Lithium Batteries Just Keep Getting Better

October 22, 2006 – Vol.11 No.31

LITHIUM BATTERIES JUST KEEP GETTING BETTER.

Like it or not, batteries are set to play an increasing role in our lives. Aside from storing energy needed for cell phones, laptop computers and iPods, batteries will increasingly be a major component of our cars, trucks and buses. Hybrid cars have big battery packs. The battery packs in plug-in hybrids will be bigger. All-electric cars will have still bigger battery packs. If hydrogen fuel cell vehicles ever make it to new car showrooms they’ll likely have big batteries too. And also if we ever have off-grid solar homes they’ll need battery packs as well.

Get the picture? Batteries have a big future and belong to a growth industry.

Lithium based battery technology is now a state-of-the-art that’s still improving. In the few short years since it has become commercially available, lithium technology has improved dramatically.

(This editor can attest: The lithium battery in my two-plus year old laptop computer takes a few hours to charge. But the lithium battery in a newly purchased power tool will charge in half an hour. I could almost set my watch by it.)

Short recharge times - we’re talking minutes - are possible now. The next step may be longevity, long life.

Altair Nanotechnologies says that it has tested its proprietary NanoSafe lithium-based batteries over 15,000 charge/discharge cycles, and at the end the batteries still retained over 85 percent of their original charge capacity.

In the real world 15,000 cycles would translate into a life span of more than 40 years if the batteries were charged daily in electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles. But the company says don’t get too excited, other wear and tear factors would limit the life span to a measly 20 years. Of course at twenty years the batteries would outlive the vehicle. Typically, in a decade or so most cars and trucks go from the showroom to the scrap heap. (We’d have to change our thinking about vehicle life if a major and expensive component could outlive the vehicle. Vehicles themselves will need to be built to last longer.)

Altair Nano used a cycle that brought the cells to full charge and full discharge in six minutes. The tests also showed that partial charging and discharging did not impact the life or holding charge capacity of the battery: there was no memory loss associated with partial charging.

Altair Nano batteries are being used in all-electric vehicles to be built by Phoenix Motorcars. Those vehicles, an SUV and a sport utility truck (SUT), are claimed to have recharge times of 10 minutes. The SUT will have a standard range of 130 miles and top speed of 95 miles per hour.

Visit Altair Nano at http://www.altairnano.com/