Battery Education

6,831 Lithium-ion Batteries

6,831 laptop-type lithium-ion batteries are jam packed in the new Tesla Roadster, a company founded in part by Google executives.

In addition to the 6,831 rechargeable lithium-ion batteries the Tesla Roadster has a range of 250 miles. Fuel efficiency: 1 to 2 cents per mile. Top speed: more than 130 mph.

The full story can be found at: http://www.wired.com/news/wiredmag/0,71414-0.html?tw=rss.index

Unl next time, Dan Hagopian www.Batteryship.com.

Cleanest Light-duty Truck In The World

Mitsubishi Fuso, part of DaimlerChrysler's Truck Group, began selling its Canter Eco Hybrid light-duty truck in Japan. Dubbed as the cleanest light-duty truck in the world, this truck releases 41% less nitrogen oxide and consumes 20% less fuel than conventionally-powered models. It is a hybrid diesel-electric truck that switches its operational mode according to the driving situation.

Mitsubishi Fuso Truck & Bus Corporation issued a press release about the new Canter Eco Hybrid light-duty truck stating that it:

• includes a small clean-burning diesel engine
• an ultra-slim electric motor/generator
• and advanced lithium-ion batteries in a drive train that also includes a high-efficiency automated mechanical transmission.

"The result is a medium-duty truck that achieves up to 30% better fuel economy in delivery applications and also produces significantly less emissions than its standard diesel-only model." (http://www.mitfuso.com/pages/news-hevconcept.html)

According to Mitsubishi Fuso Truck & Bus Corporation the electric motor functions as a generator to brake the vehicle. The generator then converts brake energy into electric energy and stores it in the lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery for the next moving off or acceleration.

Conventional trucks use a braking system that will convert the truck’s kinetic energy (its forward motion) into heat energy that is ultimately dissipated into the air via the brake pads and disks.

Until next time - Dan Hagopian, Batteryship.com

Lithium Ion - Your Car?

Altair Nanotechnologies plans to test an electric vehicle prototype that incorporate lithium ion technology. We use lithium ion batteries or the cousins lithium polymer in PDAs, digital camera, and laptops, amongst others, but because of lithium's energy potential the chemical could soon be powerin your car.

Altair Nanotechnologies of Reno, NV, has announced plans to start testing its new lithium batteries in prototype electric vehicles, with road tests scheduled to begin by year-end. The company says its new electrode materials allow higher bursts of power, longer battery life, and more available energy storage capacity -- and far quicker "fill-up" -- than previous lithium-ion batteries. Their goal: an electric car that performs as well as a conventional car.

Altairnano plans to incorporate batteries that use their new lithium-ion electrode material into a prototype electric vehicle. The batteries use a safe, stable structure that increases their lifetime by preventing the electrodes from expanding and contracting as the ions move in and out -- a principle reason for the eventual death of conventional lithium-ion batteries.

The batteries can also handle big bursts of power, which occur in both fast charging and quick acceleration. In fact according to Gotcher their batteries could charge in about the time it takes to fill a tank of gas and buy a cup of coffee and snack -- six to eight minutes.

Until next time - Dan Hagopian, Batteryship.com

Exploding Lithium-ion Batteries

"A mobile phone exploded in his living room last year, causing up to $100,000 in damages. Ortega and his family had to live in a trailer for a few months while their house in California was fixed" reports the Chicago Tribune....

Fire and insurance investigators find that the cause was due to a phone's lithium-ion battery failure and subsequent spontaneous combustion. Ortega's case is one of 339 battery-related overheating incidents tracked by the Consumer Product Safety Commission since 2003.

Conservatively in excess of 100 million battery related devices have been bought by consumer since 2003. So the 339 incidents report by the Saftey Commission represent .000003 (a very small percent) of all battery related devices on the market. So no major alarm about batteries.

In addition most lithium based batteries have integrated power management circuits that protect against over-voltage and under-voltage conditions which minimizes chemical or mehcanical failure.

However it should be made clear that lithium-ion and or lithium polymer batteries are specifically designed to store a tremendous amount of energy in a small space; and yes it is possible if there is a short circuits or other failure the stored energy may (I emphasize MAY) cause an explosion small or large.

Again let me stress that such explosions and fires are rare considering the hundreds of millions of cell phones, laptops, digital cameras and other devices that are powered by lithium-ion batteries.

"The safety record of lithium-ion batteries is very good," said Dan Doughty, a battery expert at Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico. "But occasionally there are problems."

Lithium batteries contain lithium metal and a break down of lithium (ion and polymer) cna be found here:http://www.batteryeducation.com/2006/04/battery_chemist.html.

Also you can understand the energy potential of lithium here: http://www.batteryeducation.com/2006/04/energy_potentia.html.

The real point of this post is that the liklihood of lithium based batteries actually exploding is minimal.

Until next time - Dan Hagopian, Batteryship.com
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