruction of our environment, we must accept limits to that growth.”
    –World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity, signed by 1600 senior scientists from 70 countries, including 102 Nobel Prize laureates

    • Yep, lets start lining those who don’t turn to the electric vehicle into the police.

      Then they can be fined.

      Then, they can be ostracized by the media and their social peers.

      Then they can be rounded up, and made to think more correct with the politic.

      Wait, Ive seen this progression and wording somewhere before…… 😉

  20. It’s not like it’s alien technology discovered outside of Roswell — it’s ELECTRICITY, fer cryin’ out loud, and we’ve been using it as a power source for something like 120 years! We understand how to use it. Anyone who has ever operated an arc welder knows how to avoid being zapped. The cables at a charging station would be about the size of a gasoline hose, and as easy to use. As for the infrastructure, they next time you’re at a gas station filling your tank with dinosaur juice, look up. You’ll likely see high-tension lines, simply humming with enough voltage to fry you to ashes if you get in its way. But it doesn’t; because it’s properly insulated and kept out of reach. Sure, we’d need to make major changes to convert gas stations to charging stations, but the power is right there. The rest is logistics.

    I understand that electric vehicles would simply shift the production of energy from individual IC engines to centralized power plants, and that is a great benefit in that it’s far easier to control emissions at one big power plant than a few million vehicles. Even if they’re coal-burning plants, the stacks can incorporate scrubbers and other controls to make the dirtiest form of energy as clean as possible.

    Here’s another thought: Nanotechnology as applied to batteries might also be applicable to solar power cells, vastly increasing their efficiency. Couple that with wind power and those huge storage batteries, and you have a system that generates plenty of clean energy at low operating costs after the initial investment. That investment would be steep, but have you checked on the cost of a new nuclear reactor lately? Even if the world goes ahead with more nuclear energy in light of the tragic near-meltdown in Japan, those new reactors will cost billions, plus there’s the problem of an ever-increasing stockpile of spent fuel that nobody seems to want to deal with.

    So an electric car with ultra-efficient batteries and ultra-efficient solar panels incorporated into the roof to charge the cells when parked might run most of the time for free when the sun is shining. A home charging system, possibly solar-powered, would cover the rest for most commuting, and for longer trips, simply stop and plug in at a charging station. An electric bike would hold enough charge for most daily riding, and would plug in at a station just like a car. What’s not to like about that?

    It seems that the arguments for EVs are mostly political, usually with conservatives lining up on the side of established fossil-based energy, and progressives lining up on the “what-if” and “why-not” side. Ironically, when EV technology becomes viable and available, it will be conservative businesspeople jumping on the bandwagon, because there will be billions of dollars in it, just waiting to be collected.

    Why not?

  21. “So an electric car with ultra-efficient batteries and ultra-efficient solar panels incorporated into the roof to charge the cells when parked might run most of the time for free when the sun is shining.”
    Solar power is probably worth the effort: Typical sunshine is between 500-1000w per square metre (that’s the total power not the small fraction you’d get out of photo-voltaic cells). Even if you could store ALL of the power from a very sunny place for say the eight hours while you’re working, you would only have 8kwh to drive you home 🙁

    “A home charging system, possibly solar-powered, would cover the rest for most commuting, ”
    Home charging with the cables supplying your home will give you about 150kwh (assuming 10hours @ 15kw ignoring all losses) That should be enough for a reasonable if slow commute. However, real world efficiencies might reduce this by a half or more 🙁

    “and for longer trips, simply stop and plug in at a charging station. An electric bike would hold enough charge for most daily riding, and would plug in at a station just like a car. ”
    I think this would be the only suitable option for widespread electric vehicle use, but I wonder if we would really be willing to allow the pylons and overhead wires necessary for each filling station.

    “What’s not to like about that?”
    Oh, I’d love to run around on a quick, quiet & cheap-to-run and buy machine It CAN almost be done now (except perhaps the cheap to buy part ;)) , only the battery remains the weak link.

    I suspect, without fossil fuels, the future personal transport will be powered by synthesized liquid fuels (not necessarily hydrocarbons) but fewer people will have the access to it compared to the almost universal mobility we enjoy now. I fear we are at the end of the golden era of the motor vehicle.

    Bill

  22. This seems to me like an advance that will take a LONG time to reach the transportation world, but will quickly be embraced by the small electronics communities. Current smart phones have to balance power/features with battery size/capacity. With a 2 minute recharge time, you’ve just effectively changed the need to cram the biggest battery you can into your tiny iThingy. Collaborate with cities and municipalities to integrate wireless charge stations into public transport and you’ve easily monopolized the smart phone segment. Or, imagine what this could do for laptops and tablets in hospital settings.
    Start small, get it working, and THEN we can talk about a replacement for the ICE.

  23. Food for thought. I am pretty sure battery and EV technology has progressed more the last three years than they have the last three decades. Seems the development of new battery tech is only just now picking up steam.. It would be naïve to say that battery tech could never keep up with the ICE. Pick any random decade of ICE improvement, and compare that to the last decade of EV/battery tech development and you’ll see what I mean..

  24. That’s interesting. The bike must be making crazy horsepower to warrent liquid-cooling.