IndieGoGo Project Promises to Charge cell phone or electric car battery in minutes

Hmm... I already have a Rayovac 15 minute fast charger. Not sure what the breakthrough here is.

 

As is always the issue with large batteries, the problem is having the energy available to put into them. The new generation lithium batteries can be charged very quickly, but putting 20KwH into a battery in 16 minutes will take an 80KwH supply. That is about 350 amps at 230 volts....not something you can do at home.

 

ok, just some math ... 12kWh in 15 minutes .... 48kW

48kW @ 240V = 200Amps.

this is not impossible by any means. the Tesla supercharge is greater than 48kW, but those stations cost somewhere north of $50k.

 

The smallest Tesla S is 40KwH. That works out to 160KwH/240=666 amps. Good luck getting your local utility to put that into your house. The Potential Difference website has essentially no information on it. There is no magic way to put energy into batteries...one joule is one joule.

 

Looks like it's a 2001 patent. It's related to the battery side of things and not wasting energy trying to charge the battery when it isn't in an ideal state to be charged. They avoid high charge currents to the battery which result in poor charge efficiency. It monitors the battery's charge state which changes many times within a split second and then apply an optimal charge.

 

when jsfabb asked "for your car?" I used the 12kWh needed to fully charge my 2012 Volt.

did you keep a link to the patent ?

I suppose a new BMS could integrate the method at a cell level and speed up charging. There is still the kW ceiling available from the utility but that could be bypassed/enhanced with some local storage like a flywheel.

 

Here's the 2001 patent link:

Google Drive Viewer

 

This really looks like Blue Sky at this point. It may be legitimate, but comparing a cell phone battery to a 40KHW EV battery may make for good press but it is bad engineering.