Quote:
Originally Posted by red-sauerkraut
Water and aluminum correct.
There is one major car company that will be using these batteries soon enough.
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A couple of things you'll want to note:
1) Alcoa is not a "major car company"; they are the world's third largest producer of aluminum.
2) Phinergy's design isn't rechargeable in the same way that a LiIon battery is. You have to physically service the battery by draining the electrolyte and recycling the aluminum plates. Physics dictate that this is a net negative energy equation, just like any battery, but recycling aluminum is very energy intensive.
Combine these these two factors and it's easy to see why Alcoa is the one backing the program, not a major automotive manufacturer. If they can get automotive manufacturers to buy this technology, the demand for aluminum and aluminum recycling will increase, and Alcoa will profit.
I'm not trying to be a wet blanket here, but water is the electrolyte in this process. The primary expendable is this type of battery is aluminum. Your original post claimed that these batteries run on water. They do not. They run on
aluminum and water. Significant energy will be required to recycle the aluminum, not to mention the energy required to reverse the electrolytic reaction involving the water.
Watch the video again carefully. They're pitching this as a range extender for cars with a primary LiIon cell. Why do you think that is? Based on the energy requirements of recycling aluminum & electrolyte, I'd say that they have a net negative cost ratio compared to LiIon + grid power.
They must have discovered this early on, so they're hoping that they can enter the market as a secondary "fallback" power source, which fits their products strong points. Their air-metal battery can be kept in a suspended state almost indefinitely. You simply put the water in a reservoir and flood the battery only when you need it... then you take it in for an expensive service.
I'd give this technology a 30% chance of adoption at best.