Around 1Q06 I spoke with
Bris Zoltan regarding the inventor Andreas Fazakas, of the Faztech
fastcharger. It is for deep cycle
lead-acid batteries. I never heard of any mention of li-ion battery
charger technology. They did get a chunk of business from Toyota
forklifts, outfitting their Carson plant with first test units, then
production model based on real time feedback of beta units.
Most
chargers can get the lead-acid type battery to 80% charge fairly
quickly. The trick is to finish the charge without cooking the
battery. That's what Fazakas's patented circuitry does.
Temperature
is monitored and inputed to Uprocessor and to modulate output to
maximum power phasing.
Faztech seems to have a limitation in power ratings. It appears
they
are working on a 11kw model and as high as a 15 kw model. Their
3kw
charger seems to get most of the attention.
The Li-ION battery in the Phoenix SUT is a 35kw unit. I read they
use a charger of 250KWh rating to quickly charge it. Most
importantly
is the benefit of the Altair design in that it does not go up in
critical temperature with battery load or charge.
Remember the Dell laptop batteries made by Toshiba that over
heated?
These were lithium batteries with that critical temperature flaw.
I believe the company that will be supporting the charging of the
Altair nano battery is Aerovironents'
PosiCharge
Systems: Fast Charge Systems.
Coincidentally, they are promoting Micro
Wind Turbines
To get a better look at the battery and charge system I went to Cosmo
to read this interview with Dr. Gotcher of Altair.
Breakthroughs
in battery technology could make 2007 the year that electric cars
finally come into their own.
I opened my spiral notebook,
slid it over to Alan Gotcher and handed
him my pen. I wanted Gotcher, the CEO and President of the
nanotechnology company Altairnano, to explain to me why his company's
battery was different from - and better than - other lithium batteries.
We were sitting in an Irish
pub two blocks from Washington, DC's
Union Station. While we sipped our Irish brews and waited for dinner to
arrive, Gotcher sketched onto my notepad a pair of diagrams: one, a
conventional lithium-ion battery cell and the other, an Altairnano
cell. They looked nearly identical, with the exception that Gotcher had
left something called the SEI (separator electrode interface) out of
the Altairnano cell. But this one small change makes a world of
difference.
A conventional lithium ion
battery consists of the following layers:
an aluminum electrode current collector, a graphite anode, the SEI
layer (a layer soaked in lithium salts that acts as the electrolyte to
facilitate ion exchange), the cathode and a copper cathode collector.
Gotcher explained to me that
the SEI layer is used to keep the
lithium from reacting with the graphite anode, but that it also adds a
resistive element to the cell, reducing its efficiency. His company's
unusual nano-titanite-based anode doesn't need the SEI layer because it
doesn't react with the lithium. Instead, its extreme porosity allows
the absorption of many more lithium ions, which dramatically improves
the storage capability of the battery.
The company claims that their
battery shows a cycle life in excess
of 20,000 charges and discharges while still retaining 85 per cent of
its capacity to store energy. If proven, this would be a revolutionary
breakthrough, especially since Altairnano also claims their battery can
be recharged not in hours, but in less than 10 minutes.
By way of comparison, the
typical lithium battery takes from two to
six hours to recharge, its power density is less than 1,000 watts per
kilogram (w/kg), and it operates over a temperature range of 0°C to
40°C. In contrast, Altairnano's data show that their battery has a
power density of 4,000 w/kg and the ability to safely operate from
-50°
C to 75° C. But just how safe is "safe"?
To answer this question,
Gotcher gave me a description of the
various tests to which the company subjected the battery: short
circuit, forced discharge, over charge, over discharge, nail puncture,
crush, over temperature, and a drop test. The battery survived all
these trials without any smoke or fire.
Just as I was beginning to
grasp the exciting potential of
Altairnano's technology (performance and safety in a battery could be
the combination of features that gives the electric car a much-needed
commercial nudge) our dinners arrived. While I stabbed at a salad
topped with strips of chicken breast and Gotcher dove into his fish and
chips, he explained that his company is providing the batteries for
Phoenix Motorcars' sport utility truck (SUT).
Equipped with a 35kWh,
386-volt battery pack, the converted,
Korean-built four-door utility will have a range of 217 km, a top speed
of 152 km/h and a 0-100 km/h time of under 10 seconds. Gotcher
explained that it will be fully highway capable and as such qualifies
as a Zero Emission, Type 3 vehicle by California EPA definition.
Gotcher glanced at me to see if I understood the significance of that
fact. I didn't, so he patiently elaborated.
The EPA definition is worth
big
money to car makers. Under the terms
of the California Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) mandate, each
all-electric, fast-rechargeable, zero emission vehicle ('type 3'
vehicle) qualifies for 40 ZEV credits. As Gotcher explained it to me,
beginning in 2005 the car makers that sell the most cars in California
are under obligation to sell so many ZEVs each. If they don't, they are
penalized for every missing ZEV credit. Each credit is worth US$5,000
(about AU$6,500), so a type 3 vehicle is worth US$200,000 (about
AU$260,000) in California. Car makers either have to build their own
type 3 vehicles or buy them from another manufacturer - such as Phoenix
Motorcars, which plans to sell the SUT initially for around US$45,000
(AU$58,000).
But aren't the big car makers
meeting their California ZEV
obligations with their hydrogen fuel cell vehicle programs? According
to a Toyota executive I spoke with, they are for now, but in the not
too distant future the number of fuel cell vehicles they would have to
build is daunting.
Toyota has some nine fuel
cell cars in California at the moment,
each of which cost about US$1 million to produce. While Toyota is in a
better position in California than other car makers because of its RAV4
(a small 4WD) EV fleet, the car maker would still have to produce 150
fuel cell cars to meet its ZEV obligations. This constitutes an outlay
it simply doesn't want to make, now that the company realizes that the
technology is at least 10 to 15 years away from commercialization.
On the other hand, the
executive told me that General Motors would
have to build 1,500 fuel cell vehicles if the terms of the mandate
remain unchanged. You can do the maths on that one.
So, at US$45,000 a vehicle,
Phoenix's battery-powered SUT would be
an incredible bargain for car makers who decided to bet on hydrogen
fuel
cell technology instead of batteries way back in 1998.
--------------------
I'll leave you with this
hauntingly ugly video -- EV-1 : Who Killed
The Electric Car ? OPEC ? US Govt ?
Denial, obfuscation, lies,
pay attention to the Hugh Howser segment, it was ugly.
I for one would love to
see OPEC cut out of the picture, how about you?
Who wants to build an
EV car? Here is a DIY site. EV Parts and
their 6-page FAQs
RWS
Private Reply to Ron Sam (new win) |