British Man Creates Fuel-Cell-Like System with 9 Times the Energy Density of Lithium Ion Batteries [???]
October 21st, 2019Assuming the energy density claims are true, the systems need to be replaced and recycled when they’re depleted. One doesn’t charge them like batteries. The systems consume aluminum and drivers would need to have them swapped out with “full” units periodically.
It’s a bit like Toyota’s insane hydrogen debacle, in terms of lack of infrastructure. Yes, lithium ion has a lot of problems, but being able to use the existing grid to charge vehicles is a significant advantage over other systems. I couldn’t find recent total worldwide sales of the Toyota Mirai, but I think it’s safe to say that Tesla ships more vehicles in a week than Toyota has sold Mirais since 2014 (source, source). Toyota, hilariously, refuses to give up.
Trevor Jackson, of course, sees himself becoming the ExxonMobil of his aluminum + secret sauce electrolyte power source. I can’t see auto manufacturers backing themselves into a corner like that.
Jackson has black world connections (Rolls-Royce, BAE Systems). I’m a bit surprised that he doesn’t have interest for military applications.
Via: Daily Mail:
Imagine the satisfaction of driving your environmentally friendly electric car for 1,500 miles without having to stop to recharge the battery – a distance more than four times as far as the best and most expensive model currently on the road.
Under the bonnet is a revolutionary new type of battery which, unlike those used in conventional electric cars, can also power buses, huge lorries and even aircraft. What’s more, it’s far simpler and cheaper to make than the batteries currently in use in millions of electric vehicles around the world – and, unlike them, it can easily be recycled.
This might sound like a science-fiction fantasy. But it’s not. Last Friday, the battery’s inventor, British engineer and former Royal Navy officer Trevor Jackson, signed a multi-million-pound deal to start manufacturing the device on a large scale in the UK.
More: Negative? How a Navy veteran refused to accept a ‘no’ to his battery invention
With its aluminium smelter and good hydroelectric options, I imagine this could work particularly well in NZ.
It’s not going to work anywhere for mass produced automibiles because no car company is interested. And I don’t blame them.
I can think of some military applications and maybe utility scale emergency backup scenarios where this might be interesting. But the world isn’t going to start building aluminum smelters and swap out infrastructure to support this. No way. See the almost inconceivable disaster that the Mirai has been for Toyota.
If aluminum air is so great, perhaps Jackson will demonstrate as much with the retrofit kits he’s supposedly going to produce.
Have I gotten something wrong here? Maybe. It wouldn’t be the first time. But is anyone out there excited about the prospect of getting locked into a proprietary fuel system, controlled by one guy, with virtually no existing infrastructure?
If the technology is real, he should come up with a plan to deal exclusively with something like the municipal electric bus market. Very easy to plan swap outs, centralized facility to do an entire fleet. That’s the low hanging fruit for this thing. Again, assuming it’s real.
China
Chinese electric buses making biggest dent in worldwide oil demand
https://electrek.co/2019/03/20/chinese-electric-buses-oil/
Order some sans batteries and away he goes…
OK 🙂 I’ll rephrase that: if it’s legit, I imagine NZ could be a good place to try it out on buses, delivery vehicles and car fleets. Kudos on the Chinese bus idea; China has A LOT of smeelters:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_aluminium_smelters