Is it the battery breakthrough we've all been waiting for, or is it simply too good to be true?
Is it the battery breakthrough we've all been waiting for, or is it simply too good to be true?
Could be both. But it would be cool if true.
And a huge money maker for the inventors.
Could be this, could be lithium-air batteries...but the dual-carbon batteries seem further along.
Oil companies are probably in full panic mode right now trying to buy patents on the technology, like what happened to NiMH car batteries and biobutanol. Hopefully this will escape...something's gotta get through!
I'd love to see this work, and the bacon at my house is brought home by drilling oil wells. Large scale energy storage is something we need as a society. Not just for cars, but for general power use.
^True, we could get a lot more out of wind and solar energy with cheap energy storage.
The oil companies wouldn't buy it and sit on it, they would buy it and sell the product. They're in it to make money not spend money on non-productive assets.
GameboyRMH wrote: Could be this, could be lithium-air batteries...but the dual-carbon batteries seem further along. Oil companies are probably in full panic mode right now trying to buy patents on the technology, like what happened to NiMH car batteries and biobutanol. Hopefully this will escape...something's gotta get through!
Anyone else notice how many of those "oil" companies are now "energy" companies? Yeah. They won't let you off that easily.
Oil companies are not somehow harboring "secret" technology. Fact is, the whole world is essentially designed around fossil fuel consumption, from the gathering of it, to distribution, to the actual final use of it.
Fossil fuels will be used quite extensively on this planet for another 25-50 years. Just the infrastructure alone required to have everything as electric is mind blowing. The "fossil fuel" society has been developed over a century, electricity (if that is the final solution) will take a long time to fully get there.
But who am I kidding, keep those tinfoil hats on folks 
Look up a 50-100 year old popular science magazine or two. You'll find an article in there about a magic new power source or battery that's about to revolutionize the world. There's nothing new about the claims. As always, I'll believe it when I see it.
I doubt we'll figure batteries out to a point where they can compete with liquid fuels, before we figure out how to just make renewable liquid fuels at a rate competitive to today's gasoline and diesel prices. (IE develop cheap nuke power, build bigass CO2 scrubbers, eletrolyze water, assemble gasoline).
It's cold fusion all over again.
IIRC the NiMH batteries in all hybrids (toyota) are limited to a certain size because an oil/fuel company bought all the rights to production of any over a certain size and sat on them. It may have been a different evolution of the Toyota hybrid if they had the rights to a larger energy storage pack. We could easily have had a Volt style hybrid 17 years ago.
whuuuuuuuuuuuut.
In reply to belteshazzar:
Found it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patent_encumbrance_of_large_automotive_NiMH_batteries
1988RedT2 wrote: It's cold fusion all over again.
You know "cold fusion" is real, right? Or are you implying that these batteries, if they are real, will be squashed like "cold fusion" was?
dculberson wrote: The oil companies wouldn't buy it and sit on it, they would buy it and sell the product. They're in it to make money not spend money on non-productive assets.
but what about how they made the guy with the 100mpg carburetor disappear in the 50's?
And for anyone who thinks I was being a tinfoil hatter earlier, here's why we're not using a cheap direct-gasoline-substitute biofuel right now:
http://www.greenpatentblog.com/2013/09/11/betting-on-biobutanol-and-battling-butamax-a-conversation-with-gevos-general-counsel/
Another technology they're "sitting on"
Dr. Hess wrote:1988RedT2 wrote: It's cold fusion all over again.You know "cold fusion" is real, right? Or are you implying that these batteries, if they are real, will be squashed like "cold fusion" was?
Yes!
Graphene will save the world!!!!!
No, seriously. It will!
MrJoshua wrote: In reply to belteshazzar: Found it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patent_encumbrance_of_large_automotive_NiMH_batteries
Looks like that patent will expire in 2 years or so.
Yeah but NiMH batteries are ancient tech now, even the well-established Li-ion batteries are far better. NiMH would have been great in the late '90s, maybe early 2000s. Cars wouldn't have much range or performance with them but they could have made decent city cars.
GameboyRMH wrote: Another technology they're "sitting on"
...or haven't found a cost effective way to get it to market. Remember that Big Oil is more than just wells - they also have refineries, pipelines, tankers, gas stations, etc. And they get their cut every step of the way. It's at least theoretically possible they bought the patent planning to use it and so far haven't been able to.
ebonyandivory wrote: Graphene will save the world!!!!! No, seriously. It will!
Graphene made with carbonized chicken feathers if I had to take a guess. Really. Though Graphene has some pretty nasty health risks
The video has one part that seems to be a bit of wishful thinking and that is where they say the battery produces no heat. Unless it is a superconductor, the battery will have some internal resistance and therefore generate some heat.
Of course, but they could mean no "meaningful" heat, as in low enough to dissipate safely without any cooling device.
foxtrapper said: Look up a 50-100 year old popular science magazine or two. You'll find an article in there about a magic new power source or battery that's about to revolutionize the world. There's nothing new about the claims. As always, I'll believe it when I see it.
Did you just post that from a laptop or cell phone? If so, you're using that magical new battery, and now you see it. Do you believe it?
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