I am interested to work on Aluminium-Air batteries for energy storage, portable, and defense applications. Please provide your thoughts/views in terms of challenges and opportunities of Al-air batteries in future.
Many top researchers in the field have said that metal-air battery technologies will have a very hard time to just MEET the performance of current Li-ion batteries. This is the case with Li-O2 batteries.
Stan Whittingham has commonly advised people to do a back of the envelope calculation of energy density for such systems, which shows little chance that they can improve beyond Li-ion.
Another important distinction should be made: These are not metal-"AIR" batteries, they are metal-O2 batteries. These systems cannot truly operate with ambient air, and would likely need extensive scrubbers or tanks of O2 to supply them. This makes them similar to a fuel cell or a gasoline engine, in that they would need to be charged up with oxygen gas.
I think there is a potential for niche applications, but many could question whether this is worth all the time and effort? I would like to see more sustainable battery technologies in the future, and some of these metals (sodium, aluminum, etc.) are more abundant and easily extracted from the environment. Replacing cobalt in current Li-ion technology is also very attractive from both a cost and environmental standpoint.
Hope this adds something useful to the discussion.
Firstly appreciate your taking the time to discuss so straightforward, and I do agree with you that the concerns which are being involved in Al-O2 battery technology.
Al corrosion is a major problem in alkaline Ai- air cells. References are there on these problems.
Citroen, one of many companies looking at introducing aluminium air batteries to its electric vehicle fleet. The company has confirmed it was able to travel a distance of 1000 miles although this type of battery is not rechargeable in the familiar sense of the word.Quote from Electric Forum.com : “Aluminium–air battery is not a new technology although previously there have been constraints regarding oxidisation of the metal. However, it seems that Phinergy may have an answer to this problem which could potentially create a battery for use in 2017 with a journey capacity of 1000 miles.
http://www.electricforum.com/battery-technology-2/how-useful-is-an-aluminium-air-battery.html
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Electrochemistry
- Battery