High-Energy Storage – Rechargeable Zinc-Air Batteries To Be Soon Available
7 November 2009 | Green Technology | No Comments
Some recent developments have brought to life new technologies for building a more efficient battery. ReVolt, a Swiss company announced that they managed to develop a rechargeable zinc-air battery that can store, by volume, three times more energy than the common lithium-ion battery, but in the same time, reducing the costs by half.
They will begin their production next year by building small “button cell” batteries, for hearing aids and than in the near future suiting their technology for a more bigger scale production, such as for cellphones or even electric cars. The high-energy storage battery follows the designs and technologies developed at the SINTEF, a research institute in Trondheim, Norway. In fact, ReVolt was created to bring this product to the market, raising to this day about €24 million in investment.
The rechargeable zinc-air battery had one big problem: it failed working after only a few charges. But, thanks to the new technology, the difficulty was overcome, promise company officials. The zinc-air battery itself isn’t a new invention, being available on the market from quite some time, but in the form of non-rechargeable batteries, hence, not very practical.
The new high density battery is very promising. Among its advantages we find that it relies only on oxygen to produce electricity, also its chemistry provides a safe ground, making it not likely to catch fire, like the regular lithium-ion battery sometimes does.
Tags: chemistry, design, electricity, Green Technology, high density, high-energy storage, lithium-ion battery, oxygen, rechargeable zinc-air battery, ReVolt, SINTEF