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You're ignoring that they are worse on every metric but below-freezing charging than lithium batteries: NiZn: 70 to 85Wh / kg Lifepo4: > 180 NiZn: 1000 cha

by coryrc 4y ago

You're ignoring that they are worse on every metric but below-freezing charging than lithium batteries: NiZn: 70 to 85Wh / kg Lifepo4: > 180 NiZn: 1000 charge-discharge cycles Lifepo4: 3000 cycles NiZn: significant self-discharge Lifepo4: negligible self-discharge NiZn: nickel is more expensive than all the metals in lifepo4 and more environmentally damaging to extract There's nothing good about them, even if the dendrite problem was solved (which I doubt). Lifepo4 can be recycled just fine, provided there's actually enough of them to be recycled, which won't be for a long time since they last so long.

_hypx 4y ago
NiZn almost certainly cheaper than LiFePO₄, at least once they get to scale. Problems like self-discharge or cycle-life likely vary depending on cell design. I'm sure you can design a cell that has less of these problems. It is also much easier to recycle than LiFePO₄ batteries, which is a big advantage. LiFePO₄ are basically never recycled in practice. Should be noted that no one is suggest that NiZn is the end-all be-all battery chemistry. It is just a neat idea that is worth investing in, and will work in a lot of circumstances.
- coryrc 4y ago
  Nickel is $12/lb, lithium $31/lb. Nickel atomic weight is 59, lithium is 7. $12 * 59/7 == $101 There's one electron per nickel atom and one electron per lithium atom. Nickel is 3x more expensive than lithium on that basis alone. The only useful place I see for NiZn is drop-in replacement for alkaline cells, not mass storage. Nickel is the one of the most expensive part of lithium batteries: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/08/nickel-price-surge-could-threaten-automakers-ev-plans.html https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/08/nickel-price-surge-could-thr... I'm not sure where you get the idea that it is cheaper. > LiFePO₄ are basically never recycled in practice. Because they haven't reached end-of-life yet. No one is going to recycle perfectly good batteries.

by coryrc 4y ago

_hypx 4y ago

NiZn almost certainly cheaper than LiFePO₄, at least once they get to scale. Problems like self-discharge or cycle-life likely vary depending on cell design. I'm sure you can design a cell that has less of these problems. It is also much easier to recycle than LiFePO₄ batteries, which is a big advantage. LiFePO₄ are basically never recycled in practice. Should be noted that no one is suggest that NiZn is the end-all be-all battery chemistry. It is just a neat idea that is worth investing in, and will work in a lot of circumstances.

coryrc 4y ago
Nickel is $12/lb, lithium $31/lb. Nickel atomic weight is 59, lithium is 7. $12 * 59/7 == $101 There's one electron per nickel atom and one electron per lithium atom. Nickel is 3x more expensive than lithium on that basis alone. The only useful place I see for NiZn is drop-in replacement for alkaline cells, not mass storage. Nickel is the one of the most expensive part of lithium batteries: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/08/nickel-price-surge-could-threaten-automakers-ev-plans.html https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/08/nickel-price-surge-could-thr... I'm not sure where you get the idea that it is cheaper. > LiFePO₄ are basically never recycled in practice. Because they haven't reached end-of-life yet. No one is going to recycle perfectly good batteries.