next: air breathing robots Harry
----- Original Message ----- From: Terry Blanton <[email protected]> Date: Tuesday, May 19, 2009 1:12 pm Subject: [Vo]:Air Bettery > Looks like a lot of on-going research on storage technology: > > http://www.physorg.com/news161862319.html > > A new type of air-fuelled battery could give up to ten times the > energy storage of designs currently available. > > This step-change in capacity could pave the way for a new generation > of electric cars, mobile phones and laptops. > > The research work, funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences > Research Council (EPSRC), is being led by researchers at the > University of St Andrews with partners at Strathclyde and Newcastle. > > The new design has the potential to improve the performance of > portable electronic products and give a major boost to the renewable > energy industry. The batteries will enable a constant electrical > output from sources such as wind or solar, which stop generating when > the weather changes or night falls. > > Improved capacity is thanks to the addition of a component that uses > oxygen drawn from the air during discharge, replacing one chemical > constituent used in rechargeable batteries today. Not having to carry > the chemicals around in the battery offers more energy for the same > size battery. Reducing the size and weight of batteries with the > necessary charge capacity has been a long-running battle for > developers of electric cars. > > The STAIR (St Andrews Air) cell should be cheaper than today's > rechargeables too. The new component is made of porous carbon, which > is far less expensive than the lithium cobalt oxide it replaces. > > This four-year research project, which reaches its halfway mark in > July, builds on the discovery at the university that the carbon > component's interaction with air can be repeated, creating a cycle of > charge and discharge. Subsequent work has more than tripled the > capacity to store charge in the STAIR cell. > > Principal investigator on the project, Professor Peter Bruce of the > Chemistry Department at the University of St Andrews, says: "Our > target is to get a five to ten fold increase in storage capacity, > which is beyond the horizon of current lithium batteries. Our results > so far are very encouraging and have far exceeded our expectations." > > "The key is to use oxygen in the air as a re-agent, rather than carry > the necessary chemicals around inside the battery," says Bruce. > > The oxygen, which will be drawn in through a surface of the battery > exposed to air, reacts within the pores of the carbon to discharge the > battery. "Not only is this part of the process free, the carbon > component is much cheaper than current technology," says Bruce. He > estimates that it will be at least five years before the STAIR cell is > commercially available. > > The project is focused on understanding more about how the chemical > reaction of the battery works and investigating how to improve it. The > research team is also working towards making a STAIR cell prototype > suited, in the first instance, for small applications, such as mobile > phones or MP3 players. > > Source: Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (news : > web) > <end> > > See website for images and hyperlinks. > > Terry > >
