I assume that people have done detailed 'post mortem's of batteries that
have overheated. Is there anything in the detail that would support (or
otherwise) the LENR proposal?
On 20/01/2013 18:53, Eric Walker wrote:
On Fri, Jan 18, 2013 at 3:27 PM, Hoyt A. Stearns Jr.
<hoyt-stea...@cox.net>wrote:
Maybe the higher radiation environment at high altitude facilitates LENR.
The possible link between lithium ion batteries, ionizing radiation at high
altitudes and LENR is an interesting one. Here are some additional details:
* At higher altitudes, there is an increase in ionizing radiation,
including x-rays [1]. There is an effort underway to classify airline
crews as radiation workers [2].
* Most batteries in handheld devices use lithium cobalt oxide (LCO), a kind
of lithium battery that has known safety issues [3].
* The lithium ion batteries in the Dreamliners are also lithium cobalt
oxide [4].
* There was an interesting LENR study done by Iraj Parchamazad that made
use of cobalt [5], and I recall him mentioning in the video that he was
seeing one of the highest energy densities seen in LENR experiments.
Apparently the LCO batteries have high energy storage density but are prone
to overheating. Rob Woudenberg pointed out that there are hundreds of
devices that have lithium ion batteries (and probably LCO batteries) in
flights every day, suggesting that if there were a structural defect we
should be seeing more failures. But I wonder whether any effect would
necessarily be pronounced. Perhaps if you did a study, you'd find that the
batteries run at a higher average operating temperature at high altitudes,
but not necessarily ones that goes above the specs of the batteries in most
cases.
Eric
[1] http://www.hps.org/publicinformation/ate/q444.html
[2]
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/15/for-frequent-fliers-a-radiation-risk-in-the-skies/
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium-ion_battery
[4]
http://www.technologyreview.com/news/509981/grounded-boeing-787-dreamliners-use-batteries-prone-to-overheating/
[5] http://www.mail-archive.com/vortex-l@eskimo.com/msg71537.html
