Ceramatec Battery - Power Grid Paradigm Shift?

[Andy9o8 0]

As a mere consumer, and a layperson to the field, this caught my eye and seems interesting. I'm wondering what people with expertise in engineering, etc. think about this.

http://www.heraldextra.com/news/article_b0372fd8-3f3c-11de-ac77-001cc4c002e0.html

Long article; here are the first few paragraphs:

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New battery could change world, one house at a time

In a modest building on the west side of Salt Lake City, a team of specialists in advanced materials and electrochemistry has produced what could be the single most important breakthrough for clean, alternative energy since Socrates first noted solar heating 2,400 years ago.

The prize is the culmination of 10 years of research and testing -- a new generation of deep-storage battery that's small enough, and safe enough, to sit in your basement and power your home.

It promises to nudge the world to a paradigm shift as big as the switch from centralized mainframe computers in the 1980s to personal laptops. But this time the mainframe is America's antiquated electrical grid; and the switch is to personal power stations in millions of individual homes.

Former energy secretary Bill Richardson once disparaged the U.S. electrical grid as "third world," and he was painfully close to the mark. It's an inefficient, aging relic of a century-old approach to energy and a weak link in national security in an age of terrorism.

Taking a load off the grid through electricity production and storage at home would extend the life of the system and avoid the expenditure of tens, or even hundreds, of billions to make it "smart."

The battery breakthrough comes from a Salt Lake company called Ceramatec, the R&D arm of CoorsTek, a world leader in advanced materials and electrochemical devices. It promises to reduce dependence on the dinosaur by hooking up with the latest generation of personalized power plants that draw from the sun.

[kallend 1,644]

So Coors beer saves the world.

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[billvon 2,426]

Not too impressed. I did the same with lead-acid batteries. The only thing this brings to the table is (potentially) longer life, but has problems with maintaining operating temperature.

[Andy9o8 0]

Coors, and a yawn.

OK, anyone else?

[rushmc 18]

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So Coors beer saves the world.

Coors makes (or made) the heat shield material for the space shuttle. My mom has a putter made out of the stuff.

"America will never be destroyed from the outside,
if we falter and lose our freedoms,
it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
Abraham Lincoln

[kelpdiver 2]

science articles from newspapers are rarely more than PR releases.

[georgerussia 0]

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As a mere consumer, and a layperson to the field, this caught my eye and seems interesting.

Looking through the hype and marketing campaign I found something I consider significant:

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Inside Ceramatec's wonder battery is a chunk of solid sodium metal mated to a sulphur compound by an extraordinary, paper-thin ceramic membrane. The membrane conducts ions -- electrically charged particles -- back and forth to generate a current. The company calculates that the battery will cram 20 to 40 kilowatt hours of energy into a package about the size of a refrigerator, and operate below 90 degrees C.

This means that the company doesn't have even a working prototype to test! So there is really nothing to discuss about. Every week there is an article from yet another investor-money-greedy company which promises to save the world after you sign a $100M check, and vast majority of them goes nowhere.

* Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

[idrankwhat 0]

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Inside Ceramatec's wonder battery is a chunk of solid sodium metal mated to a sulphur compound by an extraordinary, paper-thin ceramic membrane. ....

I'm all for new technology and I think that there's a good argument for rethinking power generation and storage. But I probably wouldn't want a basement full of those batteries if I lived in a flood plain
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JD85OUkEKKw

Which of course, brings up one of my favorite Youtube videoshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCk0lYB_8c0

[Andy9o8 0]

So anyhow, this is the wave of the future, right?

[headoverheels 291]

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. The company calculates that the battery will cram 20 to 40 kilowatt hours of energy into a package about the size of a refrigerator, and operate below 90 degrees C.

If I calculate correctly, NiMH power density is much higher than that, at least if they are talking about a typical refrigerator.

[idrankwhat 0]

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So anyhow, this is the wave of the future, right?

I'd like to think that localized generation and storage is the wave of the future, so yes. I don't know if this battery technology is the best answer but I'm no battery expert. I think that right now lithium polymer batteries are on the rise. If they're the type that I think they are I've even seen applications where they can be recharged using those stray EM waves that we're constantly bombarded with. Next to the sun, useless EM radiation is in never ending abundance! Imagine, having FOX "news" run your computer without you even having to tune it in

[billvon 2,426]

>Next to the sun, useless EM radiation is in never ending abundance!

Sun at earth's surface: 1000 watts/sq m
Light in well lit conference room: 3 watts/sq m
Incident RF in typical bedroom: .0015 watts/sq m

[skiskyrock 0]

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The most energy-dense batteries available today are huge bottles of super-hot molten sodium, swirling around at 600 degrees or so. At that temperature the material is highly conductive of electricity but it's both toxic and corrosive. You wouldn't want your kids around one of these.

They use solid sodium instead, which we all know is perfectly safe for kids. I'm also curious what this does to the internal resistance of the battery (not helpful when you need lots of current fast).

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Lots of sodium will be needed to make the new batteries, and Ceramatec proposes a symbiotic relationship with the federal government to get it. Enormous quantities of sodium metals, the byproducts of nuclear weapons manufacturing, just happen be available for cleanup at Hanford nuclear reservation near Richland, Wash. It's a ready-made source of material that CoorsTek can recycle.

This may present some minor marketing difficulties.


They have made an improvement on an interesting but not very practical battery technology. I'm not sure that the high energy density is all of that big a selling feature for home use in PV systems. People seem willing to live with lead acid batteries, they just want lower cost and longer life.

[1969912 0]

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Lots of sodium will be needed to make the new batteries, and Ceramatec proposes a symbiotic relationship with the federal government to get it. Enormous quantities of sodium metals, the byproducts of nuclear weapons manufacturing, just happen be available for cleanup at Hanford nuclear reservation near Richland, Wash. It's a ready-made source of material that CoorsTek can recycle.

Not replying to you, skiskyrock, but to the sodium deal in the article...

The sodium metal stored at Hanford is not a byproduct of nuclear weapons (plutonium) manufacturing. It was to be used in the development of Liquid Metal Fast Breeder Reactors (LMFBR's), which can essentially generate more fuel than they consume as they generate heat to run turbines/generators. The "Liquid Metal" is molten sodium, which is a nice coolant for nuclear reactors, especially fast neutron reactors like LMFBR's. Cheers to anyone who has a good use for the sodium. It has never been used as a reactor coolant and is non-radioactive.

"Once we got to the point where twenty/something's needed a place on the corner that changed the oil in their cars we were doomed . . ."
-NickDG

[kallend 1,644]

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So anyhow, this is the wave of the future, right?

.
No, FUSION is the wave of the future, always has been, always will be

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[Andy9o8 0]

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So anyhow, this is the wave of the future, right?

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No, FUSION is the wave of the future, always has been, always will be

I agree it always has been. I don't agree it always will be.

[jgoose71 0]

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. The company calculates that the battery will cram 20 to 40 kilowatt hours of energy into a package about the size of a refrigerator, and operate below 90 degrees C.

If I calculate correctly, NiMH power density is much higher than that, at least if they are talking about a typical refrigerator.

You are correct, however, a NiMH battery cannot be recharged nearly as many times and there is the problem of if the voltage drops below a certain level on the battery, it immediately becomes useless. And then cost. A Car size NiMH battery can cost up to $15,000 (at least the ones I have seen paid for by the government).

My biggest concern with the new batteries is the operating temp. Does it need to be 90C to run or does it run at 90C? I couldn't really tell from the article. 90C is around 180F for us americans. To keep from killing my Air conditioner, I may have to find someplace other than my basement or garage to store it.

"There is an art, it says, or, rather, a knack to flying. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss."
Life, the Universe, and Everything