Alternative Energy

Alternative energy news, and information about renewable energy technologies.

Oct 20

New Battery Technology for Hybrid Vehicles

Hybrid Battery Technology A battery developer is claiming its technology can extend the range of hybrid electric vehicles. Technology Research Laboratories Inc. (TRL, Research Triangle Park, N.C.) claims its battery technology can extend the range of hybrid electric vehicles to 75 miles or better per charge. The company claims its battery operates on physical chemistry principles different from conventional lead-acid batteries, and is made almost entirely of carbon and plastic materials. Problems with battery technology have hindered large-scale development. Technology advances are needed to improve consumer confidence in hybrid vehicles.

The company said it is initially targeting the “plug-in” hybrid-electric car market which has so far failed to mesh gears due to unreliable and expensive power sources. Battery disposal also remains an issue. TRL claims its testing showed that a four-passenger electric car be powered by less than 1,000 pounds of its batteries and could travel up to 100 miles on a single charge “depending on speed and road conditions.”

A new and entirely different battery energy source developed by TRL provides a means to achieve hybrid electric vehicles with a range of 75 or more miles per charge. These would suffer no degradation in performance as a result of cycling or standing idle, or age.

Total usable energy is 25 kW/hour, TRL said.

Battery life, weight and cost have combined with a lack of battery charging capacity to slow consumer acceptance of electric cars. TRL is claiming a weight power density for its battery technology of up to 80 W per pound with continuous use and up to 200 W per pound at peak use. Volumetric energy density was about 2 kilowatt hours/feet3.

A typical four passenger electric car powered by less than 1000 pounds of TRL batteries would have a range of between 75 and 100 mile depending upon speed and road conditions. Total useable energy of 25+ kwh.

Life: Indefinitely long in any state of charge
Behavior: batteries can be totally discharged, left in the charged or discharged state, or rapidly cycled with no damage.

The most suitable vehicle application for these batteries is in hybrid types where the vehicle range is not limited by the battery energy storage. However, for a truly practical ‘hybrid plug-in’ design the batteries should be cheap, long life no maintenance, and have capacity to provide driving distances on a single charge of between 50 and 100 miles. Then, much if not most of our driving would be making use of energy sources other than petroleum, such as nuclear, hydroelectric, solar, etc.

» Source: EETimes

Paul Reardon

I want to convert a Mazda B2000 to DC power. Are your batteries available now?
Paul Reardon

Are your batteries economical for a DIY auto converter?
http://www.geocities.com/windspin_350 J.N.Shah

Sir,

We are manufacturers of Windspin- the turbine roof ventilators running by wind horizontally and found producing energy.

We want to know if any technology developed running car using electric, solar and horizontal wind energies.

Kindly give me any information having with you in the above process.

Thanks.
JNShah.
Justwatching

1000 pounds of algae diesel or biobutanol would go a lot farther and the engines that can use it are already on the road today. The electric car is just a dream for the future and a toy for the rich.
Chris S.

I don’t completely agree with justwatching. I think that with plenty of determination and perseverance in research and development, the holy grail of auto efficiency in the future will be a hybrid auto that can run on both algae diesel, biobutanol, etc., as well as also be able to plug into wind, thorium nuclear reactors, and etc.

Not only should a hybrid still have an internal combustion engine, but in the future they should also be designed with cordless recharging using some kind of electromagnetic induction coil where you simply park the car directly over it.
Chris S.

Even better still when it comes to energy efficiency might be a hybrid fuel cell/rechargeable.There has been major advances in methanol fuel cells in recent years. Renewable methanol fuel can be made from just about anything: industrial hemp, algae, recycled trash and garbage.

The battery bank could also be combined with an ultra-capacitor for better performance, and may take stress and workload off the batteries so that they last much longer. There has been considerable advances in this field in recent years also.

The wasteful transmission could be eliminated from future cars also. Just run power directly to a small high – tech neodymium magnet motor attached to the wheels.

Future improvements like this could all make hybrids the super-efficient cars of the future.
http://heliospowersolutions.com Michael Boyter

Chris S,

Your the one on the right track, except technology has evolved for converting DC to AC power with out the need or use of capacitors. We also have a design for extracting larger amounts of usable electrical power from any PV or thin film solar panels.
JImW

FIrst off, no one is going to spend $10,000 or above on a car that can only go 100 miles. The longer we keep fossil fuels on the map, the harder it becomes to make the clean break (Pun intended). The break through technologies also have to address infrastructure needs because that will be one of the painful expenses of getting the oil companies to move away from fossil fuels to clean, alternative fuels. That is why I am a big believer in Hydrogen and am hoping they can win the race to make it the easiest to use and simplest to transition to with existing cars for a period of time. Talk about creating jobs… how about a $2,000 conversion kit paid for by Government funding and jobs are created to help the consumer convert existing car to Hydrogen. Just a thought! There needs to be a first phase transition to a newer, cleaner fuel using existing auto then we can start looking a a wholesale switch to new hybrid cars that run on the winning technology and fuel.
Ken W

On of the reason we don’t have electric cars it the tax structure — How is the local/state/federal gov going to tax you for something you can get for free! (wind/solar/geothermal)-go get the dvd “who killed the electric car” It was not the demand or lack of it as to why the car dealer crushed the electric car it was they found that there was almost no maintenance to them so no follow up money-no oil change/filter clutches/transmission/ — where I live in Florida you can not live off the grid -power co. say you still must pay a minimum electric bill — in Tampa the city has laws so you cant have a well the city need the $ from water bill.
Ralph

Ken W. You bring up a very good point. To have a trickle charged swappable battery using rooftop solar gives consumers a tremendous amount of economic independence. Think about the multi billion dollar monopolies that are affected. Banks, Utilities, Car companies, Oil companies (BUCO). The economic clout granted to the average citizen would be significant. The political power that “follows the money” would be affected too. Unfortunately, you are right. Unless the bankers and utilities figure out creative ways to wrest these new technologies from the average citizens hands, we will see painfully slow progress in these markets.

Much disinformation about how “it” is not possible may be coupled with a continued bad economy. Would you want the economy turned around if you were in these industries?
On another note, electric bike companies are coupling solar canopies with their product. They may help lead the way in the electric vehicle sales because of the clean energy coupling that did not take place during the previous EV experiment.