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@ Davemart, for a PHEV to get you to 60 mph, it's more like a 4.4 Kwhr battery pack, but I take your point. I'd heard the regenerative braking on a Prius wasted ~80% of the potential energy because it couldn't take in the power fast enough.
I dunno. I still have a bad taste in my mouth about FCEV because during the G.W. Bush administration they were used as a cynical way to stall more plausible BEV research, and with the presumption that the oil industry would ultimately fix the H2 from methane, so they wouldn't be renewable energy powered.
I know innovation can bring the price and size of Fuel Cells way down, but if you want to scale your transportation system, solar panels and batteries scale much more than flue gas.
It's like how I used to be stoked about biofuels, until I realized that an acre of jatropha/palm/soybean oil would take you a few hundred miles per year, whereas an acre of photovoltaic panels can take you tens of thousands of miles per year.
We're on the cusp of affordable electric cars. There's a race for the $35K price slot. In 5 years, it will be a race for the $25K price slot.
Once we can get away from liquid fuels vehicles that travel less than 200 miles per day...why ever would we go back?
GM and Honda to establish industry-first $85M joint fuel cell system manufacturing operation in Michigan
General Motors and Honda are establishing the auto industry’s first manufacturing joint venture—Fuel Cell System Manufacturing, LLC, FCSM)—to mass-produce an advanced hydrogen fuel cell system that will be used in future products from each company. Over the past three years, GM and Honda have b...
@ SJC, What is the well-to-wheels efficiency of this https://phys.org/news/2016-02-proven-one-step-co2-liquid-hydrocarbon.html process? It sounds energy intensive? My problem with fuel cells has always been the horrific inefficiency of isolating, compressing, transporting, and converting to electricity their fuel. This (http://phys.org/news/2006-12-hydrogen-economy-doesnt.html) is an older chart referring to H2 well-to-wheels being 1/3rd of BEV. If your initial input is renewable electricity, I have yet to see any chemical intermediary that doesn't flush 50-70% of the energy before it gets to the wheels. Even if you are getting your chemicals from waste streams that are already hot (which usually have scalability limits), I still strongly suspect the well-to-wheels conversion efficiency is poor compared to BEV. Also, Fuel Cell Vehicles need to have big batteries to handle acceleration and regenerative braking, so, why not just go all the way to BEV?
GM and Honda to establish industry-first $85M joint fuel cell system manufacturing operation in Michigan
General Motors and Honda are establishing the auto industry’s first manufacturing joint venture—Fuel Cell System Manufacturing, LLC, FCSM)—to mass-produce an advanced hydrogen fuel cell system that will be used in future products from each company. Over the past three years, GM and Honda have b...
These are the same doofuses who, when polled, mostly thought Hydrogen fuel cells are going to be the big thing in 10 years, and BEV is a passing fad. Never mind that BEV is 250%-300% more efficient than Hydrogen from well to wheels, per http://phys.org/news/2006-12-hydrogen-economy-doesnt.html.
KPMG Survey: execs say connected car generates 10x revenue than a conventional vehicle; market share based on units “outdated”; BEVs #1 trend
Advancements such as connectivity, big data, autonomous vehicles and artificial intelligence are driving new economic models for automakers, and most see tremendous revenue potential and consumer value in leveraging driver and vehicle data to offer mobility services, according to the 2017 KPMG ...
Question: Is 14% conversion efficiency good?
Don't heterojunction cells usually cost a lot more, and have conversion efficiencies in the 24-30% range. If half the energy is still being lost in conversion, H2 is still a very inefficient storage medium, right?
Lithium Ion batteries convert ~90% to stored energy, right?
Swiss team develops effective and low-cost solar water-splitting device; 14.2% solar-to-hydrogen efficiency
Using commercially available solar cells and none of the usual rare metals, researchers at the Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology (CSEM) and École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) have designed an intrinsically stable and scalable solar water splitting device that is fully...
In the short term, this doesn't change much. In the long term, this is HUGE. This is the positronic brain for your I Robot. This is the energy efficient system to interpret interface signals for cybernetic augmentations. This is the smartphone that can record, understand and tag all of your external and internal experiences for later replay. This pours through petabytes of unstructured data, forms 1 billion hypotheses, makes 1 billion predictions, observes the data awhile longer, and fundamentally advances our understanding of the natural, economic and social world. This could be very good or very bad, and will likely be both. Do I win the prize for spookiest speculation?
Lawrence Livermore and IBM collaborate on new supercomputer based on TrueNorth neurosynaptic chip; accelerating path to exascale computing
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) will receive a first-of-a-kind brain-inspired supercomputing platform for deep learning developed by IBM Research. Based on a breakthrough neurosynaptic computer chip called IBM TrueNorth (earlier post), the scalable platform will process the equival...
Has anybody come up with a way to mass produce graphene?
Graphene ultracapacitor company Skeleton Technologies secures €4M from KIC InnoEnergy; targeting 20 Wh/kg by 2020
European ultracapacitor manufacturer Skeleton Technologies received a €4-million (US$4.4-million) investment from KIC InnoEnergy, an investment company dedicated to promoting sustainable innovation and entrepreneurship in Europe’s energy industry. The €4m investment from KIC InnoEnergy—the sh...
@ SJC, you're right. There's a carbon-policy simulator at https://www.energypolicy.solutions/ that lets you see the CO2 emission impact of various efficiency, regulatory, subsidy, and technology and tax policies.
I've fiddled with it a bit, and it seems that the 3 things that change our trend line the most are retiring coal plants faster, reforrestation, and carbon tax.
Study finds increased CO2 enhancing plankton growth; opposite of expected
Coccolithophores—unicellular, eukaryotic phytoplankton (algae)—have been increasing in relative abundance in the North Atlantic over the last 45 years, as carbon input into ocean waters has increased. Their relative abundance increased by an order of magnitude during this sampling period. This ...
This is so frustrating. While they compare the sodium 18650's to to iron phosphate lithium cells, but potentially cheaper due to the abundance of sodium, it's pretty fuzzy that they left out so many crucial details. Even so, they do say 2,000 cycles. If we suppose that they have low conversion losses when power makes a round trip in and out of these sodium cells, and that they are cheap in bulk, and therefor attractive for stationary storage...what do they cost per watt hour stored over their lifetime? Ok, researchers can only estimate costs in bulk, but that's ultimately what will make these successful or not, since they will always be behind lithium on the mobile priorities.
French researchers develop sodium-ion battery in 18650 format; performance comparable to Li-ion
Researchers within the RS2E network on electrochemical energy storage (Réseau sur le stockage électrochimique de l’énergie) in France have developed the first sodium-ion battery in an 18650 format. The main advantage of the prototype is that it relies on sodium, an element far more abundant and ...
Saying the reactor is 3.3M across is a bit like saying the cylinder in the car engine displaces 1.7 Liters. It's true, but the total system is a much bigger. Heat exchangers, turbines, and lots of other system elements still make this large, not portable, and plenty pricey.
I've been waiting for this breakthrough most of my life, and getting net energy out is really, really hard. Getting cost-competitive energy is much, much harder. Lockheed has a compact fusion project (http://www.lockheedmartin.com/us/products/compact-fusion.html).
EMC2 has done a number of contracts for the Navy on compact fusion (http://www.emc2fusion.org/). Everybody has a story for why this time it's different. I support almost every one of these avenues being pursued. However, I do not get my hopes up because, you know, it's really hard.
MIT team proposes ARC fusion reactor: affordable, robust, compact
Advances in magnet technology have enabled researchers at MIT to propose a new design for a practical compact tokamak fusion reactor that might be realized in as little as a decade: the ARC (affordable, robust, compact) reactor. The stronger magnetic field makes it possible to produce the requi...
http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2015/06/25/New-technology-could-spur-a-graphene-driven-industrial-revolution/2391435246627/
This is good, yes?
Chevrolet introduces new Cruze; new 1.4L EcoTec turbo; new 1.6L diesel coming to US in 2017
Chevrolet introduced the all-new 2016 Cruze—larger, lighter, and more efficient than its predecessor. The new Cruze will be offered in more than 40 global markets and goes on sale first in North America in early 2016. A new, standard 1.4L turbocharged direct injection engine (for North America) ...
@ Gryf,
One of those PDF's says an objective was to "• Develop in-situ measurements of electronic and ionic transport vs. Li concentration using binder-free sintered electrode design" which is worrisome, because sintering does not lend itself to high-throughput production as the recent article claims. Maybe they moved on from that to their "wet" process. Laszlo's article says Lithium Iron Phosphate chemistry for stationary storage markets...which I guess makes sense, since Iron Phosphate was always about faster charge and recharge but sacrificing energy density...so, make that cheap and yep, you get stationary storage. I guess other chemistries could be suitable for cars, but the stationary market is less demanding.
24M emerges from stealth mode with new semi-solid Li-ion cell; <$100/kWh by 2020
Stealth-mode battery start-up 24M has introduced its new semi-solid lithium-ion cell. Co-founded by MIT’s Dr. Yet-Ming Chiang, 24M’s Chief Scientist, the company is leveraging existing, preferred energy storage chemistry but using a new cell design with semi-solid (a mixture of solid and liquid...
They don't mention watt-hours per Kg, or Liter, or cost. There's an argument to be made that a combined battery and supercap could be really good for a PHEV that captures all the available regenerative braking energy and has a fairly low HP engine which almost always runs at optimum RPM for efficiency, but is only running half the time because it's constantly refilling the supercap. Dunno if that gets us much above the Plug-in Prius' ~55 mpg, but it might.
Skeleton Technologies raises €9.8 million; ramping up production of graphene-based ultracapacitors
Ultracapacitor company Skeleton Technologies (earlier post) closed Series B financing of €9.8 million ($10.7 million) from a consortium led by a strategic investor in the electrical equipment sector, Harju Elekter Group, which owns electrical equipment manufacturing plants in the Nordic-Baltic ...
@ Roger Pham,
So, your contention is that Fuel Cells will make energy sense when someone else pays for the electricity to reform the Hydrogen?
I mean, c'mon. Conversion from (Power Source X) to H2 (lose 30% of energy), then storage losses, then convert from H2 to electricity (lose 40% of what energy is left) is way too energy expensive. The motor ends up with less than 42% of the energy (from Power Source X) you started with.
Use good batteries and the motor will receive closer to 75% of the energy you started with. Batteries also seem to be improving faster than FC.
How can you, as an engineer, get fixated on FC in the face of such numbers?
FC only apparent advantages are refueling time (although not if you plug in the car and reform on board as you suggest), and potentially range depending on how store your H2. Partial recharge of batteries (from a pair of 220v chargers) is pretty quick now. Range on premium electrics is pretty good now, too so it comes down to price. How long before FC cost dramatically less than the battery pack that can produce similar peak power output?
New bimetallic copper-titanium hydrogen evolution catalyst outperforms platinum by more than 2x
Modeling study showing possible bimetallic sites on a Ti-modified Cu surface. The two Cu-Cu-Ti hollow sites exhibit HBE values close to that of Pt. The Cu-Ti-Ti hollow site binds hydrogen too strongly. Lu et al. Click to enlarge. A team from the University of Delaware and Columbia Universit...
Am I reading this right, that what they are announcing is "as efficient as platinum catalysts" so they will still instantly lose 30% of the energy they put in due to conversion losses? This is a cheaper catalyst material. That doesn't make it more efficient from well-to-wheels than BEV though.
New bimetallic copper-titanium hydrogen evolution catalyst outperforms platinum by more than 2x
Modeling study showing possible bimetallic sites on a Ti-modified Cu surface. The two Cu-Cu-Ti hollow sites exhibit HBE values close to that of Pt. The Cu-Ti-Ti hollow site binds hydrogen too strongly. Lu et al. Click to enlarge. A team from the University of Delaware and Columbia Universit...
@ Davemart,
Leave solar out of the well-to-wheels equation and most FC are still suspect. Cogeneration natural gas plants can convert at up to 80% efficiency. Put that into, and out of a battery and it's still likely better than the 60% claimed for an FC. There are conversion losses for refining fuels for FC which that 60% number probably doesn't include.
Intelligent Energy introduces new high performance 100kW automotive fuel cell architecture
Intelligent Energy is expanding its PEM fuel cell offerings with a new 100 kW automotive fuel cell architecture. Designed to deliver primary motive power within an advanced electric driveline, the 100 kW fuel cell architecture and core technology will be available to vehicle manufacturers throu...
This is perhaps the most exciting BEV research announcement since Silicon Nanowires...except even more so.
1. It seems to solve the dendrite problem that high-theoretical-density chemistries such as Li-Sulfur and Li-Air have.
2. It seems to allow applicable chemistries to charge faster and harder.
3. It seems to offer a more compact and cheaper packaging.
4. It is offered by a reputable national laboratory.
We need tests of large-form-factor batteries suitable for BEV ASAFP.
New PNNL electrolyte may enable use of lithium anodes in very high capacity advanced batteries
Researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) have developed a new electrolyte that allows lithium-sulfur, lithium-metal and lithium-air batteries to operate at 99% efficiency, while having a high current density and without growing dendrites that short-circuit rechargeable batteri...
The Gen 1 Volt disappointed me on price, electric-only range, gas-only fuel economy, weight, and interior cabin space.
I try to figure out why GM stubbornly sticks to 4-cylinder engines for the generator, and while there may be esoteric torque at optimum RPM curve issues, given all the other ~50Kw gensets, I've got to beleive it's because they want the ICE to matter, to seem complex and valuable, to justify a higher price. I think they've got it backwards. The simpler and leaner the whole drive train is, the more affordable the whole vehicle becomes, and then maybe it will outsell the Leaf or even the Prius if they really hit a grand slam.
GM Warren Transmission Plant to build electric drive unit for second-gen Volt; part of $300M investment in Michigan through end of year
Later today at the Detroit Economic Club, General Motors CEO Mary Barra will confirm that its Warren Transmission Plant will build the new electric drive unit—the GM Voltec 4ET50 Multi-Mode EDU—for the upcoming second-generation Chevrolet Volt. As a result, most major Volt powertrain components...
In my mind, the long-term energy solution would be one that takes a renewable source of energy and stores it in a very clean, easy to store and transport medium, with minimal conversion losses. My impression is that biofuels and synfuels all have relatively poor "round trip" conversion losses. This fairly reasonable analysis suggests almost 70% of energy content is lost with synfuels today. http://theenergycollective.com/schalk-cloete/459401/seeking-consensus-internalized-costs-synfuels
As a result, I keep thinking that cheaper solar power and better, cheaper batteries are the long term answer.
New clean one-pot process for high-yield production of biofuel GVL from biomass-derived levulinic acid
A team from Brown University and Lakehead University (Ontario, Canada) has devised a one-pot process for the clean and highly selective production of γ-valerolactone (GVL) from biomass-derived levulinic acid (LA) at up to 96.3% yield using a series of robust, stable and reusable Pd nanoparticles...
If money was no object, what would be your preferred battery technology?
NASA selects proposals for advanced energy storage systems for future space missions: silicon-anode Li-ion and Li-S
NASA has selected four proposals for advanced Li-ion and Li-sulfur energy storage technologies that may be used to power the agency’s future space missions. Development of these new energy storage devices will help enable NASA’s future robotic and human-exploration missions and aligns with co...
@ RP
50C gets you more efficient regenerative braking, right? I'd had the impression the current Prius only recovers about 20% of the energy from braking because it just can't absorb that much energy into its battery on a downhill or hard braking. Is that about right?
Toyota working on all-solid-state batteries as mid-term advanced battery solution; prototype cell with 400 Wh/L
Ragone plot showing various types of secondary batteries. An internal combustion engine and Toyota’s targeted “Sakichi battery” are added for reference. Toyota reports that it has developed prototype cells of all-solid-state batteries and Li-air batteries with energy densities of 400 Wh/L an...
@SJC,
Any idea if Alta Devices (acquired last winter by Hanergy) is going to bring their 30% efficient flexibly thin-film cells to market? They had the thin film efficiency record, probably closer to 25% as part of a module, but apparently hadn't worked out how to scale the assembly line before running out of money. If they can scale, their cost per watt should be considerably lower, with no need for concentrators.
Lux: 48 V micro-hybrid market will pass 7M vehicles in 2024; promising for LTO Li-ion batteries
According to a new forecast by Lux Research, the likely 48 V micro-hybrid market will exceed 7 million vehicles in 2024, with the first adoption year beginning in 2015 and more focused on premium vehicles, in which cost sensitivity in order to reach regulation targets without sacrificing perfor...
HealthyBreeze is now following SJC
May 29, 2014
I'll make a judgement on Hydrogen tanks. They leak. H2 molecules are so small that it's very difficult to completely seal them in. What happens over decades if just 2% of all Hydrogen fuel used eventually ends up in the upper atmosphere? Oh, and the word "Hindenberg" comes too readily to people's minds. Mostly, I just don't like the conversion losses with electrolysis, and reforming methane is still releasing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, so that's a bait-and-switch. Hydrogen is a storage medium, not an energy source, and compared to near future batteries, H2 is probably a disadvantageous path to go down.
Hyundai Motor researchers report improved Li-sulfur battery performance with new sulfone-based electrolyte
Researchers from Hyundai Motor have found that the use of a new sulfone-based electrolyte greatly improved the capacity and reversible capacity retention of a Li-sulfur battery compared to the performance of ether-based electrolytes. In a paper presented at the SAE 2104 World Congress in Detroi...
I think they're targeting luxury sports car drivers because their fuel cell and capacitors are probably very expensive.
@RP, they need a source tank and depleted fuel tank, so 2x200 liters. The volume doesn't have to be crazy...think a 1-meter square, 40 cm tall, plus structure.
I don't much like the idea. I'd like it better if they could reprocess their fluid with a completely reversible process. Also, how do the conversion losses compare to lithium batteries? I'm guessing that's also a problem.
nanoFLOWCELL unveils flow cell battery prototype vehicle
Powertrain of the QUANT. The two 200L (400L, 106 gallons US total) electrolyte tanks are packaged in the rear and central tunnel of the vehicle. Click to enlarge. Liechtenstein-based nanoFLOWCELL unveiled the QUANT e-Sportslimousine, a prototype vehicle equipped with a nanoFLOWCELL flow cel...
I'm curious about the conversion losses into and out of the flywheel. This avoids rare-earth magnets and may be cheaper and lighter as well. Energy recovery provides gretest return on large vehicles that stop frequently (think garbage trucks and buses), but CVT is best suited to lighter vehicles. If this is durable enough it could be good on taxis and light-weight delivery vehicles.
Flybrid flywheel KERS to be integrated into a manual gearbox by Lotus-led consortium
The UK’s Technology Strategy Board has awarded Torotrak, in collaboration with lead technology partner Lotus Cars, a grant to develop a new application of the Flybrid KERS (kinetic energy recovery system) technology for integration into a manual gearbox. (Torotrak completed its acquisition of F...
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