The wonders of ionic liquids, and how they can dramatically raise the bar on energy storage
I have to be honest, up until last week I’d heard a lot about the potential of metal-air batteries — i.e. zinc-air, lithium-air, etc… — but really didn’t know much about the batteries, how they were made, why they are be potentially better, and what challenges need to be overcome for them to unseat the current king of batteries, lithium-ion technology. Then I was put onto an Arizona-based company called Fluidic Energy, which recently received $5.13 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy as part of the recently announced first-phase of ARPA-E awards. Fluidic, a spin-off of Arizona State University, will use this money over the next few years to achieve its mission: a metal-air battery that’s up to 11 times more energy dense than the best lithium-ion battery today, and potentially half or even a third of the cost.
Certainly a big mission, but after chatting with Cody Friesen, Arizona State professor and founder of Fluidic, I quickly realized it’s not mission impossible. And it gave me great hope that five or 10 years from now, whether it’s Fluidic or EEStor or Premium Power or some other company, the big breakthrough we’re looking for will happen. And that, my friends, is an exciting thing.
I urge you to read this story on MIT Technology Review, posted today, which explains what Fluidic is doing and why it may overcome many of the challenges that have dogged the commercial, mass-market introduction of rechargeable metal-air batteries.
Tags: Cody Friesen, Fluidic Energy, ionic liquids, metal-air battery
Tyler Hamilton is a business columnist for the Toronto Star, Canada's largest daily newspaper. In addition to this Clean Break blog, Tyler writes a weekly column of the same name that discusses trends, happenings and innovators in the clean technology and green energy market. This blog is a personal project started in April 2005. It is not an official blog of the newspaper.
November 5th, 2009 at 2:11 pm
Tyler, do you have a “small investment” in Zenn Motor Corp. like the blogger with the bag over his head who is a pumper for EEStor/Zenn?
November 5th, 2009 at 2:50 pm
First, the easy answer: No.
Second, the question: Who is the blogger with the bag over his head? Honestly, I haven’t a clue who you’re talking about.
Look, I write occasionally about EEStor, as well as ZENN (It’s a Toronto-based company and I write for a Toronto-based newspaper, so it kinda makes sense that I would). When I write about them I make clear the amount of thoughtful skepticism out there and balance that with the equal sense of hope. I have hope and skepticism. I appreciate and welcome the hope and skepticism of others. I haven’t judged it a scam, though may one day.
But I will say one thing, I’m not as obsessed about this story as the legions of other bloggers or blog-readers out there who seem to follow it daily, and perhaps you are among them. I simply don’t have the time, and prefer to wait until the milestones are met or not met.
BTW Dick Weirdo, quite the thing to question someone who isn’t anonymous and to do so hiding behind a pseudonym. Classy.
November 5th, 2009 at 3:51 pm
Thank you for your prompt reply.
“BTW Dick Weirdo, quite the thing to question someone who isn’t anonymous and to do so hiding behind a pseudonym. Classy.”
I learned that from the blogger hiding behind a bag AKA “Baghead”, “b”, “eestoblogger” he hides behind the bag but gets pissed off at skeptics of EESTor hiding behind a pseudonym. It’s like “The pot calling the kettle black”.
November 5th, 2009 at 3:59 pm
Fair enough.
I do know who you’re talking about when you say “b” — didn’t know he had many names.
November 5th, 2009 at 10:10 pm
Interesting read, but there does seem to be some hurdles for Fluidic- in their own words, they have not gotten there yet. Also, how quickly will this type of battery take a charge? And, while they implied they may have some answers to the issues that degrade other types of batteries, they did not give a figure on how many charges/discharges this type of battery would be able to withstand. That said, it is still good to have dollars spent on such research- sow broadly and hope for the one breakthrough that will enable realistic EV’s and Energy storage. So, go Fluidic! And Premium Power. And Eestor. I am cautiously optimistic that one of these. along with others, will provide that breakthrough over the next few years;-)