battery mall

NISKAYUNA, N.Y.–With a 1914 electric car displayed outside, General Electric last week hosted a symposium on batteries for transportation and the electricity grid.

GE has been working on battery-powered vehicles for decades. Although those projects didn’t yield mass-produced electric vehicles, GE executives said that the conditions for increased use of batteries on the grid and in vehicles have never been better.

The same conditions that are driving GE’s Ecomagination initiative–a limit on natural resources like fossil fuels and fresh water as well as regulations to cut carbon emissions–make batteries a good area for research, said Mark Little, senior vice president and director of GE Global Research.

GE last week said that revenue under its Ecomagination program is expected to go up 21 percent this year to reach $17 billion. GE’s annual clean technology research and development will go to $1.4 billion.

Even with the recent drop in oil prices, the trend toward battery-powered vehicles is strong because of high energy prices and the lower carbon footprint batteries have compared with gasoline engines, Little said.

“My own view is that even if 5 to 10 percent of vehicles become electrified, that’s a huge opportunity,” Little said.

GE is looking to work with Chrysler on a Department of Energy-sponsored research project for a battery-powered passenger car, Little said. The project, which has not yet been finalized, will involve using different types of batteries in a vehicle. GE is investing in further development of its sodium-metal chloride batteries, now used in train locomotives.

Last week, GE upped its investment in lithium-ion maker A123 Systems, injecting another $30 million in the company. GE is working with A123 Systems in integrating its batteries into the all-electric Think town car and a hybrid bus platform.

Both GE and A123 Systems are developing storage for power grid operators. Integrating several hours of storage on the grid would allow utilities to use the distribution network more efficiently and integrate intermittent wind and solar energy more.

Sanyo and Volkswagen announced an agreement on Wednesday to make lithium-ion batteries for hybrid electric vehicles, turning up the competition in the field for energy-efficient cars.

Sanyo intends to open a factory to make the batteries in 2010 and Volkswagen plans to introduce a car with them the same year, according to a Bloomberg report. The first car to get the batteries will be an Audi AG, Reuters reported.
 
The pact also calls for the two companies to make software to electronically control the batteries.

Sanyo already provides nickel metal hydride batteries for Ford and Honda.

Lithium-ion batteries are growing in favor with carmakers. The Tesla Roadster uses lithium-ion batteries, as will the Chevy Volt when it is released in two years.

The Sanyo factory will have the capacity to supply batteries to power between 1.7 million and 1.8 million hybrid vehicles a year, the company told Bloomberg.

A hybrid electric vehicle runs on a battery and a conventional gasoline engine. The batteries are charged by the engine and regenerated power from braking.

This week a group led by Yi Cui, professor of materials science and engineering at Stanford, demonstrated (see video) the use of an ink consisting of carbon nanotubes and silver nanowires. Once dipped in the ink and then baked, ordinary paper turns into a black paper that can act as a battery or supercapacitor. The paper retains its ability to hold a charge regardless of whether it’s bent, crumpled, or rolled.

The ink looks identical to common India ink, which makes sense given the fact that Cui’s ink is also made of carbon, albeit carbon nanotubes.

Cui and his team tried the ink on plastic, but found paper to be preferable because of its absorbent properties and its ability to endure crumpling. The ink could also be used as paint to create conductive walls.

The nanotechnology paper would have applications in electricity storage devices connecting to electrical grids, and could last through 40,000 charge/recharge cycles, according to Cui.

Cui said the nanomaterial transfers electricity more efficiently than normal conductors. He sees the paper providing a lightweight storage solution for energy sources, like wind and solar, which contend with the problem of not always being available on-demand. It could also be used in hybrid or all-electric cars.

Ink or printing has become a common method for scientists using nanotechnology to convey unusual properties onto ordinary objects. Innovalight has developed a proprietary silicon ink for ink-jet-manufacturing solar cells. In 2007, IBM and ETH Zurich researchers developed a method for “printing” molecules.

Cui’s Stanford team for the ink project includes Liangbing Hu and JangWook Choi, both post doctoral scholars, and Yuan Yang, a graduate student.

Drivers who field-tested Mini’s electric vehicle say they miss the rear passenger and trunk space that’s now used to store the vehicle’s batteries. But overall they say that the Mini E satisfies their daily driving needs and that its 100-mile range is sufficient.

Mini released the results of a survey of 57 drivers who leased the car in a trial program that started last spring.

The biggest surprise was “debunking of the issue that the 100-mile range was a limitation,” said Richard Steinberger, manager of EV operations and strategy for BMW of North America. “They quickly came to terms with the range and said 100 miles did meet their needs,” he said.

The Mini E lessees, who live mainly in urban areas, charged their cars at home in the morning and recharged them in the evening, “and it worked for them,” Steinberger said. Participants preferred charging their cars at home rather than at public stations. Steinberger said the cost of driving the Mini E came to about $6 per 100 miles driven, about half the cost of a gasoline-powered vehicle.

Mini leased 450 electric cars to participants in Los Angeles, New York and New Jersey. The monthly lease is $850.

The trial was set to end after a year but has been extended through early 2011. Steinberger said lessees have shown interest in leasing the ActiveE, an electric plug-in based on the 1-series coupe. The ActiveE was unveiled last month at the Detroit auto show.

The ActiveE uses ion batteries that require less space than those in the Mini E.

Gateway is recalling 14,000 lithium-ion notebook batteries, the company said Tuesday.

The announcement comes after four reports of Gateway notebooks overheating over the last few years. One of the incidents caused “minor property damage,” according to Gateway. The batteries in question are used in two models of its notebooks, the 400VTX and 450ROG, sold in the U.S. between May and August 2003.

“The root cause of this battery failure became apparent as the batteries aged and performed repetitive recharging cycles. After an in-depth analysis of the four reported incidents, Gateway took proactive measures to launch a voluntary battery exchange program in the interest of customer safety,” said company spokeswoman Lisa Emard.

Gateway says Simplo battery packs containing Samsung cells are to blame in the four incidents. This recall is separate from last year’s massive recall of more than 10 million Sony-made notebook batteries by most of the major PC manufacturers, including Dell, Apple, Lenovo, Acer, Gateway and others. The Sony batteries in question were short circuiting due to a defect in the manufacturing process, and PC makers were forced to look to other battery makers, like Simplo, to fill emergency orders.

Gateway says customers can contact the company directly to find out if their battery is on the list and get a free replacement.

A number of companies are trying to figure out ways to make cellulosic ethanol by breaking down sugar with microbes and enzymes. Sony has used similar principles to build a battery.

In short, the anode of the battery consists of enzymes–a protein that speeds up chemical reactions in living organisms–which digest sugar while the cathode that breaks down oxygen. The two are connected by a membrane. The anodie extracts electrons and hydrogen. The hydrogen migrates through a membrane to the cathode side and makes water with the oxygen. Those loose electrons go to power your MP3 player or phone.

Test batteries produced by Sony have managed to produce 50 milliwatts. The company even strung a bunch of them together to power an MP3 player. Sony presented a paper on it at the 234th American Chemical Society National Meeting & Exposition in Boston, one of the premier and longest running scientific conferences in the world. (Although there were far more leeching papers back in the 1770s.)

Biologically-inspired processes like this are increasingly a big deal in the research community. What are microbes, after all, but little chemical factories. They eat sewage and, though the wonders of the metabolic process, produce methane. Beer is essentially waste product from the digestion process of yeast-think about that the next time you buy a six pack.

With cellulosic ethanol, enzymes created by microscopic organisms break cellulose down into sugars and then convert the sugar into alcohol. The big challenge many companies are facing is that 1) breaking down cellulose isn’t easy and 2) a lot of microbes die in high concentrations of alcohol.

James Kendrick,recently wrote: “Mobile computer users will tell you that the number one need they have is for sufficient battery power.” There are a few ways laptop computer users can get more battery power for their computers:

Buy a larger battery designed specifically for your computer. When buying many, if not most, laptop computers, you should have a choice of batteries. Higher-capacity batteries are physically bigger, cost more, and may very well protrude either vertically or horizontally.

If you find you need more power for a laptop computer you already own, you can buy a second battery. One downside to this approach is that the computer has to be powered off to switch batteries. Then too, there are safety concerns when carrying around an internal battery.

Yet another option involves an external battery pack that plugs into the same port on the laptop that the AC power cord does.

If you are interested in buying an internal battery, either to have as a spare when traveling or simply to replace a dying one, then check out “Cheap laptop batteries: Good deal or risky business?” by Brian Nadel of Computerworld. As Nadel explains it:

“There are two basic types of notebook batteries: the brand-name batteries that the manufacturer sells and the aftermarket batteries that are available from third-party resellers — often for a significantly lower price … We all want to save money, but not if it puts our notebooks at risk. Buying an aftermarket battery often goes against the advice of laptop manufacturers, and in some cases can even void the warranty. Is it worth it to save a few bucks?”

He tested three replacement batteries for a MacBook Pro and another three for a ThinkPad R50. His conclusion? “The aftermarket replacements proved to be just as good and reliable as the originals.” That said, there is a big difference in aftermarket batteries; the article offers buying tips.

One issue with having two batteries is that only one can be charging at a time. But, every problem is a marketing opportunity, and a recent posting at Liliputing describes chargers you can buy for an Asus Eee PC that let you externally charge an internal battery.

In “External battery packs can power that notebook for hours”, Kendrick discusses his experiences. In brief, external batteries offer a lot of power but at a price. As for power, he says they “can power most laptops for 8-10 hours.” As for price, the two companies he mentions offer models priced at $200 and $300. Not cheap, but as Kendrick says, when you need them you really need them.

On the heels of announcing a hybrid power train for the Proton car company, Lotus released details of its own hybrid Evora concept. The Evora is the latest model from Lotus, and is slightly larger car than its other models that retains the company’s sport driving capabilities. The Lotus Evora 414E Hybrid uses a newly developed series hybrid system, with an electric motor driving each rear wheel and a range extender internal combustion engine topping off the lithium polymer battery as needed.
 
The hybrid system is shown under the back glass of the concept.

(Credit: Lotus)
Similar to the upcoming series hybrid Chevy Volt, the Evora 414E Hybrid will be plug-in capable, so owners can charge the battery over night. On a full charge, the car can travel 35 miles before the range extender engine kicks in, giving it a full hybrid range of more than 300 miles.

The Evora 414E Hybrid has a more sophisticated electric-drive system than the Tesla Roadster, which is built on a Lotus-designed chassis and body. Each rear wheel is powered by its own 152-kilowatt electric motor, with Lotus electronics providing torque vectoring to enhance handling. These electric motors individually create 295 pound-feet of torque, giving the Evora 414E Hybrid a zero to 60 mph time of less than 4 seconds.

Unique to the Evora 414E Hybrid is a virtual seven-speed transmission actuated by paddle shifters. Each downshift engages a more aggressive regeneration mode for the drive motors, simulating the feel of downshifting a car with gears. To complete the experience, Lotus used audio technology from Harman International that simulates engine noise, and modulates its sound based on motor speed and virtual downshifts. The driver can select from four engine sound modes: a V-6 engine, V-12 engine, a futuristic sound, and a combination of internal combustion and futuristic sounds.

The range extender is a 1.2-liter three-cylinder engine designed specifically by Lotus to drive a generator. It uses a monoblock design to lower manufacturing costs and puts out 47 horsepower.

Lotus will show the Evora 414E Hybrid concept at the upcoming Geneva auto show.

The Toshiba Satellite M45 was recently released by Toshiba.  This notebook features a 15.4″ XGA widescreen TruBrite display.  But most importantly, it houses the latest Centrino platform from Intel, Sonoma, meaning the 1.60GHz Pentium M chip equipped with the M45-S331 has a 533MHz Front Side Bus (FSB), 2MB L2 Cache and the Intel 915GM chipset for better processor and graphics performance.

Specs

Processor: Intel Pentium M 730 (1.60GHz, 2MB L2 cache, 533MHz FSB)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition (SP2)
Memory: 512MB PC2700 DDR333 SDRAM (256MB x 2)
Screen: 15.4″ Wide-screen XGA Tru-Brite Display (1280 x 800)
Graphics: Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 900 w/64MB-128MB shared video
Hard Drive: 80GB (4200 RPM)
Optical Drive: DVD SuperMulti Drive
Wireless: Intel Wireless Pro 2200BG (802.11g)
Ports: 5-in-1 built-in media card reader, 3-USB (2.0) ports, IEEE 1394 port, TV-out (S-video), Ethernet port, V.92/56K Modem
Design and Build

The Toshiba Satellite M45 is a 15.4″ screen notebook that weighs in at 6.2lbs and is best described as a desktop replacement style notebook, but one that won’t break your back if you want to move it between home and office on a daily basis.

The casing is constructed of a rigid and durable plastic material that provides for lighter weight, but the casing is not so durable that I’d want to see this laptop dropped any distance.  It’s not as solidly built as say an IBM ThinkPad or Panasonic ToughBook, but the overall build feels more convincing to me than most Dell Inspiron notebooks I have used.  So the construction and durability of the M45 is best described as middle of the road.

Ports and Buttons

I love shortcut buttons, providing a user with the ability to perform an oft performed task by simply pressing a button instead of dragging a mouse and drilling through menus or moving a slider with a cursor is a beautiful thing.  Toshiba provides shortcut buttons on the left hand side of the keyboard to launch a browser window, launch windows media player, play or pause a DVD/CD, and skip music tracks or DVD sections.  On the front of the notebook is a volume control and button to turn wireless on and off.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and Gateway announced today the voluntary recall of Gateway lithium ion notebook battery packs. According to the CPSC, the battery packs can overheat and pose a fire hazard. About 14,000 of the units have the problem; so far no injuries have been reported.

The battery packs were sold between May 2003 and August 2003. The CPSC recommends that consumers stop using these battery packs immediately and contact Gateway to get a replacement.

Panasonic and Verizon Wireless today announced that embedded access to the high speed BroadbandAccess network is now available on the broad range of Panasonic Toughbook notebooks. Products now certified to run on the Verizon Wireless Revision A network include the Toughbook 30 notebook, the Toughbook 19 convertible tablet PC, and the Toughbook 74.

Verizon’s Revision A network has average download speeds of 600kbps to 1.4 Mbps; average upload speeds range from 500 to 800 kbps. Access to the Verizon Wireless BroadbandAccess service requires the purchase of the Sierra Wirreless embedded MC-5725 PCI express card and VZAccess software.