【Storage Technology】 The battery will save the world

Battery pioneer Whitingham said: "We only understand some fur." As the world moves away from its reliance on fossil fuels, batteries are likely to play an increasingly important role in our daily lives, with lithium batteries even more so.

Future batteries can compete with the storage capacity of gasoline it?

Three years ago, Science correspondents Fuad and Farhad Manjoo wrote an article for the American online magazine, saying that "a better battery would save the world," while the subtitle "refutes" the headline and says "too bad , Impossible to do ". Although the Tesla S, Nissan LEAF, and Chevrolet Volt were just introduced in the automotive sector at the time, a large number of new hybrid and electric vehicles were released, ranging from the box economy car to two luxurious hybrid Porsche.

The problems foreseen by Manoyio and others are manifold: (1) car batteries are very expensive; (2) "energy density" (the amount of energy per unit weight) seems to be a far cry from gasoline; and (3) there may be DANGER - Emerging key material for batteries Lithium itself is unstable and becomes a powder in the air. One problem is that moisture may explode. Another problem is that the material is "isolated" and "thermal breakdown" can occur - heating rapidly until it catches fire. So, it is important that lithium be kept cool and dry.

But in the end this warning is precisely why lithium becomes an attractive battery material: its dangerous energy is a huge advantage. Therefore, the battery technology has a quiet lithium "sprint" has been and continues to make real progress. In recent years due to battery advances, fossil fuel vehicles have become "aesthetic" choices, not economic necessity. Our city grid will become more complex, predictable, reliable and economical.

Battery impact

Automotive batteries from lead-acid batteries to lithium-ion batteries, nickel-cadmium flashlight hand-held lithium-ion design, the battery has become more efficient. There is no lithium-ion battery, almost certainly will not have the current "mobile society." But approaching large-scale equipment such as transport and power plants that save our energy consumer life is filled with pre-selected winners such as the A123 system and its sponsors, Fiskar Karma, Mo Energy, Avestor, Envia, which used to power GM, all lost millions and barely escaped the grid.

If one understood the challenges of the battery revolution, it was this man who kicked off the fight for Exxon Lithium-ion batteries in the late 1970s. It was Stanley Whittingham, now a professor of chemistry at Binghamton University in northern New York who predicted that "every car will be a hybrid or electric car for 10 years."

He believes there are many reasons for optimism. For example, a significant amount of resources are being devoted to the technical challenges of making better batteries, from small start-up computer companies and colleges to well-supplied laboratories such as Harvard and Stanford, to major U.S. national laboratories including Agung Lawrence Livermore and San Diego, as well as laboratories for large corporations in Germany, the Netherlands, France, Japan, South Korea and China.

There is also a clear and urgent need to reduce the human emission of greenhouse gases. Replace the fossil fuel energy, the battery will play a big role. Consumers obviously need renewable energy: sales of electric and hybrid vehicles, for example, are growing strongly.

Better batteries offer two big awards: first and foremost affordable electric vehicles, which are the pillars of our future "mobile society"; followed by more flexible, decentralized power grids, as advanced, stationary batteries will operate at lower The price keeps our homes and factories powered by electricity.

End "Mileage" anxiety

The initially proposed electric and hybrid vehicles were modest, driving 40-100 miles per charge (with the exception of the expensive Tesla Motors rated 265 miles) and only in ideal conditions. However, soon after the second generation can reach 200 miles. LG Chem, a large Korean company, supplies battery packs to the Chevrolet Volt and the Ford Focus, and its updated lithium-ion design is reportedly to drive 200 miles of these cars by 2016. Elon Musk, chairman and major shareholder of Tesla Electric Motor Company, said his company was working on a new battery in August and raised the company's car-drive miles to 500 miles.