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Researchers create algorithms to fast-charge lithium-ion batteries

by Alistair Lowe on 8 October 2012, 10:08

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When the average researcher takes a look at a lithium battery and decides that it needs to charge faster, they might look to the latest graphene technology or construct a new anode, however, researchers at the University of California, San Diego, have a somewhat different approach.

New Lithium Ion Equation

The team, which was subsequently awarded £285,000 by the Department of Energy for its work, was able to half the charging time for lithium-ion batteries, simply by applying a little mathematics to the mix. We say simply and, of course this isn't really the case, as the equations used are statistical models that predict where in a battery lithium ions are likely to be located at any one time in-order to adjust the charging routine appropriately.

Aside from slashing charge times, this new technique will result in batteries that are 25 per cent cheaper to produce and that run in a more efficient manner. Industry is always screaming out for superior power storage and so this research is very welcome indeed and, will likely wind-up in real consumer products in the not-too-distant future.



HEXUS Forums :: 9 Comments

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It should be noted this research won the Department of Energy grant for research into faster charging electric vehicles' batteries. The grant was in sum of ~9.6 million USD and the remaining ~9.14M USD was split between Bosch and Cobasys, both present in the automotive industry. Not sure this actually applies to smaller electronic devices' batteries as well. Just saying ;)
Anything that helps make electric cars cheaper, and recharge quicker (i.e., in the typical time you're taking a whizz in the service station and complaining about the prices in the food court) is good by me.

Although I do note that electric cars are mostly only as good as the power source that is generating the electricity that is charging them. Coal plants merely move the pollution generation elsewhere. Although cleaner air in the cities is still a benefit.
sykobee
Although I do note that electric cars are mostly only as good as the power source that is generating the electricity that is charging them. Coal plants merely move the pollution generation elsewhere. Although cleaner air in the cities is still a benefit.

Coal plants generally tend to be more efficient than your average vehicle petrol engine though, so there is still some benefit in that regards, even if it could be more.
Producing the batteries is in incredibly polluting process though, to the point where electric cars are probably worse for the environment than a petrol equivalent.

Also, on the subject of the power grid, it would need to massively increase in size in order to cope with providing energy for vehicles, and considering its already predicted to struggle in the near future, largely because of all of the money being sunk into greenwashing nonsense…

I'm somewhat scepticle about the article though, it's all well and good saying it's all mathematics or whatever, but nowhere seems to have any information on how it actually works. Does it charge with pulses or something? You can get a decent charge in half the time anyway, by skipping the CV charging stage which only adds an extra few % anyway depending on CC rate, but it takes time, hence why phones etc seem to get to 80% or so fairly quickly then slow right down and hang around 99% for ages.
I still don't understand why so much effort is being put into electric “battery” cars when we should really be pushing towards hydrogen fuel-cell powered ones; switching from oil-based infrastructure to hydrogen based will be expensive, as any changeover is, but it's better to do it now whilst there are still reasonable amounts of crude oil reserves, rather than when we start running out. And it's not just cars that we have to think about, in this regard, huge amounts of food and materials are shipped by sea; if they don't get converted to using another fuel source, then we'll be having to resort to sail-power once more. Also, ships converted to hydrogen power plants could, potentially, reduce the size of their fuel tanks by having their own hydrogen production systems on board.