Silicon, the new lithium?
A new breakthrough may bring silicon-air batteries to market in less than 5 years. Is it time for lithium-ion to step aside?
Sun, Nov 29 2009 at 9:39 PM EST
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Image: Technion-Israel Institute of Technology If it weren't for Bolivia, the electric car industry wouldn't be zipping quite as energetically as it is right now. Lithium carbonate is not an overly abundant mineral and nearly every auto manufacturer is banking on the reserve of lithium that rests quietly in the Bolivian Andes, representing more than one half of the world's supply.
Lithium batteries, while lighter and longer-lasting than then their nickel-cadmium and lead-acid predecessors, are not easily recycled and are prone to problems when they encounter high humidity and heat conditions.
But in one fell swoop, an announcement last week from the Technion-Israel Institute may rather quickly make the lithium-ion battery a thing of the past.
The joint research project led by three scientists in three continents — Yair Ein-Eli of Technion, Digby Macdonald of Penn State University, and Rika Hagiwara of Kyoto University — has yielded a working prototype of the battery which dispenses with the typical heavy, metal-based cathode structure and replaces it with something much lighter ... air.The anode is inexpensive, totally nontoxic and biodegradable — oxidized silicon. The current prototype is not rechargeable but can last for thousands of hours and according to Ein-Eli, a rechargeable consumer battery may be available within five years.
Car batteries could be as little as 10 years away, and these batteries will not have any of the disposal issues of batteries past. Silicon, as Ein-Eli explains, "... will turn into sand that would be recycled into silicon and then into power again."
And cars are just the beginning. A lightweight and inexpensive energy storage system with high energy capacity could be a perfect companion for intermittent fuel stocks like solar and wind, making renewable energy easy to store and distribute.
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Comments
Khalid
04/26/2010 01:17 AM
Is this recycling Li-ion batteries a profitable business that can stand alone or it has to be subsidized by goverments?
David Leithauser
12/10/2009 10:31 AM
I can see a few "good news" facets to this. For one thing, if it looks like lithium-ion batteries are going to be obsolute in a 10 years, Bolivia will not hoard their lithium. They will sell it cheap, driving down the price. Also, even if the battery is never rechargable, if they are cheap enough you can drive to the "gas" station and swap out the dying battery for a new one, then recycle the old battery (or just dump it if it is nontoxic and degradable). Solves the problem of long recharge.... More
JonT
12/09/2009 09:37 AM
Three continents? Japan, while an island, is generally considered to be associated with Asia, and Israel is certainly in Asia, and the US is in North America. That's two continents.
Guest
12/09/2009 09:35 AM
You guys state that it can last thousands of hours. At what current draw? I can pull 1 milliamp per hour from a 2000mAH Eneloop, and make the same statement. Also, what is the expected capacity?
Nate
12/09/2009 08:20 AM
Nice graphics, no confusing labels and no explanation of how it works.
Alexandre
12/09/2009 08:00 AM
Pushing over Bolivia its own incompetence of manipulating materials over manipulating countries and people are really awesome. Besides congrats to the real scientists that are finding new alternatives
Jos
12/09/2009 06:47 AM
I was always told sand in your fueltank kills your engine ?
Tane
12/09/2009 06:26 AM
Actually, if the battery can be built so that it's easily swappable, and the components can be recycled for around the same energy cost as the battery can give, then it can run on the same model as our petrol cars do.
G
12/09/2009 05:13 AM
Also, the step from non-rechargeable batteries to rechargeable ones can be a *big* one. Unless someone can make that step, this is not at all a replacement for Li-ion batteries.
So, good work, keep it up, but it's not yet a big deal.
Jan Tytgat
Today 03:04 AM
Karl, you said: "Lithium batteries,... are not easily recycled". This is not correct: Umicore has a prooven technology for all Li-ion battery chemistries and is going to invest in a 7000 ton capacity installation in Belgium. See www.batteryrecycling.umicore.com
