Liquid electricity from the photon farm

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.radionetherlands.nl/radioprogrammes/earthbeat/080108-photons-energy-mc

Liquid electricity from the photon farm

by Thijs Westerbeek*

08-01-2008
Click to listen to this edition of Earthbeat (mp3)

Re-charging your electric car in the same amount of time it would take to fill your tank with petrol or diesel. That is the only realistic option for 'electrifying' road transport. Scientists worldwide agree that electric transport will be inevitable in the long run, but so far it has proved impractical.

A Dutch government think tank, the Innovation Network in the city of Utrecht, is working on a solution: liquid electricity you can buy at photon farms. And the best part is that farmers across the globe can make some money from it.

The main problem with the current generation of electric cars is the amount of time it takes to charge the batteries. Even the best electric car has a radius of only a few hundred kilometres, after which the car has to remain stationary for hours to recharge the batteries for the next drive. This is the one and only major obstacle preventing the large-scale introduction of electric transport.

Pre-charged battery fluid
The Dutch Innovation Network has come up with an idea that radically changed the situation. What it boils down to is that, in future, electric cars will no longer need to be charged for hours, but will be filled up with pre-charged battery fluid; let's call it liquid electricity. Farmers across the world will then be in a position to generate additional income by using wind, biomass or solar power to pre-charge battery fluid and sell it to passing motorists.

...

"All we need to do now is develop the best possible electrolyte. Once we've sorted that out, we will move to the next phase: a filling station for liquid electricity. It sounds fantastic, but the technology already exists, just not for vehicles."

[rockymountaindem]

1. Plus it will open up thousands of jobs for photon wranglers/herders!

"Rollin' rollin' rollin', keep those photons rollin'..."

[phantom power]

2. Interesting, but I dispute that charge-time is "the main problem."

That implies it's the only major problem left to solve. In fact, the energy density and cost premiums are also not yet solved.

Also, this runs into the same conundrum as something like hydrogen. Even if you solve the engineering and cost problems, you still have a major infrastructure problem.

In this case, refueling also requires an additional step we aren't used to. We are accustomed to putting mass into a tank, and that mass all ends up coming out the back of our muffler. In a system like this, you would be first drawing electrolyte out of your tank, and then putting fresh back in. By no means a showstopper, but it does require a bunch of extra hardware at the fueling station. Something like two fuel hoses, or one hose with two stages of operation, etc.

[OKIsItJustMe]

3. Refuelling

The proposal is that first you drain, then you refill, and you're charged for the difference in electric potential.

[tinrobot]

4. You'd have to get battery/car manufacturers on board.

Plus you need to get a lot of "fueling" stations as well.

It's a great idea, but you need a LOT of cooperation to make it happen.

[diane in sf]

5. One of my friends came up with the battery swapping station idea.

Just swap your uncharged battery for a charged one, design the vehicles so the batteries snap in and out. This will provide jobs for attendents. Charge drivers a small fee for charging and handling.

[OKIsItJustMe]

6. Yes, this has been suggested before

There are difficulties with the battery swap-out idea. Off the top of my head here are some I recall:

• Batteries are big and heavy. Swapping them out would not be easy.
• Cars would need to be designed to allow the swap-out without structural deficiencies.
• Cars would need to be designed to deal with the weight distribution.
• When the assumption was that deep cycle lead acid batteries would be used, the question of what would happen in a crash was a real concern.

All-in-all, this seems to me to be easier to implement.

[madokie]

7. I was asking this same question the other day on here

why can't we change out the electrolyte rather than recharge the batteries, to me it makes a lot of sense to do it that way

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=115&topic_id=128254#128264

[OKIsItJustMe]

8. Duly noted

(I knew it sounded familiar!) ;-)