Fuji Pigment Unveils Aluminium-Air Battery Rechargeable by Refilling Salty or Normal Water -- KAWANISHI, Japan, Jan. 8, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Seems to have impressively high energy density. Current capacity not much to write home about yet. Wonder what would be the first applications? -Chap
This was found at greencarcongress.com: Source: Green Car Congress: Fuji Pigment unveils rechargeable Aluminum-air battery; targeting initial commercialization this spring So there are two ceramic layers that have the properties of: Al{3+} ions move from anode to and through the left ceramic layer - actually they come in one side and emit the other into the electroylte. Al(OH){4}- in the electrolyte - neat trick getting the Al{3+} to join with four, (OH), ions, going over to the other side. Wiki points out that "Aluminium hydroxide is amphoteric. It dissolves in acid, forming . . . . It also dissolves in strong alkali, forming [Al(OH)4]− (tetrahydroxidoaluminate)." So the electrolyte is a strong base. O{2} on one side of the right ceramic layer - they somehow pop out the other side as (OH)- ions. An earlier article, Green Car Congress: Alcoa and Phinergy enter joint development agreement for high energy-density aluminum-air batteries, reports using a 'silver-based catalyst'. The quote in the Greencarcongress explains how Dr. Mori's team did it: This is awesome energy density apparently without the hydrogen explosion risk of lithium-air cells. But the power density is weak in what I suspect are room temperature cells, under 100C: .7-.8 V * .4-.8 A = 0.28 - .64 W / 100 cm**2 -- pretty weak but easily handles remote sensor needs 10. - 12. V * 4-8 A = 40 - 100 W (??) - now we can make a cup of tea Trying to stay below 100C to allow water electrolytes is the problem. Dr Mori mentions operation at '600 C' and that is likely to be key to higher energy density. For motive power, I am OK with high temperature, metal-air cells, where substantial heat recovery is involved. Air carries 80% nitrogen overhead that has to pass through the cell and efficient operation means this heat must be retained. Also, it needs to be compressed to support high-density operation. These are not trivial problems but neither are they insurmountable. If I were in the business, I would look at a gallium-aluminum alloy to reduce the temperature yet retain high energy density. I would also look hard at tin-air, pyro batteries because of the low melting temperature. The thermal loss problem is a power, 2 or 3, of the operating temperature. But understand, I'm not a chemist although sometimes I play one on the Internet. <GRINS> Bob Wilson
Posted too soon as this paper is available outside of the paywall: Source: Addition of Ceramic Barriers to Aluminum–Air Batteries to Suppress By-product Formation on Electrodes This is not the first time a 'press release' was quite different from the source paper. Bob Wilson
Thread title: By Spring 2015, meaning a prototype battery ready for testing in 2 months? In the meantime, hope this make it by 2020: Toyota’s New High Performance Solid State Batteries Secure an Electric Future | The LAcarGUY Blog Toyota's Strategy for Environmental Technologies | TOYOTA GLOBAL SITE
