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Science/Tech See other Science/Tech Articles Title: EV Battery Breakthrough: Twice The Range, Five Minutes To Charge "Korean scientists claim to have found a new anode material that can substantially increase a battery's range while massively improve charging time" The amount of research being done into better batteries for electric cars is perhaps the clearest indication of how high the stakes are in the car world. Breakthrough after breakthrough comes from labs around the world, and the latest is among the most impressive a new anode material that can increase a battery’s range twofold while greatly accelerating charging times. The news comes from the Center for Energy Storage Research at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology. A team of scientists from the center succeeded in developing a silicon anode to replace the graphite used currently in EV batteries, greatly improving their performance. Silicon is not a new material for the battery-making industry. It has a much greater energy storage capacity than graphite—ten times as much, according to the news release of the KIST—but it is a lot less stable than graphite. This means that silicon, unlike graphite, expands and shrinks quickly during charge-discharge cycles, which affects that impressive storage capacity and shortens the life of the battery. The KIST researchers solved this problem by drying the material. Literally. They mixed silicon and corn starch with water and then heated the mixture up using “a simple thermal process used for frying food” to seal the result, which was a carbon-silicon compound. The compound has displayed four times the energy storage capacity of graphite anodes. It has also made it possible to charge an EV battery to 80 percent in just five minutes. And it’s eco-friendly. "We were able to develop carbon-silicon composite materials using common, everyday materials and simple mixing and thermal processes with no reactors," the lead researcher, Hun-Gi Jung said. "The simple processes we adopted and the composites with excellent properties that we developed are highly likely to be commercialized and mass-produced. The composites could be applied to lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles and energy storage systems ESSs." This last statement makes the breakthrough different from most others their authors tend to be guarded in their optimism and with a good reason. Taking an innovation from the lab to the market doesn’t always work out. But if that carbon-silicon compound that the KIST researchers developed can indeed be commercialized quickly, it could do wonders for the EV industry. A lot of research in the field seems to focus on new electrode materials and new electrolytes to make the batteries more reliable, cheaper, and—the Achilles heel of EVs—faster charging. German scientists, for example, recently developed a new electrode coating process that lowers the cost of the whole battery while boosting its energy density. Other researchers are experimenting with alternatives to lithium as an electrolyte and electrode component to improve on the dominant tech. While the breakthroughs make headlines, the evolution in lithium-ion batteries continues without much fanfare but with impressive outcomes. A BloombergNEF study recently revealed that the cost of an EV battery pack has fallen from $1,000 per kWh a decade ago to between $156 and $200 per kWh today. This is still not as cheap as internal combustion engine cars, but it is much closer to the cost parity target, which is $100 per kWh. In the meantime, energy density has been improving, which means the range has been growing. Tesla’s latest car to hit the market, the Model Y, has a range of up to 315 miles on a single charge. It’s all good news, it seems, even if global EV sales are slowing down. All large carmakers are ready with a lineup of electric models to respond to emerging demand that all hope will flourish. There remains only one problem, then, over the long term. EV batteries can’t last forever. There will be millions of these ready for recycling in just a decade if sales projections materialize. And recycling costs money, too. “What still needs to percolate through to the industry and consumers is that the end of life, whatever it is, will come at a cost, and that has to be incorporated into the selling price,” the CEO of Belgian chemicals producer Umicore, Marc Grynberg, said last year. “There’s a fee to be paid. Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 4.
#1. To: Anthem (#0)
A battery breakthrough has been just around the corner for decades. But tomorrow never comes. 80% charge in 5 minutes would require an extremely powerful charger - at least 2 megawatts, and more than that if the electric vehicle's (EV) range was going to be over 150 miles or so. Transferring that much power to the the vehicle would take some large and expensive cables and connectors. Besides, even if an EV battery could be charged in 5 minutes, the electrical generation and distribution system in the US (or for that matter, anywhere else in the world where cars are already in widespread use) couldn't support replacing more than a small percentage of gasoline fueled vehicles. Eric Peters, the Libertarian car guy, makes a good case that since fedgov knows that, the real goal of its pushing EVs -- and suppressing internal combustion vehicles -- is to limit and restrict Americans' mobility. And mobility is essential to freedom.
Oh yeah, there are a lot of problems with the electric car scheme. Certainly taking away independent travel is on the list. They are also toxic. I had this to say on a thread over at Liberty'sFlame.com on a rate earth mining thread: There have been advances in battery technology. I follow it and, yes, there are many false claims. It may be to support consumer expectations by providing false hope, or there may be an advance in the tech that makes batteries quickly rechargeable. Even then, it doesn't make sense to me to be pushing it so hard right now. Maybe it's because the AngloZionists need an alternative industry that isn't dependent on oil. They have taken control of a lot of lithium reserves, and are currently trying to get control of other rare earth reserves. Electric cars and solar power are both mining intensive. Bob Lutz spoke about the elimination of private autos in cities during a presentation in this interesting video "Why Driving Matters":
Interesting video. Thanks.
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