New technology enhances the Battery Performance

Credits to: http://paultan.org/

Read an article by Paultan.org stating that the automakers over in Japan are working out with companies in other industries in developing a technology to improve the performance of storage batteries which can be used in both vehicles and homes.

First of all, Toyota is working together with the Tokyo Institute of Technology and the High Energy Accelerator Research Organisation, in creating a prototype on the next-generation storage battery that’s based on a solid core instead of a liquid one. Because it doesn’t have an easily combustible liquid core, the new-gen battery doesn’t require fire-retardant materials, which will allow the use of a simple structure to lower costs. With the technology, battery can easily be processed into sheet form, which is able to store several times the amount of electricity, compared to the current gen of EV batteries. It enables a higher maximum driving distance per full charge for compact ( Electric Vehicle ) EVs to around 1,000 km compared to 200 km in the current development. Toyota & its partners aim to further improve the battery & commercialize it sometime in 2015 to 2020, and it is said that the tech can also be used to design compact, home-use storage batteries.

Secondly, Mazda together with Hiroshima University has come up with a new electrode material that it says can boost battery capacity by roughly 80%. The material, which is based on molecular spheres of carbon measuring several hundred nanometers in diameter, can approximately halve a battery’s weight but maintain the same levels of storage capacity. Mazda says the new electrode material is likely to be commercialised in about 5 years.

Last but not least, besides the 2 automakers, electronics giant NEC says it has developed a lithium-ion battery with an electrode that uses manganese instead of cobalt, which is more expensive. It has also altered the composition of the battery’s electrolyte and improved its durability, making it possible for the unit to be recharged 20,000 times. This will make for the development of household storage batteries with a 13 year life span, compared with 7-8 years right now. NEC is looking forward in getting the durability up to 20 years & have the battery out into the market in 5 years.