Whether making an electric car from an existing fueled vehicle or developing a new model, the batteries of electric cars should have the following characteristics: 1) Store as much energy as possible in a given volume to achieve a long operating range. 2) Have the lowest weight possible to reduce the load on the drive system. 3) Recharge rapidly and easily. 4) Perform well through many charge/discharge cycles over the life of the vehicle. For…

The growth in some countries is even faster Sales of primary and secondary batteries are expected to rise through 2010 to $73.6 billion. Gains in China will exceed any other national market because of healthy economic growth and industrialization efforts. China will surpass the U.S. to become the largest battery market in the world. Sales increases for these and other countries are published in a study “World Batteries” The report, or sections of it, may…

Lithium-metal-polymer batteries have been developed for a number of applications including electric vehicle propulsion systems and batteries to power telecommunications installations. Because there is no liquid or paste electrolyte, they are maintenance free. They have service lives as long as 10 years, under ambient temperatures from -40°C to +65°C. One company that pioneered the devleopment of thin-film lithium-metal-polymer batteries has since been merged into the Bolloré Group in France. The former company was Avestor, Boucherville,…

It makes sense to use alkaline batteries Alkaline batteries have long shelf lives and they do not suffer the ‘memory effects’ of Nickel-cadmium batteries. The term ‘Memory effects’ refers to the batteries becoming weaker with continued use, particularly when the batteries have seen light use and do not respond well to further charging. The problem stems from low battery currents which flow from only a small part of the active anode area of the battery.…

Click on the underlined patent number of interest to see details from the US patent and Trademark Office.On that page you will see a box labelled: Click there to see the high-resolution image of the patent and all its figures.If you have difficulty seeing the patent image or printing the patent pages, you will need to download a plug-in for your browser. The four plug-ins available from the USPTO are commercial-free and contain helpful features…

A vehicle battery using “an inventive metal particulate anode” and a “bifunctional air electrode” may be recharged either by circulating the electrolyte containing the zinc particles and passing reverse current through them to recharge the battery, or the particles may be pumped out and replaced with previously recharged particles. This allows an electric vehicle to refuel at a zinc particle filling station. U.S. Patent # 5,441,820 describes this development and is available for licensing fromTechnology…

Click on the links to see these new developments. Announcement of a ‘Self-Charging’ battery The Inventions Submission Corporation (ISC), of Pittsburgh PA has announced that two Fort Wayne IN inventors have created a self-charging replacement for rechargeable batteries. The invention “recharges without the use of special equipment or electrical current and can be produced in all standard battery sizes.” Another entry to the “self-charging” field is shown in a US Patent Office Patent Application Publication…

Battery energy does not always remain quietly stored in the battery. Sometimes you must get that energy out in a hurry. Short bursts of power are required, for instance, when starting an automobile on a cold morning. Cold cranking requires high current from the battery. When you turn on the viewing screen of a digital camera, you also demand high current output from the camera’s battery. The power used comes from stored energyDuring every interval…

Our history of batteries begins with the Baghdad battery Why was a battery required 2000 years ago? In June, 1936, workers constructing a new railway near the city of Baghdad uncovered an ancient tomb. Relics in the tomb allowed archeologists to identify it as belonging to the Parthian Empire. The Parthians, although illiterate and nomadic, were the dominating force in the Fertile Crescent area between 190 BC to 224 AD. It is known that in…

How big a battery is required to supply one million watts for eight hours (or 8 million watts for 1 hour)? The use of a Vanadium Redox Battery system allows this to be done in a reasonable space. According to information supplied by VRB Power Systems, Vancouver BC, liquid storage of 400,000 liters of electrolyte is required. Then an additional 10 to 15% area of space is required to hold the battery cell stacks and…