Batteries and New Battery Technologies

I've heard that bull__ for years. Yes, there is some filter down, but imagine if the full expenditure of brain power and money went directly towards the problem.

I'm glad we didn't depend on the filter down theme for our moon program

ARC Lite batteries

In the recent Apr/May issue of Professional Boatbuilder there was an article entitled, The Real McCoy, and dealing with the development of a Hybrid Diesel-Electric Charter Vessel.

Hybrid Diesel Electric art ProBoat
http://www.proboat-digital.com/proboat/e20090405/
(go to the index and click on Real McCoy article)

In that article there was a subsection dealing with the development of what they are calling ARC Lite batteries. (page42).
Interesting development

(I'm not that impressed with the rest of the vessel as a whole, but it sure shows a quest for experimentation and developments from the 'little independent guys')

Dream-ware Projects

I'll have to agree with you on this one Marmot.

I did spend a little more time writing a letter in reply to the author and the builder which I'll post soon on another subject thread. I addressed a number of the proposed systems each, and together. I just got it out via email to ProBoat this morning.

You know sometimes I wonder about these San Diego guys and how they are able to get this funding for some of these boat projects that seem a little too dream-like. I remember feeling this same way about the 'M ship' project...where do they get the money for these projects, and who does the vetting. I guess it's those politicians out there that seem to have close ties to the defense dept....one of them is in jail now I believe

( here is a link to the M-ship shaped hull on this forum...I couldn't find it at first)

In defensive of the Hybrid Vessel project, I will add that I believe the new funding he secured came as a result of the battery technology and not the vessel itself

Shades of Boston Whaler

Sure it works in the waters of San Diego...a pond in the theme of things.

I challenge you to take it into really rough conditions with a real load onboard.

I think many people have experienced a Boston Whaler before, and I don't know many of them that feel that going faster in that boat improves its capabilities to handle rough water.

Or maybe the old cathedral hull runabouts could serve as a prototype?

Altairnano Launches New Energy Website

Altairnano, a leader in advanced energy storage systems for clean, efficient power and energy management, recently launched a significantly enhanced website focusing on its core technology solutions and strategic initiatives.

As a leader in advanced energy storage systems for clean, efficient power and energy management, Altairnano’s suite of advanced lithium-ion energy storage systems is helping solve today’s toughest power and energy challenges. From helping create a more reliable, resilient, and efficient electricity grid, to accelerating the adoption of renewable generation and alternative fuel vehicles, Altairnano combines science and innovation with market-ready solutions to achieve sustainable, and economically sensible, power and energy management practices.

Our unique, innovative approach starts at the electro-chemical level. Altairnano is the first company to replace traditional graphite materials used in conventional lithium-ion batteries with a proprietary, nano-structured lithium titanate – a process that delivers distinctive performance attributes, including power, fast charge/discharge rates, high round-trip efficiencies, long cycle life, safety, and ability to operate under extreme temperatures.

This science is the fundamental building block applied to every advanced energy storage system and battery we build today.

The company's advanced lithium-ion energy storage systems can help solve today's toughest power and energy challenges, including a more reliable, resilient, and efficient electricity grid. The new website features overviews and additional information for the company's five core solutions: Smart Grid, renewable integration, remote UPS, military and transportation.
Go to Solutions

Thanks for getting us back on topic there Highlander.

Yes, lighter and more capacity to store energy; I believe that is the goal of a great number of companies world wide working on these problems now. The auto market is an enticing one, and that blip to higher fuel prices excited the cusomers looking for alternative solutions. Those high fuel prices will return soon, and demand for an electric car will as well. Lets hope someone can meet that demand soon.

The boat market is small and will exist as a bystander.

Work at MIT's Laboratory, Supercapacitors & Nanotechology

April 2007

Work at MIT's Laboratory for Electromagnetic and Electronic Systems (LEES) on increasing the storage capacity of ultracapacitors may be demonstrated in the next few months, Prof. Joel E. Schindall told Le Figaro newspaper on 13 April.

Capacitors store energy as an electrical field, making them more efficient than standard batteries, which get their energy from chemical reactions. Ultracapacitors are capacitor-based storage cells that provide quick, massive bursts of instant energy. They are sometimes used in fuel-cell vehicles to provide an extra burst for accelerating into traffic and climbing hills, but need to be much larger than batteries to hold the same charge.

The LEES invention would increase the storage capacity of existing commercial ultracapacitors by storing electrical fields at the atomic level. Although ultracapacitors have been around since the 1960s, they are relatively expensive and only recently began being manufactured in sufficient quantities to become cost-competitive.

To date, despite their inherent advantages -- a 10-year-plus lifetime, indifference to temperature change, high immunity to shock and vibration and high charging and discharging efficiency -- physical constraints on electrode surface area and spacing have limited ultracapacitors to an energy storage capacity around 25 times less than a similarly sized lithium-ion battery.

The LEES ultracapacitor has the capacity to overcome this energy limitation by using vertically aligned, single-wall carbon nanotubes -- one thirty-thousandth the diameter of a human hair and 100,000 times as long as they are wide. It would reportedly permit ultracapacitors to give a car a 160 km range on electric power, and reduce energy storage units by two thirds in weight and 75% in size by comparison with existing nickel-metal hydride units as used by Toyota’s Prius.

MIT’s work on this project, first announced in late 2005, has been funded in part by the MIT/Industry Consortium on Advanced Automottive Electrical/Electronic Components and Systems and in part by a grant from the Ford-MIT Alliance.

this document is a little dated, but it points us in one direction I find quite exciting