6 ms·

Free of Heavy Metals, New Battery Design Could Alleviate Environmental Concerns

37 points by Gys 7y ago

JBReefer 7y ago
Why aren’t they saying what’s in it?
- blacksmith_tb 7y ago
  It's also free of details, apparently. But this sentence seems key: "three new and different proprietary materials, which have never before been recorded as being combined in a battery" - that has "we're waiting for patents to be granted" written all over it.
  - Accujack 7y ago
    From the sound of it, this is a lithium anode battery with some new materials tech in it, which might be a significant improvement in some areas over present chemistries, kind of like how Lithium Ion Phosphate and Lithium Nickel Manganese Cobalt Oxide have different characteristics and are used for different purposes.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- paddz420 7y ago
  It uses lithium from my reading of the article.
- paddz420 7y ago
  Lithium
- AtlasBarfed 7y ago
  "New battery design could outperform lithium-ion across several sustainable technologies" That is some weird marketese...
HackOfAllTrades 7y ago
A totally worthless article with almost zero information. They say the electrolyte suppresses lithium dendrites, so my guess is the anode is lithium metal, rather than carbon, silicon, or sulfur to absorb the lithium. But the don't actually say the anode is lithium metal. There's also some nonsense about extracting materials from sea water, so it could be a sodium ion battery. Altogether a waste of time announcement.
- intpx 7y ago
  sounds to me like they are just re-announcing existing announcements for sodium batteries with glass electrolytes?
- Accujack 7y ago
  For anyone but IBM to announce this, yes. However... IBM is mostly about IP at this point, they are one of the few companies in the world that still has a cutting edge research division in house. They're responsible for a lot of the tech in present computer chips, like silicon on insulator or copper chip interconnects. Possible this is just fluff, but with IBM it's not guaranteed.
  - AtlasBarfed 7y ago
    Have their armies of outsourcing services tanked that badly?
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
ptah 7y ago
> The materials for this battery are able to be extracted from seawater, laying the groundwork for less invasive sourcing techniques than current material mining methods. marine life might find it "invasive"
- Nasrudith 7y ago
  Every goddamn time an alternative to mining the goalposts get mounted on monorails and the new's sins exaggerated to atomic testing in a rain forrest level. The only marine life impacted would be microscopic in the sea water removed and maybe the waste brine returned.
  - ptah 7y ago
    > marine life impacted would be microscopic that would be disastrous as all marine life depends on those organisms. it's not about shifting goalposts, it's about looking at the bigger picture. the problems we are now facing is because of past myopia
r7brown 7y ago
IBM was 'ready' to develop li-air batteries back in 2009 (link below). This should be viewed as a research project until proven otherwise. https://web.archive.org/web/20131201231910/https://www.ibm.com/smarterplanet/us/en/smart_grid/article/battery500.html https://web.archive.org/web/20131201231910/https://www.ibm.c...
AtlasBarfed 7y ago
They didn't include recharge cycles in the properties they think they can beat lithium....

37 points by Gys 7y ago

JBReefer 7y ago

Why aren’t they saying what’s in it?

blacksmith_tb 7y ago
It's also free of details, apparently. But this sentence seems key: "three new and different proprietary materials, which have never before been recorded as being combined in a battery" - that has "we're waiting for patents to be granted" written all over it.
- Accujack 7y ago
  From the sound of it, this is a lithium anode battery with some new materials tech in it, which might be a significant improvement in some areas over present chemistries, kind of like how Lithium Ion Phosphate and Lithium Nickel Manganese Cobalt Oxide have different characteristics and are used for different purposes.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
paddz420 7y ago
It uses lithium from my reading of the article.
paddz420 7y ago
Lithium
AtlasBarfed 7y ago
"New battery design could outperform lithium-ion across several sustainable technologies" That is some weird marketese...

HackOfAllTrades 7y ago

A totally worthless article with almost zero information. They say the electrolyte suppresses lithium dendrites, so my guess is the anode is lithium metal, rather than carbon, silicon, or sulfur to absorb the lithium. But the don't actually say the anode is lithium metal. There's also some nonsense about extracting materials from sea water, so it could be a sodium ion battery. Altogether a waste of time announcement.

intpx 7y ago
sounds to me like they are just re-announcing existing announcements for sodium batteries with glass electrolytes?
Accujack 7y ago
For anyone but IBM to announce this, yes. However... IBM is mostly about IP at this point, they are one of the few companies in the world that still has a cutting edge research division in house. They're responsible for a lot of the tech in present computer chips, like silicon on insulator or copper chip interconnects. Possible this is just fluff, but with IBM it's not guaranteed.
- AtlasBarfed 7y ago
  Have their armies of outsourcing services tanked that badly?

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

ptah 7y ago

> The materials for this battery are able to be extracted from seawater, laying the groundwork for less invasive sourcing techniques than current material mining methods. marine life might find it "invasive"

Nasrudith 7y ago
Every goddamn time an alternative to mining the goalposts get mounted on monorails and the new's sins exaggerated to atomic testing in a rain forrest level. The only marine life impacted would be microscopic in the sea water removed and maybe the waste brine returned.
- ptah 7y ago
  > marine life impacted would be microscopic that would be disastrous as all marine life depends on those organisms. it's not about shifting goalposts, it's about looking at the bigger picture. the problems we are now facing is because of past myopia

r7brown 7y ago

IBM was 'ready' to develop li-air batteries back in 2009 (link below). This should be viewed as a research project until proven otherwise. https://web.archive.org/web/20131201231910/https://www.ibm.com/smarterplanet/us/en/smart_grid/article/battery500.html https://web.archive.org/web/20131201231910/https://www.ibm.c...

AtlasBarfed 7y ago

They didn't include recharge cycles in the properties they think they can beat lithium....