The recent announcement from University of Texas of a far more powerful
solid-state "glass” battery technology from John Goodenough's lab has yet to
sink in for most of the scientific community. There is evidence of a ten-fold
increase in energy density between charges, so long as there are rest periods.
IOW the device seems to recharge itself when given the time to do so.
The extreme interest in this technology is due to the reputation of Goodenough,
the inventor the Li-ion battery in several versions including the one used by
the Tesla automobile. Goodenough is still active in the field at 94 years of
age and that is another miracle in this unfolding story about a device that
seems to defy physics. Curiously, this technology is reminiscent of EESTOR
which is just down the road and still operating (under the radar) after
disappointing dozens of VCs with millions of dollar spent and no product. Must
be something in the water down there in the Lone Star state, even though both
technologies are water free.
Similarly to that EESTOR fiasco, the reaction among the “experts” in the
battery field strong skepticism tinged with jealousy. But Goodenough and his
reputation makes things more interesting this time around. The growing
conclusion from published early data is that this battery breaks the laws of
thermodynamics and that is the most significant aspect of story from our
perspective… but in truth the gain could be coming from ambient heat and not
the chemicals in device – which technically is more like a self-charging
capacitor than a redox battery. This sounds a bit like “water memory” in that
we have mobile molecules that want to return to a earlier state even after
giving up energy and dropping to a more stable state.
Although lithium is one of the chemicals, sodium works as well or better so
this is apparently not anything nuclear with respect to Li, or is it? The glass
electrolyte apparently contains lithium, even in the case of sodium as the
charge carrier. Nor is dense hydrogen involved (unless it is trade secret). The
one critical material required is an alkali from Column 1, which indicates that
the manipulation of loosely bound electrons is the key. Many here on vortex
might remember back in the previous century there were experiments and much
talk about self-charging capacitors. Even data. This not a new claim and in
fact there is little doubt that there are anomalies when you get to level of
hundreds of Farads in a small area, which is due to some kind of paradigm shit
… but the conservative opinion remains that these are measurement problems and
not thermodynamic violations.
Given everything that is unfolding, it is even likely that there will be a fit
between the extreme dielectrics of EESTOR and the glass electrode of
Goodenough. I would like to see a merger of the two. Ultra dielectrics have not
gone away.
Bottom line: Imagine the repercussions of an electric car with ten times less
battery cost than the new Tesla… or even four time less. The market for crude
oil would crash, no?
That possibility will ruffle some feathers, especially in Texas where even
students are armed. If I were John Goodenough, I would insist on adding some
guards around the Texas Materials Institute and more security. He has a few
good years left, it would seem.
The only bad news from this technology is that there will not be very much
demand for LENR if you can produce a low cost battery which recharges itself …
unless of course the recharging is itself a form of LENR. This is not ruled
out.
