Comments on: Air-fueled Battery for Electric Cars

By: Jack

Jack — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 15:38:41 +0000

So it sounds like the battery breaths oxygen binds with the carbon and expels carbon dioxide? If so, real great idea.

This is no better than the current fossil fuels we use and we are consuming oxygen (which we need to live) and adding to the carbon footprint that we are trying to avoid, nice!

By: battery

battery — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 13:37:08 +0000

The idea has been existed for many years in Japan. Here is one example US20040241537.

By: Alasdair I. Macgregor

Alasdair I. Macgregor — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 11:01:44 +0000

I have just discovered this website and its excellent. This new technology looks well suited to the new SkyCat Hybrid Airship technology. My interest in the Skycat is that my own new Micro-reservoir / fresh water conservation tool would benefit from its use as a logistics and disseminating medium. I am close to generating investment funding from the US and possibly India but not sadly, from the UK.

By: Christopher smith

Christopher smith — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 20:20:05 +0000

Why don’t we just have spare batteries that are fully charged in a swapping station. Then instead of waiting hours & hours, you would just swap a drained battery with a fully charged one after a small fee.

Simple.

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 18:03:02 +0000

If this battery absorbs oxygen while discharging then it will release oxygen when charging. Don’t be such worry worts about carbon dioxide. Plants love carbon dioxide. They need it to live. Carbon dioxide levels increase AFTER the Earth begins to warm. Have you read about Climategate. Have you read how the leading research scientists were caught red handed falsifying the data and punishing those climate scientists that did not agree with manmade global warming by denying them grant money? Have you read about the medieval warming period when the Earth was considerably warmer than it is now? Do you realize that the Sun has the biggest influence on our climate? Wake up!

By: Darrin Cook

Darrin Cook — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 18:20:53 +0000

Good Day,

I think it is great to have alternative energy sources. However, without knowing too much about the “Air fed” technology it makes me wonder if we would have to compete for air if lots of these vehicles were on the road. We know the potential problems with competing for food when corn and other foods are used for ethanol production. So far, my preference is the EESTOR ultracapacitor that is going to be used in the ZENNergy Drivetrain fall this year 2009. It is solid state (No chemicals), recyclable cheap and best of all, it will recharge in less than 10-minutes. The range is 400 kms at 120kms (250miles @ 75mph)The price of the car will be in the mid-20’s range. ZENN is not an auto maker, they are a drivetrain developer which means they want to be able to produce drivetrain systems for whatever “IS” on the road as well as what “Will be” on the road.

By: Ace

Ace — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 01:12:52 +0000

Wow falcon, that sounds amazing its amazing. How fast they’re progressing. It would be great to be able to drive that car with you being able to relax since you don’t have to worry much on your environment.

By: Falcon

Falcon — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 09:54:18 +0000

This battery technology is life changing. According to the press, Bruce and company have already achieved 8x capacity over current batteries…with their goal of 10x in sight. Today you have an electric car that can run 200 miles on a single charge, imagine now 1600-2000 miles on a single charge. If this technology can be wrapped up with the MIT “fast charge” or “beltway battery” research to recharge Lithium Ion batteries in 30 seconds, the cost to run those 2000 miles would be fractions of what we pay now per liter of fuel. Houses could have solar panels charging banks of batteries that could give the homeowner power during low-light condition and at night. These batteries would impact every single technology of our modern lives and make possible new technologies that were not available to us merely because energy storage was not compact enough. With mobile phones using this technology a user would probably never need to physically plug a phone in for recharging, the user could merely set it on a induction charging plate for 30 seconds and the battery could last – well on mine I can talk for 9 hours on a charge, imagine 90 hours. Cities could have “battery only” zones to reduce air pollution. Whatever company gets the licence to manufacture, I would buy up every share I could afford. Brilliant simply brilliant!

By: Noah

Noah — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 15:24:43 +0000

@Servaas and Tamar:

If they’re getting the carbon in the batteries from non-fossil sources, then releasing it as CO2 is probably a closed loop, making this technology carbon neutral. It’s like burning ethanol: the plants used to make the ethanol take CO2 out out of the air, so when the ethanol is burned, it’s just putting back what was there earlier.

Unfortunately, the write-up on this is a little slim on the details, so we don’t really know where the carbon is coming from. I’m googling, but not finding anything on how the carbon is sourced.

By: Dowlan Smith

Dowlan Smith — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 22:06:36 +0000

Brett- Zinc-oxide batteries can be electrically recharged but can obtain a higher energy density currently with mechanical replacement of the cathode cartrige and factory recycling.

The article does not tell what kind of Carbon-Oxygen molecule is formed. My understanding is that the oxygen is captured in the battery and then released when recharged so no CO or CO2 is released. It is a battery not a fuel-cell.

By: Matthew Ndubuisi

Matthew Ndubuisi — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 17:37:10 +0000

The idea sounds great. Suppose a solar panel is placed on top of the car to recharge the battery as the car runs. That will extend the life of the battery and possibly remove the convectional recharging method.

By: ken upton

ken upton — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 14:44:13 +0000

There was another Prof . His name was William Beale who invented the Free piston stirling engine about 40 years ago in the USA . This is what is needed for charging ,as the FPSE will run on any heat source> from the heat of sunshine on the roof car to anything that burns in the open air in the boot .Using the right sort home grown fuel ,the carbon can be put back into our ecosystems to make the same things grow for ever more .

The only problem with these engines .They are cheap and simple and can almost cost nothing to run ,so our present money money systems .Do not want them to be used. Rev Stirling and Mr Diesel made their basic inventions over 200 years ago. We still use diesel ,as you pay for the tank of fuel. It’s another story ,when you can just pick it up or it comes in. As the daylight starts to light up your lives and charge your cars heat sink. Why does mankind have to make such a big deal.When our planet is falling apart from overuse,bad management,exploitation ,etc
etc .Just a few years ago the Stirling cycle was updated to rotary Peer cycle ,that would be even better for EV charging .

By: Enayat Bhutani

Enayat Bhutani — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 17:22:50 +0000

I must congratulate Prof. Peter Bruce and his team for developing air fueled batteries. Agreed to the point of great battery back up, lighter in weight and much cheaper than the normal battery. But again the point is how much it will effect our environment in terms of pollution as there is clearly mentioned that carbon will inhale oxygen in atmospheric conditions, which will conceptually leads to the formation of CO2. You can’t neglect the effective work that prof. is doing but still the concern is of pollution.

By: Luc

Luc — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 19:24:16 +0000

@Tamar

The current fuel burning cars are also using oxygen.(part of burning process)
But I don’t know what’s the difference in amount of oxygen needed by this battery and diesels/petrol engines…?

By: Tamar

Tamar — Sun, 24 May 2009 13:47:39 +0000

It sounds like this fuel cell is breathing – in oxygen, out CO2. So – if we use these, we will end up with not enough Oxygen to breathe. I would not want such a car.

By: Francisco A Roque

Francisco A Roque — Sat, 23 May 2009 00:35:01 +0000

Can hardly wait to get my hands on one, in the meantime, let’s try resuscitating the air car, like tata motors, the rest of the world needs to work on these projects to eliminate gasoline, that is my goal.

By: Brett

Brett — Fri, 22 May 2009 22:51:36 +0000

I’m not sure this is some great breakthrough. There are already batteries used for small devices like hearing aids that are air activated. You remove a piece of tape from the battery before placing it in the device, and the oxidation of zinc creates a charge. There’s a quick overview on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zinc_Air_battery

By: Servaas

Servaas — Fri, 22 May 2009 15:32:26 +0000

It binds carbon with oxygen to produce energy, like the normal polluting fuels. Is this new technology than really an improvement for the environment? It might be lasting longer but if it is polluting we would probably never use it in the new generation of cars.

By: Ahsanullah Soomro

Ahsanullah Soomro — Fri, 22 May 2009 13:40:26 +0000

This is great research by Professor Peter Bruce and his team. I congratulate them for this occasion. Hope further research will be continue and car will be present at market soon.

By: Ravi Soparkar

Ravi Soparkar — Fri, 22 May 2009 13:09:10 +0000

I must congratulate Prof. Peter Bruce and his team for developing air fueled batteries. Air fueled batteries will have great advantages as multifold power capacity, almost zero pollution and cost effective too. We look forward to see commercial production much before scheduled time. Ravi Soparkar, Pune, India