Monday, November 29, 2010

Chu Touts Metal Air Ionic Liquid Battery

US DOE Secretary Chu spoke today at the National Press Club in Washington, DC.  After spending a good deal of time talking about innovation and it's importance to the USA's economic future, he presented a few potential breakthroughs.  First on the list is the Metal Air Ionic Liquid battery under development by a spinoff from Arizona State University called Fluidic Energy.    See slide 23.  Chu says this battery could be 3-5X cheaper than "today's lithium ion" and enable an electric vehicle range of 500 miles.  It would also be "inherently safe."

Apparently this press conference was available via webcast.   If you attended the presentation or listened online, shoot me an email: eestorblog@gmail.com

2 comments:

windbourne said...

The problem is that we are spending more money on batteries than on caps. Caps are much more useful. The reason is that not just cars, but the military will need LOADS of them. They need high energy and high power. IOW, the ability to store and drain quickly large amounts of energy.

Kerry Thurber said...

This one has been around for about a year. It is promising from my perspective, although I don't know:

1) What metal has greater energy density than zinc?

2) What is an example of a salt which remains liquid at a very high temperature, yet is still composed of cheap and abundant materials?

See, for example http://www.energyboom.com/transportation/fluidic-energy-captures-513-million-funding-doe-metal-air-battery