Flow battery: liquid fuel used to power the car

Flow battery: liquid fuel used to power the car

battery

Energy: Liquid fuel used to power cars

To make an electric car run hundreds of kilometers without charging in the middle, improving battery performance is the key. However, the improvement of the existing technology has always been a small hit, and breakthrough progress has always made people feel out of reach. However, using a new approach to arranging the internal architecture of modern batteries is expected to double the battery capacity.

The idea was put forward by MIT professor Yet-Ming Chiang, who thought of this idea while on vacation and co-founded A123 Systems. Jiang Yeming believes that the so-called "flow battery" that pushes electrolyte through the battery has some excellent characteristics, and the highest level of lithium-ion batteries today, that is, those that have been commonly used in everyday electronic products, are larger. The energy density, what if you can find a way to combine the advantages of the two?

The flow battery stores electrical energy in the electrolyte bath, which has the disadvantage of low energy density. The advantage is that the size is arbitrary, and it is easy to expand: to increase the battery capacity, it is only necessary to build a larger energy storage tank.

Jiang Yeming and colleagues have created a working sample of a new battery, which has the same energy density as a traditional lithium-ion battery, but its energy storage carrier is essentially the same liquid as the flow battery. The carrier looks like a black mud containing nano-scale particles and energy-storing metal particles. Jiang Yeming calls it "Cambridge crude".

If you observe the Cambridge crude oil under an electron microscope, you will see many dust-sized particles of the same material as the cathode and cathode of many lithium-ion batteries, namely lithium cobalt oxide (positive electrode) and graphite (negative electrode). .

Between these relatively large particles suspended in the liquid are some nanoparticles composed of carbon which are the "secret seasonings" of this invention. The nanoparticles build up to create a spongy network that forms a "liquid lead" that connects the larger cell particles that store ions and electrons. As it flows, the nano-components also maintain a path of electron motion, allowing electrons to move unimpeded between the individual energy storage carrier particles.

The working battery of the new battery can flow, which induces some good defects. For example, if the car with this battery is driven into the service station, it does not need to be charged, and the Cambridge crude oil can be directly added. W. Craig Carter, a partner at Jiang Yeming and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, suggested that users might be able to replace a device with a built-in electrolyte like a gas canister without having to charge the outlet. However, injecting or removing the rechargeable electrolyte is not the first industrial application that Jiang Yeming has focused on. He has partnered with Carter and his industrialist, Throop Wilder, to create a new company called 24M Technologies, bringing the results of his team to market. For the company's first product to be launched, Carter and Jiang Yeming are tight-lipped, but they emphasize that these batteries are perfectly suited for applications such as grid energy storage. Jiang Yeming pointed out that even if the storage capacity is not large, it may have a significant impact on the performance of intermittent energy such as wind and solar energy. A large-scale energy storage battery based on his design will have an energy density of at least 10 times that of a conventional flow battery, so that the battery can be made more compact and the cost can be lower.

However, there is still a long way to go before the commercial application of Cambridge crude oil is realized. The person in charge of the energy storage project of a key research institute pointed out: "People who are skeptical about this may say that the tricky problems of his new design are more than the benefits of a potential solution. More.” Pumping the electrolyte through the battery compartment requires adding mechanical devices to increase the weight of the system, which is of course uncomfortable. “The weight and volume of pumps, tanks, pipes, etc., as well as the additional weight and volume required for electrolytes and carbon additives, may make this technology a battery that exceeds the state of the art in weight.” Over time, after several times of charge and discharge, its stability may not be as good as traditional lithium-ion batteries.

A more fundamental problem is that the new battery is too slow to charge, according to Carter, which is 2 to 4 times slower than a conventional battery.

This is a headache for the car because the car needs to transmit power quickly. One solution is to use this battery in conjunction with a conventional battery or supercapacitor (which releases stored energy in a matter of seconds), which provides a buffered drive during braking and acceleration.

But this new program still has great potential. Yury Gogotsi, a materials engineer at Jusco University in the United States, points out that devices that store energy in "particulate fluids" should be compatible with almost any battery chemistry, making it a future innovation in the battery industry. Play a driving role. Gao Guoqi said: "It opens up a new path for battery design."

Textile Instrument

Textile Instrument,Button Attaching Sewing Machine,Textile Machine

Lockstitch Sewing Machine,Special Sewing Machine Co., Ltd. , http://www.chinasubira.com

Posted on