Breakthrough Extends the Life of Aluminium-Air Batteries

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Aluminum air batteries are an enticing alternative to lithium ion ones, offering one of the "highest chemical energy-density storage materials we know of," according to researchers at MIT. But those metal air batteries have a major problem: they can lose 80 percent of their charge in a month, compared to just 5 percent for a lithium ion battery. However, those researchers found that coating the aluminum electrode in oil when its not in use drastically increases the battery's shelf life, losing just 0.02 percent of its charge a month. Unlike previous attempts, the new method takes advantage of aluminum's "underwater oleophobicity," which allows the electrolyte to rapidly displace water from the electrode's surface when the battery is ready for use.

The result is an aluminum-air prototype with a much longer shelf life than that of conventional aluminum-air batteries. The researchers showed that when the battery was repeatedly used and then put on standby for one to two days, the MIT design lasted 24 days, while the conventional design lasted for only three. Even when oil and a pumping system are included in scaled-up primary aluminum-air battery packs, they are still five times lighter and twice as compact as rechargeable lithium-ion battery packs for electric vehicles, the researchers report. Hart explains that aluminum, besides being very inexpensive, is one of the "highest chemical energy-density storage materials we know of" that is, it is able to store and deliver more energy per pound than almost anything else, with only bromines, which are expensive and hazardous, being comparable. He says many experts think aluminum-air batteries may be the only viable replacement for lithium-ion batteries and for gasoline in cars. Aluminum-air batteries have been used as range extenders for electric vehicles to supplement built-in rechargeable batteries, to add many extra miles of driving when the built-in battery runs out. They are also sometimes used as power sources in remote locations or for some underwater vehicles. But while such batteries can be stored for long periods as long as they are unused, as soon as they are turned on for the first time, they start to degrade rapidly.
 
How many "OMG amazing battery tech!!!" breakthrough headlines do we get every year? Lots.

How amazing are batteries now versus 10 years ago? Meh.

Lithium-ion batteries are very old.
 
i love that we see breakthroughs rather than "in 1970s there was a corroborator that got 200 mpg but they killed the inventor" crap my dad always talks about. lol

this seems interesting because 2 of these could double your electric car distance, but it also would lower the weight a bit. another trade off is having 1 of these but then gain the benefits of lower weight in the electric car which would also increase distance.
 
y'all know it takes years to get tech like this to market.

Li-Ion's took 2 decades to really develop to be useful.
And now they're in freaking everything.

This is a good thing. It might not show for years, but this is a very good thing.

Aluminium is super common, super cheap, and super high-density, and super-less-likely-to-catch-on-fire!.

If they figure out production/reliability issues, this is a good thing.
Even if they can't, it's furthering our understanding of energy storage and metallurgy. Both are very good things.
 
Golf clap.

And yet it's 2018 and I'm still using NIMH rechargable AA batteries.

I don't see rapid discharge being a problem in a lot of applications... unless they are targeting off the shelf batteries at walmart. But for an electric car's main battery, who cares. Not like people are charging up their Teslas then parking them for months on end. No, they charge the cars then go and drive them. Maybe some type of hybrid setup with long life LION for critical components and the aluminium one can be the main drive battery.

And what happened to super capacitors, I thought those were all going to change the world... 15 years ago.
 
More "amazing battery tech news stories" .... lame ... stop talking and just launch and show us.

Been talking about this shit for years and still ... zero, zilch, nada, no dice, nathan, nothing ......

I swear, these stories are released so these companies can get investors money ... that's the only reason I can think of.
 
Says that these types are actually in production right now though. Maybe it could be more widespread soon with this tweak.
 
While they say that aluminum-air batteries deliver more energy per pound than almost anything else, how does the density compare?

I know that pound for pound aluminum is stronger than steel, but steel is a lot denser so it takes up less room to provide the same strength at the cost of weight. Where weight is critical or space consumed not as important, aluminum is often the better choice.

So when it comes to batteries, if the same idea applies, would an AA battery with the same volume as a LiON battery be able to compete in capacity or will the battery have to be physically larger due to it being less dense?
 
Says that these types are actually in production right now though. Maybe it could be more widespread soon with this tweak.

Agreed, this is a refinement of an existing battery type, not some miracle breakthrough. We might actually see this one in use.
 
Hmmm... "oleophobicity" !!! Now, there's a word we should all add to our vocabulary...
 
I find it funny that while citing the advantages, they ignore the major glaring disadvantage: Cycle Life.

lithium batteries last 1000-3000+ cycles.

Aluminum Air batteries last 1 cycle!

It's not rechargeable. The aluminum is rendered unusable by the discharge. To recharge, you need to return the spent battery material for recycling and replace with fresh aluminum.

It might have some niche applications, but it isn't going to replace Lithium batteries in EVs.
 
Aluminum Air batteries last 1 cycle!

According to the Techcrunch article they have a method of doing a quick swap, which is something various battery and fuel cell designs have talked about for years. Be interesting to see if someone actually manages to get that working for real.
 
According to the Techcrunch article they have a method of doing a quick swap, which is something various battery and fuel cell designs have talked about for years. Be interesting to see if someone actually manages to get that working for real.

Having the option of a battery swap could be nice in some situations, but NEEDING to swap is likely a non starter in most applications.

It might get some niche cases, but it isn't going to work for regular passenger cars.
 
How many "OMG amazing battery tech!!!" breakthrough headlines do we get every year? Lots.

How amazing are batteries now versus 10 years ago? Meh.

We get lots of news but what really improves in batteries is just the chemical makeup. There isn't news to be made in announcing a proprietary formula tweak of .05% however lithium has improved greatly. It's very niche markets where these changes can be first observed. Any high performance electrical setup (think pikes peak cars, racing drones, emoto/ebike will tell you there has been definite improvement in cell capacity and discharge ability. Prices in the last decade have dropped substantially as well. Compared to 2010 we are 5 or 6 times cheaper per kWh. Sure it's not an overnight improvement of 100% but compounding a conservative 5% capacity improvement year over year is nothing to scoff at in a decade.
 
Having the option of a battery swap could be nice in some situations, but NEEDING to swap is likely a non starter in most applications.

It might get some niche cases, but it isn't going to work for regular passenger cars.


I dunno, having a battery last me almost a month between charges might be of benefit. It really depends on how much they are to replace, but I might be willing to pay for not having to fight for a charging space at my apartment.

And these would be useful for people with less attachment to the grid. I could see these being VERY popular with farm equipment or construction. Or possibly power your (currently Diesel/Electric) freight train for a couple hundred miles in-between a battery swap?

It's a whole lot cheaper than building Hydrogen or LiIon charging infrastructure for these places, and for larger vehicles, it would be much easier to build in the idea of battery exchange in the field.

If these batteries are dense enough and cheap enough, they will offer an alternative to grid-tied electric vehicles. Or we could see some standard created like "insert this battery into this standard slot in your trunk to double your current LiIon range on road trip" (single use only).
 
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I find it funny that while citing the advantages, they ignore the major glaring disadvantage: Cycle Life.

lithium batteries last 1000-3000+ cycles.

Aluminum Air batteries last 1 cycle!

It's not rechargeable. The aluminum is rendered unusable by the discharge. To recharge, you need to return the spent battery material for recycling and replace with fresh aluminum.

It might have some niche applications, but it isn't going to replace Lithium batteries in EVs.

It might be feasible, depending on cost. According to the article, in terms of weight, the aluminum air battery has 6 times higher energy density per kg. In other words, you need 1/6 the weight to get similar mileage. Model S battery weighs 1200 lbs. To get the same mileage, you'll need 200 lbs of aluminum air batteries. Carting around 200 lbs of batteries, especially if they're modular in say 50 lbs packs, is much more feasible than swapping out a 1200 lbs battery.

The other big question is can the batteries output enough power for high performance applications.
 
It might be feasible, depending on cost. According to the article, in terms of weight, the aluminum air battery has 6 times higher energy density per kg. In other words, you need 1/6 the weight to get similar mileage. Model S battery weighs 1200 lbs. To get the same mileage, you'll need 200 lbs of aluminum air batteries. Carting around 200 lbs of batteries, especially if they're modular in say 50 lbs packs, is much more feasible than swapping out a 1200 lbs battery.

The other big question is can the batteries output enough power for high performance applications.
Still not terribly feasible if you have to swap out said 200 LBS battery every 300-500 miles... Now if they somehow design the battery packs so that you can just pull out the expended Anode and replace on the fly like you would insert a 9V in a smoke detector than that would be another thing entirely. But the costs to ship said Anodes all over and the distribution chains for the removal and recycling of expended ones, I can't imagine that when the process is all said and done would show a net environmental/financial benefit over existing Lithium or Gasoline solutions.
 
Still not terribly feasible if you have to swap out said 200 LBS battery every 300-500 miles... Now if they somehow design the battery packs so that you can just pull out the expended Anode and replace on the fly like you would insert a 9V in a smoke detector than that would be another thing entirely. But the costs to ship said Anodes all over and the distribution chains for the removal and recycling of expended ones, I can't imagine that when the process is all said and done would show a net environmental/financial benefit over existing Lithium or Gasoline solutions.


Another issue: Running Cost is expected to be more in line with Gas powered cars than EVs.

Phinergy demoed a prototype car with Aluminum-Air battery back in 2013, with claimed deal with auto manufacturer that would see it on the road by 2017... Still no sign of that and little out Phinergy recently.

They made nearly all the same claims, so this is nothing new.

This is just supposed to fix one of the degradation issues.

Other than that, it reminds me a lot of hydrogen cars. Chicken and Egg infrastructure issues along with higher operating cost, that relegate it to a niche case.
 
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Still not terribly feasible if you have to swap out said 200 LBS battery every 300-500 miles... Now if they somehow design the battery packs so that you can just pull out the expended Anode and replace on the fly like you would insert a 9V in a smoke detector than that would be another thing entirely. But the costs to ship said Anodes all over and the distribution chains for the removal and recycling of expended ones, I can't imagine that when the process is all said and done would show a net environmental/financial benefit over existing Lithium or Gasoline solutions.

Well, you wouldn't be wrong there. It essentially comes down to how much these things will cost to manufacture and distribute. It might be feasible for short haul flights though.
 
It might be feasible for short haul flights though.

That's probably a good niche for it. You only need to have the Aluminum Refresh package at airports, and the specific energy advantage really matters when you are lifting off.
 
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Their own numbers don't add up. They claim 7p/mile and 1500 miles then say It'll cost 5k... That's like 3+ pounds a mile lol.

Busses and planes, trucks and ships, maybe if it is 20%+ cheaper. Cars, nope.
 
Aluminium is super common, super cheap, and super high-density, and super-less-likely-to-catch-on-fire!.

It is also another thing; super light!

This might just be the breakthrough technology that makes possible viable, small-sized electric commercial aircraft!
 
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Sort of unrelated but related - they found the cause of the dendrites that cause Lithium Ion battery failure -

ethylene carbonate contamination.
Wonder if Tesla figured that out, their battery lifetime data is excellent.. Degradation is incredibly slow for their modern packs.
I wonder if not what this will do.. Very interesting.
 
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/08/14/...NafrJ17aLGjBl663raV_eQY7vSEx_c-Io8H68zXVLwPTk

I faced this problem firsthand while working at Tesla on the first Roadster battery, and it's the reason why Gleb Yushin, Alex Jacobs and I founded Sila Nanotechnologies. Combined, we have spent 40 years researching, testing and building new battery technologies, and we have found that the best, fastest path to improve capacity and bring down costs for the scale we need today is Advanced Lithium-ion batteries.
 
Basically, battery tech just needs to keep moving forward. Really no different from ICE tech advancing over time.
 
I find it funny that while citing the advantages, they ignore the major glaring disadvantage: Cycle Life.

lithium batteries last 1000-3000+ cycles.

Aluminum Air batteries last 1 cycle!

It's not rechargeable. The aluminum is rendered unusable by the discharge. To recharge, you need to return the spent battery material for recycling and replace with fresh aluminum.

It might have some niche applications, but it isn't going to replace Lithium batteries in EVs.

Sounds like the perfect battery for powering a propeller driven low speed stealth cruise missile! one way trip, no recharge needed!
 
Just saw this thread. My only question is; Does it turn into a raging inferno when punctured?
LI-Ions have needed replaced for 10 years. Just cant, they're too damn good at being batteries.
 
Just saw this thread. My only question is; Does it turn into a raging inferno when punctured?
LI-Ions have needed replaced for 10 years. Just cant, they're too damn good at being batteries.
I recall reading it is safe, the electrolyte leaks out and is environmentally friendly.
Although I cant make the claim because I dont know what it is.
 
I recall reading it is safe, the electrolyte leaks out and is environmentally friendly.
Although I cant make the claim because I dont know what it is.
Thats good.
I couldnt care less about the long term local environmental effects. Its human fireballs I try to avoid more so.
 
Damn, I want one. Obviously they were just fishing for money with that article or I'd have one of these in my truck by now.

Yep, they are nice... Except for one big problem as stated above: it is not rechargeable. There would need to be an infrastructure for recycling and exchange for aluminum air batteries to work. Feasible for planes and ships... Not so convenient for private cars.
 
Aluminum-Air battery sounds pretty impressive. Will wait until they can refine the tech and eliminate the aluminum part. The Air-Battery would be a big hit with the shiny air things.
 
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