Texas Startup Says It Has Batteries Beat

Texas Startup Says It Has Batteries Beat
By GRANT SLATER

Associated Press Writer

An Austin-based startup called EEStor promised "technologies for replacement of electrochemical batteries," meaning a motorist could plug in a car for five minutes and drive 500 miles roundtrip between Dallas and Houston without gasoline.

By contrast, some plug-in hybrids on the horizon would require motorists to charge their cars in a wall outlet overnight and promise only 50 miles of gasoline-free commute. And the popular hybrids on the road today still depend heavily on fossil fuels.

"It's a paradigm shift," said Ian Clifford, chief executive of Toronto-based ZENN Motor Co., which has licensed EEStor's invention. "The Achilles' heel to the electric car industry has been energy storage. By all rights, this would make internal combustion engines unnecessary."

Clifford's company bought rights to EEStor's technology in August 2005 and expects EEStor to start shipping the battery replacement later this year for use in ZENN Motor's short-range, low-speed vehicles.

The technology also could help invigorate the renewable-energy sector by providing efficient, lightning-fast storage for solar power, or, on a small scale, a flash-charge for cell phones and laptops.

Skeptics, though, fear the claims stretch the bounds of existing technology to the point of alchemy.

Cont'd

http://www.statesman.com/business/content/shared-gen/ap/High_Tech/No_More_Batteries.html

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Technology Review:

http://www.technologyreview.com/Biztech/18086/?a=f

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ZENN Motor Co
http://www.zenncars.com/

Call me a skeptic...

...in automotive applications, e.g. http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2005/02/24/003918.html

Were earlier implementations touchy? Howso?

capacitor is shot.

Drive 1000 miles on a 5 minute charge? Not likely.

Here is the physics:

If we assume the average power required to drive on the highway is an average of 20 Horsepower this coverts to 14.9 kilowatts. To drive 1000 miles would require about 16 hours. So the energy stored in the magic capacitors is 16 hours X 15 kilowatts = 240 kilowatt hours or 240,000 watt-hours (you will see why I use the term "magic" shortly). With a 100 percent efficient capacitor and charger this amount of energy would have to be transferred into the capacitors using a 120 volt receptacle. The amount of current that would be required to do this in 1 hour is 2000 amps. To do it in 5 minutes would require 24,000 amps. This is approaching the current found in a small lightning bolt or a major electrical arc. Needless to say his would blow every fuse or breaker up stream.

This idea reminds me of the idea of connecting a flux capacitor to a lightning bolt a la "Back to the Future". It is just about as likely to every work.

They'd have better luck charging up a capacitor and sticking it to the backside of a mule and watch him fly for about a mile.:bounce: :rofl:

The company claims the capacitors could be charged in 5 min. with enough energy to drive 500 miles for about $9. It takes about 3 days for our household to use $9 worth of electricity. So how do we deliver three days worth in 5 min. without blowing a breaker?

I assume they were thinking of a charging station here, like a gas station for electricity. One could probably built that could do that. That would allow all electric cars to be used for long distance vacations. The home chargers would only supply enough juice for daily usage and build up enough for a weekend trip.

The problem is that capacitors "leak" so to speak, much more than gas tanks.