"Engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston have created a new type of ‘liquid-flow’ battery that could make it possible to refuel electric vehicles in minutes, in the same way as petrol or diesel cars.
Liquid flow batteries contain a gooey liquid instead of traditional solid materials. The concept has been around for a while, but the MIT team’s ‘Cambridge Crude’ liquid offers a 10-fold improvement on what has come before. The result is a battery that is more efficient, lighter and smaller than the lithium ion packs used currently.
“Such a system would permit the possibility of simply ‘refuelling’ the battery by pumping out the liquid slurry and pumping in a fresh, fully charged replacement, or by swapping out the tanks like tires at a pit stop, while still preserving the option of simply recharging the existing material when time permits,” said a statement from MIT.
The MIT news follows another significant breakthrough at the University of Illinois, where researchers have been working on a silica mesh battery that takes just minutes to recharge. Meanwhile Lithium Air and ‘super capacitor’ technologies also offer great possibilities for powering electric vehicles of the future.
‘Cambridge Crude’, along with the other energy storage systems being developed, won’t be available to the public any time soon. However, the long-term benefits this kind of research will reap are significant."


Acknowledgements to Will Dron and "thechargingpoint.com"
Note this is not my dialog.
Leedsman.

 

We can only hope that these researchers can "get er done" before the communists come for our supercharged, gas guzzling, pollution generating baby killers. Oh God. I love to talk dirty.

 

Quick charge batteries are good in concept, but lets think about this for a moment. I'm going to use a 2010 Toyota Prius as an example. Looking online, it is a 168 cell battery that is rated at 201.6 VDC and at 6.5 amp-hours. Lets assume you are using a battery that has a 3 minute recharge time and are using a 220VAC line to recharge it. So, what is essentially happening is a direct conversion of AC voltage to DC voltage and then you need to bump up the current to allow for the faster recharge. So, to cram in 6.5 amp-hours of power at 201.6 VDC, you would have to apply a 130 amp "surge" to the battery. Think about that. Have you ever seen the spark that something like this creates. Lets just say metal gets removed, if not other things that are close (like fingers). This is the amperage that a lot of MIG welders run in at the tip of the wand. For a lot of older houses, you are almost maxing out the power coming into the house (assuming nothing else was running as these houses only had a 150 amp service, even modern day ones are at 200 amps). You start lowering the times down further, the currents get that much higher. Dropping the recharge time to 2 minutes makes the current jump up to 210 amps. This also assumes that you are getting a 100% efficient recharge (doesn't happen). In reality, you are probably looking at adding another 10% to the current figure to account for losses for heat.

So, while the idea is nice, a safe means to transfer this kind of power needs to be created and followed (ie, made idiot proof, if there is such a thing). I can see a lot of things going wrong with something like this and with how society is now, because someone was stupid, they are going to sue the automotive manufacturer to get big money.

 

I think the scientists were talking about replacing the battery's electrolyte as a means of fast-charging (in effect).
If a battery was charged electrically at Thermo's suggested rate, it would probably explode, whatever the technology.
When fast charging lead-acids for instance, the limiting factor is cell gassing. When in a low state of charge you can push in a lot more power than usual -- UNTIL the cells start gassing. You then have to reduce the charging current to a safe value, and such charge currents are usually published by the manuf. of the battery.
The reason for limiting cell gassing is that it tears the paste out of the plates if excessive, and ruins the battery.
The various battery technologies all have their own features in this respect, but generally super fast charging is bad news for battery life-time. Smart chargers take advantage of partic. characteristics, and test the battery at end-of-charge.
Leedsman.

 

I don't think I have said this before, but I do have a Nissan Leaf on reservation for my city use. It is hard on an ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) to make short and quick trips with a lot of stop and go. I live in a large downtown city and most of my daily trips are less than 3-6 miles at a time. Perfect for an electric vehicle. Saving the harsh miles on my Jags and using the EV for short errands is makes sense for me. I drove an EV1 for 6 years until GM took it away from me. I would still be driving it if I could. I loved that car!!