Should the Petro-Automotive Complex Be Concerned About the Lithium Battery Revolution?

Lithium battery technology is currently focused on developing improvements in several areas. The quest often involves implementing advances in nanotechnology and micro-structures. For example:

• Increasing cycle life and performance (decreasing internal resistance and increasing output power) by changing the composition of the material used in the anode and cathode, along with increasing the effective surface area of the electrodes and changing materials used in the electrolyte.
• Improving capacity by improving the structure to incorporate more active materials.
• Improving the safety of lithium-ion batteries.

We should see big advances in efficiency and power in the near future. In 2006, a group of scientists at MIT announced a process which uses viruses to form nano-sized wires. Lithium polymer battery vendor These can be used to build ultra-thin lithium-ion batteries with three times the normal energy density. In 2009 a report in New Scientist claimed that MIT had succeeded in producing the first full virus-based 3-volt lithium-ion battery. Later in 2009, engineers at the University of Dayton Research Institute developed the world's first solid-state, rechargeable lithium air battery which was designed to address the fire and explosion risk of other lithium rechargeable batteries and make way for development of large-size lithium rechargeables for a number of industry applications, including hybrid and electric cars!

Lithium ion (Li-ion) batteries have quickly become the most widely utilized battery chemistry in today's portable electronic devices such as laptops, cell phones, and PDAs. Due to high energy density, the lightweight, and the construction flexibility, Li-ion and Li-ion polymer batteries have replaced nickel rechargeable batteries! All top battery manufacturers have introduced next generation Li-ion cells. Lithium-ion batteries will power the hybrid and electric car revolution. And revolution is not too strong a word for it.

The Energy Independence and Security Act toughened up fuel efficiency standards to 35 mpg by 2020. Obama stiffened the standards even more in May, raising fuel economy standards to 39 mpg for cars and 27 mpg for trucks. The deadline was moved up four years to 2016. The new rules guarantee the lithium-ion battery is the only way car makers can meet the new standards. Since a vehicle battery requires 100 times more lithium carbonate than a laptop battery, there is a need to build large-scale manufacturing facilities. The Energy Department just announced $8 billion in low-cost loans to Ford, Nissan and Tesla to build new battery factories. Metal Miner reports, "Johnson Controls and Saft of France are building a battery production facility in Michigan supported by $220 million of state aid." The government has committed $25 billion via the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program to nurture the emerging Lithium Battery industry.

Meanwhile, our new Prius is using the NiMH battery, and the current state of non-lithium battery technology isn't bad! The Prius uses a Sealed Nickel-Metal Hydride Battery (Ni-MH, for short) with a power output of 28 horsepower (21 Kw) and 201.6V Voltage. There is another smaller auxiliary battery (12 Volts), which powers the Prius computer. The Prius battery is designed to last the life of the car. According to Toyota, this is around 180,000 Miles. The batteries can actually be recycled. A summary of the process can be found on Toyota's website. It should be noted that the Prius traction batteries are under warranty for 8-10 years or 100,000 miles, and so will be replaced for free before then in the case of failure. However, should the battery fail outside this time-line, the estimated cost of traction battery replacement is $3,000. When rapid acceleration is needed, the battery power will "help" the gasoline engine, reducing the consumption of fuel during this period. Our 2010 Model II is getting over 50 miles per gallon and we still have under 2,000 miles on it. We just love watching the mpg indicator hover between 60 and 100 mpg when running on flat road! The bottom line is we have reduced our gas expenditure by two thirds and more importantly, our carbon footprint by two thirds!