Writings and videos about science activities with an emphasis on environmental science and energy measurement

Showing Tag: " batteries" (Show all posts)

A Possible Substitute for Lithium

Posted by Antonio Chaves on Sunday, December 21, 2014, In : environmental news 
The central theme of this article is a new technology that improves the performance of lithium batteries. Unless you are in this field (I am not) you may struggle to understand the breakthrough the author is describing. I confess that I never really "got it", but what caught my attention was that this new process might allow for electric vehicle batteries that use sodium instead of lithium for their battery packs. This is very significant because lithium is a rare metal that must be imported ...
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Using Supercapacitors Instead of Batteries

Posted by Antonio Chaves on Tuesday, August 13, 2013, In : environmental news 
The biggest disadvantages of electric vehicles are prolonged charging times, high cost of lithium batteries, and mass of the batteries. Even though (according to my own calculations) lithium batteries are about 4 times more energy dense than their lead acid counterparts, the mass of lithium battery material needed for a road trip can be 10 times that of the gasoline that can be used to cover the same distance in a conventional vehicle. In contrast to internal combustion engines and fuel cells...
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Electricity storage is a big dea

Posted by Antonio Chaves on Friday, July 19, 2013, In : miscellaneous science news 
I got this interesting chart from an article about how an energy storage company called Eos may revolutionize the way electricity is stored using zinc air batteries. I never knew that so much generating capacity was stored by simply pumping water! The advantage of these batteries is their low cost ($160 / kWh vs. $400 / kWh using lithium batteries). All of this is discussed in terms of making the grid more reliable. I wonder if these batteries are light enough to use in a vehicle? 

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About this blog

This blog was originally created in January 2013 to serve as a means for providing updates on science activities from the environmental science lab manual Ecology, Development, and Sustainability. I have now expanded its purpose to include other items of interest to science teachers. 

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