Graphene batteries

hbiss

EC, Westchester, New York NEC: 2014
Location
Hawthorne, New York NEC: 2014
Occupation
EC
Graphene batteries seem to be just making the news lately as a lithium-ion battery alternative that is safer and non-flammable. They are also said to have improved run times, charging time and power output. Anybody know anything about them?

-Hal
 

gadfly56

Senior Member
Location
New Jersey
Occupation
Professional Engineer, Fire & Life Safety
What little I found on a quick Google suggests small form factors and astronomical prices. They make LiON batteries look as cheap as incandescent bulbs.
 

hbiss

EC, Westchester, New York NEC: 2014
Location
Hawthorne, New York NEC: 2014
Occupation
EC
Many people find EV's practical. I don't find a 3/4 ton dually diesel king ranch edition to be very practical but some people do.

Guess that "many" isn't enough because auto manufacturers are losing BIG money on EVs. Nobody wants them. I heard that Ford will throw in a free Mustang MachE with any large fleet of normal ICE powered vehicles purchased by a business.

As for the King Ranch, yeah it's a pig but at least you can refuel it in less than five minutes at any gas station. Unless you are going to just use it to go around town shopping, people don't want to spend upwards of 40 minutes charging an EV.

-Hal
 

jaggedben

Senior Member
Location
Northern California
Occupation
Solar and Energy Storage Installer
Do not confuse lithium polymer graphene batteries with aluminum graphene batteries. The former are a different type of lithium battery becoming widely available, and generally competitive with other types. The latter are in development by GMG in Australia and seem like they might revolutionize everything in, I don't know, ten years. Or not.

(Not a fan of the imprecise term 'lithium ion batteries'.)
 
Nobody wants them.
lol, ok sure.

As for the King Ranch, yeah it's a pig but at least you can refuel it in less than five minutes at any gas station. Unless you are going to just use it to go around town shopping, people don't want to spend upwards of 40 minutes charging an EV.

-Hal
I have quite a few friends and acquaintances that have them and they are all very happy and are saving lots of money on gas. Ya know not everybody is a 5 state territory sales rep for XYZ corp and driving 4,672 miles per week. Personally, no I am not ready to get one yet (but getting close as I have excess free power from my PV system) but they work well for many many people. Newsflash Hal: Not everyone is like you and many people have different needs and circumstances. Besides, Why on earth do you care so much about the choices other people make???
 

shortcircuit2

Senior Member
Location
South of Bawstin
There is a company in my area developling "Iron Air" batteries for utility scale deployment.


The site claims they have pilot system planned in Virginia for Dominion Energy
 

winnie

Senior Member
Location
Springfield, MA, USA
Occupation
Electric motor research
Many people have different needs, and EVs are a bad fit for tons of folk.

My ideal vehicle would be a plug in hybrid with about 40 miles of EV range. Most of my trips are short and frequent. The 5 mile round trip to get kids to school, for example. These short trips are horrible for ICE efficiency; the engine barely has time to heat up properly before being shut down.

For the few longer trips that I do, gasoline probably makes more sense than hauling a battery that gets rarely used.

Graphene just describes an electrode type that can be used in a battery. There are a ton of different plausible chemistries that can use graphene as a component.

I've not played with any graphene containing batteries. Right now I'd just consider graphene a marketing buzzword.

Jon
 

winnie

Senior Member
Location
Springfield, MA, USA
Occupation
Electric motor research
There is a company in my area developling "Iron Air" batteries for utility scale deployment.


This tech has an interesting use case.

The round trip energy efficiency is only about 50% .

The charge/discharge rate is low, only about 0.01C. This means that you can only run it on long multi-day cycles.

But it is apparently very very cheap per kWh capacity.

So even with its poor efficiency it can still give good LCOE for doing long term matching of energy consumption to intermittent sources like cheap PV. It is probably also good for matching slow ramping sources like nuclear to rapidly changing consumption.

Jon
 

retirede

Senior Member
Location
Illinois
Guess that "many" isn't enough because auto manufacturers are losing BIG money on EVs. Nobody wants them. I heard that Ford will throw in a free Mustang MachE with any large fleet of normal ICE powered vehicles purchased by a business.

As for the King Ranch, yeah it's a pig but at least you can refuel it in less than five minutes at any gas station. Unless you are going to just use it to go around town shopping, people don't want to spend upwards of 40 minutes charging an EV.

-Hal

Was this one of your ancestors?

1efc9e652a5f0eaf50dc655e139cf07e.jpg
 

ggunn

PE (Electrical), NABCEP certified
Location
Austin, TX, USA
Occupation
Consulting Electrical Engineer - Photovoltaic Systems
Many people find EV's practical. I don't find a 3/4 ton dually diesel king ranch edition to be very practical but some people do.
Those giant pickup trucks are sometimes just a status symbol. I know a few people who have them and just use them for going to work and the grocery store. The beds are spotless. :D
 
Many people have different needs, and EVs are a bad fit for tons of folk.



Jon

Of course. But also a good fit for many. Sure probably at this point still a lot more bad fit than good fit. Also remember that, like many many things, people don't always buy something out of logic or need or economics, i.e the aforementioned pickup with 24,673 lbs of towing capacity, the $250 per month sports package, the latest smartphone etc. I just don't get the vitriol many have toward someone over their car choice (not saying you are in that camp).
 
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