Zinc-Air Batteries

[Lock]

Back in June needWheels asked:

...what ever happened to Zinc-Air batteries?

ReVolt Technology AS has been working on this since 2004...
http://www.revolttechnology.com/

Report from MIT Technology Review last October:
http://www.technologyreview.com/business/23812/page1/
High-Energy Batteries Coming to Market

A few snips:
"A Swiss company says it has developed rechargeable zinc-air batteries that can store three times the energy of lithium ion batteries, by volume, while costing only half as much. ReVolt, of Staefa, Switzerland, plans to sell small "button cell" batteries for hearing aids starting next year and to incorporate its technology into ever larger batteries, introducing cell-phone and electric bicycle batteries in the next few years. It is also starting to develop large-format batteries for electric vehicles."

"ReVolt says it has developed methods for controlling the shape of the zinc electrode (by using certain gelling and binding agents) and for managing the humidity within the cell. It has also tested a new air electrode that has a combination of carefully dispersed catalysts for improving the reduction of oxygen from the air during discharge and for boosting the production of oxygen during charging. Prototypes have operated well for over one hundred cycles, and the company's first products are expected to be useful for a couple of hundred cycles. McDougall hopes to increase this to between 300 and 500 cycles, which will make them useful for mobile phones and electric bicycles."

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tks
Lock

 

[flathill]

These guys are hiring 250 up in Portland. Short oil

The legendary Andrew Burke at UC Davis says it is real.

 

[neptronix]

Wow. Even a hundred cycles is a massive breakthrough, considering that they were previously getting a dozen at most?
If it's really half cost and triple the energy density of current lithium ion, you'd have 300wHr/kg at worst and 750wHr/kg at best. You could then have 3 times the battery and not worry about the cycles as much as you have so much damn capacity that it rarely needs recharging.

That's pretty exciting, Lock. Thanks for the tip off as always...

 

[o00scorpion00o]

Do these batteries need to breath ? And would they need to be mounted in such a way that they can get lots or air ?

I'm not that up on these batteries!

Probably at least 2 years away yet!

 

[markobetti]

I allready put something interesting in one thread before but nobody reacted. ..http://www.leomotors.com/
click on range extender ...
They allready sell it ..on the market as they say

 

[Joseph C.]

I allready put something interesting in one thread before but nobody reacted. ..http://www.leomotors.com/
click on range extender ...
They allready sell it ..on the market as they say

Very impressive, so are their motorbikes and drive trains.

Edit: http://www.azom.com/news.aspx?newsID=23364

 

[neptronix]

You have to constantly feed it zinc though.
And where do you dispose of the oxidized zinc.
That seems to be a big downside.

 

[o00scorpion00o]

HAHA they do need to breath lol

Interesting stuff, they release oxygen during the discharge!

I'm learning

 

[parabellum]

I allready put something interesting in one thread before but nobody reacted. ..http://www.leomotors.com/
click on range extender ...
They allready sell it ..on the market as they say

This tread is about rechargeable Zinc Air battery with electricity, not Zinc balls. :wink: We have not overseen your last post to Leo motors, it is also interesting, but in other manner.