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May 18, 2014
Zinc-Air Batteries
I had never taken note of zinc-air batteries before, so I looked 'em up. Wikipedia gives you all the expected info, but here's the critical part: The U.S. has 35% of the world's supply of zinc, but only 0.38% of the world's lithium. We import 80% of what we use. The biggest reserves of lithium are in Chile, Bolivia and China. Last year, scientists at Stanford announced an advance in zinc-air batteries that involved "electrode catalysts made of cobalt oxide, a nickel-iron compound and carbon nanomaterials." Also last year, ZAF Energy Systems in Montana announced additional breakthroughs that will give zinc-air batteries twice the energy output [per kilogram] of lithium batteries.
Eos Systems believes it has achieved the holy grail of energy production (or one of several holy grails, I guess). And that is battery storage of electricity that is cheaper than any other means of dealing with peak energy demands.
But cheapest of all (on their nice graph) is the Eos Aurora zinc-air battery. Consolidated Edison (of New York) is testing one of them. (BTW, "CAES" on that graph is Compressed Air Energy Storage.)
But all that is prelude so that you can appreciate the big news that on Friday the winners of the Intel-ISEF (International Science and Engineering Fair) were announced and the third-place winner (or maybe it's a tie for second-place) was Shannon Xinjing Lee of Singapore who developed a novel electrocatalyst for zinc-air batteries this is lighter, more stable, has greater longevity, less expensive and more environmentally friendly. The secret behind this electrocatalyst? It is "made entirely from carbonized Chinese eggplant." The press release doesn't explain if "carbonized" means something specifically scientific, or if it's the same thing that happens in a recipe for blackened eggplant. Ms. Lee gets a $50,000 prize.
The first place, grand prize Gordon E. Moore Award of $75,000 went to Nathan Han who developed a tool that is 81% accurate in identifying cancer threats from BRCA1 gene mutations. Next year, if he studies real hard, Mr. Han will get to drive his mom's old Corolla after passing his driver's license exam. He is 15 years old and a student at Boston Latin.
Filed under Science,Technology | permalink | May 18, 2014 at 09:30 AM
Comments
In term of battery heat transfer, does zinc-air battery heat up more quickly because of its capacity. Charging and discharging could increase the temperature of surface.
Posted by: Fenske at Sep 3, 2014 10:44:20 PM
I made a theotical study about efficiency ratio of ZnO -> Zn regeneration. Carbothermal reduction = almost 30% of thermal energy is preserved. That could make it possible Zn recycling.
Posted by: martti pitkanen at May 29, 2014 2:00:33 PM
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