Aluminium Air battery

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Richo
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Aluminium Air battery

Post by Richo »

https://phys.org/news/2018-10-catalyst- ... eries.html

1kg of aluminum 700km range.(unsubstantiated)
Use then replace.

Some form of modified flow cell.
So the short answer is NO but the long answer is YES.
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rhills
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Re: Aluminium Air battery

Post by rhills »

If I'm reading that correctly, they're claiming that 1kg of cell, containing 2.5kWh, will propel an EV 700km

Perhaps they're talking about a Matchbox EV???

I believe my Outlander PHEV has 12kWh of power and even with its brand new battery, that still only gives me about 50km usable range. Maybe Aluminium-air kWh's are more powerful than Lithium kWh's :twisted: ?
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brendon_m
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Re: Aluminium Air battery

Post by brendon_m »

I think the "journalist" misinterpreted the quote and then paraphrased to make it even more nonsensical. Reading between the lines I think the researchers were trying to say it's more energy dense than petrol per kg which gets about 500km to a tank and an equivalent weight of aluminium will go to 700km. (50kg@2.5kwh per kg =125kwh "battery")
Its definitely misquoted. Whether it's actually the Bees knees is another story
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Richo
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Re: Aluminium Air battery

Post by Richo »

Sorry yes that should be 2500Wh/kg for the total flow cell.
Its a flow cell - presumably with replaceable solution.
So thier claim was 1kg of ali will have a useable range of ~700km before replacing the ali plates.
You would still need 40-50kg of solution.
But this is still no bigger than the fuel tank that is already on any petrol car.

Given this is still in the "beaker" stage there is still a long way to go for commercialisation.

Perhaps project better place could come around again...
So the short answer is NO but the long answer is YES.
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T1 Terry
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Re: Aluminium Air battery

Post by T1 Terry »

I managed to score an aluminium plate salt water battery of the type the Chinese use for emergency lighting power while sorting through a natural disaster type situation. Apparently they just use the ground water and add a salt packet if there isn't enough salts normally occurring in the ground water in that area. The battery box is moulded plastic with moulded slots for dropping the plates in and a simply spade terminal affair for linking the plates as required.
It is still in the bag it arrived in, been flat out working and travelling to buy new to me cars to actually assemble it and test different chemical/salt mixture reactions to see just what it is capable of achieving.

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jonescg
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Re: Aluminium Air battery

Post by jonescg »

So it's a primary battery then?
Aluminium is interesting as it exists as a 3+ ion in most forms. That is, Al3+ requires 3 moles of electrons to become a metal. In other words, a boatload of electricity.
So the 'stored' energy of a block of aluminium is significant. However it's not a rechargeable battery as such - simply swap it out with another voltaic pile.
The lithium air battery works on a similar principle, but they are a bit further along when it comes to the separator and in transport mechanism.

There's a whole periodic table to play with!
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Richo
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Re: Aluminium Air battery

Post by Richo »

Yes Primary.
So no BMS.
No charger.
No fires.
Just drop out and replace every 700km.
Sound just like project betterplace...

Not too sure what the environmental implications are of the fluid in it.
Also would have to be $/km eqiv or better than current batteries otherwise it would be limited to unique specific applications.

Another that has popped up is STO(sulphur titanates) rather LTO.
But they have limited recharge cycles atm.
More prospective hopefuls.
So the short answer is NO but the long answer is YES.
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