Who will win Lithium batteries race and make money out of best technology? We do not know and that is why we are choosing to invest in the New Oil - Lithium itself as a commodity for the 21st century."BASF to develop 350-mile e-car 'super battery'
Lithium-sulphur to rain on lithium-ion from great height
By Alun Taylor • Get more from this author
19th May 2009 11:38 GMT
Leccy Tech German firm BASF and US company Sion Power have agreed to co-develop a battery technology with the potential to deliver five times the capacity of a conventional lithium-ion battery of the same size.
The battery is based on lithium-sulphur chemistry, which Sion’s been tinkering with for some time. Now it's time to take the technology and put it to practical use.
Enter BASF, and a partnership designed to “accelerate the commercialisation of Sion Power’s proprietary lithium-sulphur battery technology... for the electric vehicle market”.
Should we care? Yes, because Li-S batteries are said to have a very high specific energy density, roughly 2600Wh/kg. They're also said to perform better than lithium-ion batteries at low temperatures, and are made from cheaper and less toxic raw materials.
There are catches. Cycle life has always been one of the traditional problems with Li-S batteries. A 2600Wh/kg battery is a great idea on paper – but not if it will only take a charge 150 or 200 times before giving up the ghost.
This is BASF's role: to help address the lifespan problem while Sion continues working on upping the battery’s energy density.
Even a 500Wh/kg Li-S battery with a Li-ion life cycle would provide more than twice the energy density of existing EV batteries. This would open up the possibility of e-cars chugging for 350 miles, or further, on a single charge.
When it'll happen is anyone's guess - no further details about the project’s timescale have been released. ®"
1 comment:
From the looks of it, Sion Power's Lithium battery proves to be promising.
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