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Fingers Crossed for Good Luck with New Lithium Battery Technology
Wall Street isn't the only thing that's going through a major meltdown. So is the Arctic ice cap. According to WWF, the Arctic is on track to reach its lowest level yet in terms of volume of ice. Not only is the ice cap receding, it's getting thinner as well. "If you take reduced ice thickness into account, there is probably less ice overall in the Arctic this year than in any other year since monitoring began," said Dr. Martin Sommerkorn, senior climate change adviser for WWF's Arctic Program. "This is also the first year that the Northwest Passage over the top of North America and the Northeast Passage over the top of Russia are both free of ice." No, sea levels won't rise as an immediate effect of the melting. But, there's a ripple effect that can cause warming to accelerate worldwide:
The US National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) confirms WWF suspicions. The record for ice cap area shrinkage wasn't broken this year: This summer's ice cover was the second lowest since satellite records began 30 years ago, but much if the cap was very thin, only a season old. The state of the planet and the state of the global economy are both on mushy ground. Now would be the time for a breakthrough on greenhouse gas-free energy. Are you listening, scientists, engineers and inventors? We need clean energy and we need a new job and opportunity creating industrial and economic focus other than real estate and investment banks. A patent is not a guarantee that an invention actually works, but patents are sought by inventors who truly believe their invention will work. QuantumSphere, of Santa Ana, California, a leading developer of advanced catalyst materials, electrode devices, and related technologies for portable power and clean-energy applications, has filed a key patent for technology it has developed that extends the capacity of rechargeable lithium ion batteries up to five times. Being modest, the company says a battery using the technology when powering an electric vehicle or laptop computer, would run 12 hours instead of 4. Twelve hours run time would put a lithium-energized vehicle in direct competition with petroleum fueled vehicles. It's range drivers are seeking in electric vehicles. The patent filing covers a novel electrode structure enriched with nano lithium particles that increases the fuel source in a rechargeable lithium ion battery, thus increasing battery life. "QuantumSphere has created electrodes with much higher lithium capacities than current state-of-the-art lithium ion batteries, as described in this patent application," said Subra Iyer, principal technologist and co-inventor at QuantumSphere. "In the next phase of QuantumSphere research efforts, we will further improve these anode and cathode electrodes and formulate electrolytes with wide electrochemical windows. All of this is part of a structured research approach to create new high-voltage battery chemistries, enabling both higher energy density and higher power density in next-generation rechargeable lithium ion batteries, taking advantage of the newly improved anode, cathode, and electrolyte molecular architectures." QuantumSphere intends to commercialize the technology to improve next-generation batteries for energy storage, consumer and transportation applications. It will take some time for the company to accomplish this if the technology pans out. The company has had some success with its inventions. QuantumSphere developed a high-rate, paper-thin, nano-enabled electrode for disposable batteries. The patent pending air-electrode design increased power output by 320 percent in zinc-air cells, providing roughly 4 times more power than equivalent sized alkaline batteries. The technology is expected to be commercialized in 2009. One morning the world will wake up to a discovery that will change the course of history. The sooner that day comes the better. |
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