Replacing Internal Combustion Engines

First let's look at a common and widespread industrial application for electric vehicles, and how manufacturers and owners eventually settled on a hybridised solution combining batteries with ultracapacitors, to successfully replace internal combustion engine performance in the short-range heavy duty vehicles.

Forklift manufacturers have tested out several technologies over the years in attempts to increase the efficiency of their vehicles. Their success was limited, and they have traditionally settled for batteries as the energy storage system of choice. However, batteries have proven to be less than satisfactory. They are energy dense but not power dense, and they have temperature and lifespan limitations that affect productivity. Increasingly, forklift manufacturers are adopting ultracapacitors in tandem with batteries. Ultracaps are power dense, but not energy dense, and they allow for a lower charge rate, enabling the application to operate at a lower temperature. The result of the ultracap-battery combination: longer lifespan and better performance.

Ultracaps also offer other benefits to forklift manufacturers and AGV owners. In an emergency situation, ultracaps provide enough energy for peak shaving, which lowers the power to a safe and manageable level. In full-crane operations, users need only four megawatts of ultracap banks. Ultracaps also increase the life of the batteries with which they partner; a 3,000 pound lead acid battery partnered with an ultracap can last up to four hours, when alone it would last only one hour. And finally, ultracaps have endured and successfully completed crash tests, meaning they are rugged enough for the nature of the work AGVs do.

Ultracapacitors are particularly useful in dynamic systems where applications perform several accelerations that last just a few seconds. These rapid movements, typical in AGVs, set the stage for energy recapture, which ultracapacitors excel at doing. The high-power and high-energy applications in the AGV market can benefit significantly from a hybridized solution of ultracapacitors and batteries, while seeing a payback on the ultracapacitor investment in just 18 months. _Environmental Leader

This solution will not be enough to replace internal combustion engines (ICEs) for on-road vehicles, due to their lack of range. To replace ICEs for on-road vehicles, a triple-hybrid solution might be best: fuel cells, batteries, and supercapacitors.

Internal Combustion Engines Best Single Power Source for Energy & Power Densities
It is impossible at this time for any single electrical power storage device to match the internal combustion engine for both power density and energy density, particularly when taking expense into account.

Comparing Fuel Cells, Batteries, and Supercapacitor Power Response
As you can see when comparing fuel cells, batteries, and supercapacitors, each has different strengths and weaknesses in terms of supplying power for acceleration, and in terms of storing energy for long range driving between recharge or refuel.

Specific Energy vs Specific Power for Fuel Cells, Batteries, and Capacitors

Energy Management for Fuel Cell - Battery - Supercapacitor Vehicle

This paper proposes a perfect energy source supplied by a polymer electrolyte membrane fuelcell (PEMFC) as a main power source and storage devices: battery and supercapacitor, for modern distributed generation system, particularly for future fuelcell vehicle applications. The energy in hybrid system is balanced by the dc bus voltage regulation. A supercapacitor module, as a high dynamic and high power density device, functions for supplying energy to regulate a dc bus voltage. A battery module, as a high energy density device, operates for supplying energy to a supercapacitor bank to keep it charged. A FC, as a slowest dynamic source in this system, functions to supply energy to a battery bank in order to keep it charged. Therefore, there are three voltage control loops: dc bus voltage regulated by a supercapacitor bank, supercapacitor voltage regulated by a battery bank, and battery voltage regulated by a FC. To authenticate the proposed control algorithm, a hardware system in our laboratory is realized by analog circuits and numerical calculation by dSPACE. Experimental results with small-scale devices (a PEMFC: 500-W, 50-A; a battery bank: 68-Ah, 24-V; and a supercapacitor bank: 292-F, 30-V, 500-A) corroborate the excellent control principle during motor drive cycle. _Abstract of Journal of Power Sources study

Fuzzy logic power management for fuel cell - battery - supercapacitor electric vehicle IEEE Vehicular Transactions

Some manufacturers are attempting to combine the battery and the ultracapacitor into a single device, and others are combining the two into a single sealed package. The advantage of combining the two devices for better total power and energy densities is clear. The addition of the fuel cell to provide much longer range -- providing for fully charged batteries and ultracaps over an extended time -- creates more expense and a more difficult technical challenge, but appears to be the only way of replacing the ICE ultimately.

A future invention which combines the functions of all three devices in one, is not out of the question, and is likely to reduce the cost of the all-electric powerplant eventually, when it can be manufactured as an integrated device.

Stark, Simple Reality of Energy Density

Material		Energy Density (MJ/kg)	100W light bulb time (1kg)
Wood		10	1.2 days
Ethanol		26.8	3.1 days
Coal		32.5	3.8 days
Crude oil		41.9	4.8 days
Diesel		45.8	5.3 days
Natural Uranium		5.7x105	182 years
Reactor Grade Uranium		3.7x106	1171 years

__Source of table

It should be remembered, that the specific energy release from fission is many orders of magnitude larger than from chemical, mechanical or photoelectric processes (for example: O2 + C = CO2 yields 4.1 electron volts (ev) of energy, fission of a Uranium nucleus yields ~200 million electron volts), and thus it is not surprising that the resources besides Uranium, and some day Thorium, that a nuclear power plant requires (land, water, machinery etc), which do have substitution-value, are modest compared to other electrical energy sources. _Michael Natelson, Nuclear Engineer

Nuclear reactions may release from 10^6 to 10^8 more energy than chemical reactions.

Even LENRs (low energy nuclear reactions) such as claimed for the Rossi / Focardi E-Cat reactor could have much higher energy density than simple combustion reactions. That is why such a few grams of nickel may be able to release as much energy as many tonnes of coal.

This type of reaction, also called LENR_Low Energy Nuclear Reactions, belongs to the family of low energy nuclear reaction: it differs from the most famous hot reaction to extremely low values ​​of temperature and pressure at which it operates, with the support of a catalyst - such as palladium. In the case of 'E-Cat, were a few grams of hydrogen and nickel to fuse their nuclei, releasing energy (12 kW to 6 kW input) and a piece of copper as residue - in particular, is a proton' hydrogen into the core of nickel, copper turning. The scientific community, meanwhile, is now divided in accepting the Bologna experience as a real reaction to cold or some other phenomenon of nature is still unclear. _Italia (translated)

Clearly those who are trying to develop small modular nuclear reactors, small fusion such as Bussard or Focus Fusion, and LENRs such as the E-Cat, are all focused upon a much higher level of energy and power production than those who are necessarily stuck on coal, gas, and petroleum. Clearly bioenergy has a significant distance to go to compete with fossil fuels, but it is indefinitely sustainable, and provides necessary mobile liquid chemical energy for many applications. As for wind and solar, they have almost nothing going for them -- except for small, niche applications such as off-grid isolated locations.

Much better to face the stark and simple reality of energy and power density, and to work with that reality toward an abundant energy future. Anything less than that is a failure to comprehend the obvious.

Hydrogen has Very Low Energy Density; But H2 Still has Value

It is clear from the table of energy densities below, that the energy from a nuclear reaction such as fission far outstrips energy from chemical reactions such as combustion. But since it is neither practical nor safe to place a fission reactor in every household, every town, or every motor vehicle, there will always be a place for combustion reaction energy.

What fuels of combustion are most practicable, according to their energy density? The table gives us a few ideas. We will tend to avoid hydrogen gas for motor vehicles which require any significant range of travel, for example. For stationary applications -- such as fuel cell CHP generators and backup -- H2 can be valuable.

But an even greater value for H2 is for use in industrial processes, such as in turning low value bio-molecules into high value hydrocarbons [eg Neste], and in the refining of sour crude oil, among many other high-value processes. In other words, H2 production for the chemicals and fuel refining industries could become a lucrative enterprise.

Another common gas likely to grow in demand in the microbial fuels industry is CO2. Not dilute CO2 as in the measly 0.04% CO2 in the atmosphere. No. Clean, concentrated CO2 reagent grade, suitable to be fed to microbes and biomass crops (such as seaweed and giant king grass farms). Imagine getting rich from supplying H2 and CO2 to synth-fuels industries!
Source for the table of energy densities below

Material	Volumetric	Gravimetric
Fission of U-235	4.7x1012 Wh/l	2.5x1010 Wh/kg
Boron	38,278 Wh/l	16361 Wh/kg
JP10 (dicyclopentadiene)	10,975 Wh/l	11,694
Diesel	10,942 Wh/l	13,762 Wh/kg
Gasoline	9,700 Wh/l	12,200 Wh/kg			$0.0814/kwh 11-2007
Black Coal solid =>CO2	9444 Wh/l	6667 Wh/kg
LNG	7,216 Wh/l	12,100 Wh/kg
Propane (liquid)	7,050 +/-450 Wh/l	13,900 Wh/kg
Black Coal Bulk =>CO2	6278 Wh/l	6667 Wh/kg
Ethanol	6,100 Wh/l	7,850 Wh/kg
hydrazine (Mono-propellant)	5,426 Wh/l	5,373 Wh/kg
Thermite Fe2O3(s) + 2Al(s) -> Al2O3(s) + 2Fe(s) (mono fuel)	5,114 Wh/l	1,111 Wh/kg
Methanol	4,600 Wh/l	6,400 Wh/kg
Ammonia	4,325 Wh/l	4,318 Wh/kg
Sodium Borohydride Theoretical Hydrogen battery real is about 40% efficient	7,314 Wh/l theoretical 2,925 Wh/l real	7,100 Wh/kg theoretical 2,840 Wh/kg real
Liquid H2	2,600 Wh/l	39,000† Wh/kg
Hydrogen Peroxide 100% (mono-propellant rocket fuel) Often used at 30% or 90% and correspondingly less dense. when used, not all decomposes consider this a maximum	1,187 Wh/l	813 Wh/kg
LiFePO4	970 Wh/l	439 Wh/kg	1000 ? method not specified..
Wood Varies with type of wood and moisture content	700 +/-200 Wh/l	3154 +/-1554 Wh/kg
150 Bar H2	405 Wh/l	39,000 † Wh/kg
Secondary Lithium - ion Polymer	300 Wh/l ??	130 - 1200 Wh/kg
Secondary Lithium-Ion	300 Wh/l	110 Wh/kg
Primary Zinc-Air	240 Wh/l 1000Wh/l ??Best?	300 Wh/kg 440Wh/kg>
Dry ice sublimation	248 Wh/l	159 Wh/kg
Primary Lithium Sulfur Dioxide	190 Wh/l	170 Wh/kg
Nickel Metal Hydride (not discounted for high discharge rates)	100 Wh/l	60 Wh/kg
Wood pellets (pelletizing energy subtracted?)	100 †† Wh/l	4,700 Wh/kg
Flywheel	210 Wh/l	120 Wh/kg
Ice to water	92.6 Wh/l	92.6 Wh/kg
Liquid N2	68 Wh/l	55 Wh/kg
Lead Acid Battery	40 Wh/l	25 Wh/kg	300		$1.58/kWh
Propane (Gas - 1 bar)	28.1 Wh/l	13,900 Wh/kg
Compressed Air	17 Wh/l	34 Wh/kg
STP H2	2.7 Wh/l	39,000 † Wh/kg
Boost cap	1.72 Wh/l	2.98 Wh/kg

Table Source

University of Washington scientists are devising ways to rev up H2 production using photosynthetic microbes.

As discussed previously, artificial photosynthesis methods (artificial leaves) also split water to produce H2 (and O2).

University of Minnesota researchers are using microbes to produce fuels with sunlight and CO2. In this case the microbes are splitting water to produce hydrogen, and fixing carbon from CO2 to build biomass and specific product. But the pathetically small amount of CO2 in the atmosphere will simply not do. They will need to buy lots and lots of pure CO2 -- perhaps from you?

BARD of Morrisville, PA, intends to hit the algal fuels market in a big and fast way! Assuming BARD spokespersons are honest in their claims, they will need a HUGE amount of CO2 to produce their algal fuels. Where will they get it? How much are they willing to pay?

Innovative Energy Inc. from the St. Louis, MO, neighborhood, manufactures gasifiers capable of taking any carbonaceous material and turning it into syngas -- to generate power and process heat. Of course, one of the components of syngas is H2. Tweaking the gasifier and feedstock can alter the composition of your syngas according to desired product -- for immediate combustion or for later use in catalytic synthesis of fuels and chemicals.

University of Connecticut researchers have developed continuous process reactors to quickly and efficiently separate glycerine from biodiesel in biodiesel processing plants. But of course a better way of making biodiesel (besides esterification) is via the use of hydrotreating with H2 -- if you have the H2!

Highmark Renewables Research of Canada is developing an anaerobic digester to be used in conjunction with multiple other bio-reactors for producing multiple bio-fuels. Of course, this is the way of the future in biofuels and bioreactor companies -- combine and conquer.

While you may not see the same company owning the full cluster of diverse and complementary bioreactors, you will begin to see more co-location of various types of bioreactors and feedstock pre-processing, processing, refining, and more sophisticated catalytic synthesis.

And always, you will find H2 and CO2 to be in high demand. Remember in the California gold rush, when the people who made the most money were those who provided the miners with both the dry goods and the wet goods which the miners needed and craved? Most of the miners themselves went bankrupt.

Let that be a lesson to you. ;-)

Power Density Primer from Master Resource Blog

MasterResource

Power Source	Power Density (W/m2)
	Low	High
Natural Gas	200	2000
Coal	100	1000
Solar (PV)	4	9
Solar (CSP)	4	10
Wind	0.5	1.5
Biomass	0.5	0.6

_MR

Part I – Definitions

Part II – Coal- and Wood-Fired Electricity Generation

Part III – Natural Gas-Fired Electricity Generation

Part IV – New Renewables Electricity Generation

H/T Tom Nelson

Attempting to displace fossil fuels by renewable energy technologies will be a virtually impossible task, in the near future. Besides the problem of low power and energy densities, technologies such as solar and wind are neither baseload nor load-following technologies. Current large wind turbines are unreliable and prone to frequent breakdown -- and are only fairly efficient within a narrow range of wind velocities.

Biomass certainly has low power density at this time -- ignoring the game-changing potential of algal biomass. But humans are accustomed to the use of large areas of land for growing trees and crops of all kinds. The growth of energy crops will not generally represent a radical transformation of the countryside. And biomass energy can be baseload and load-following, and can be utilised in present energy infrastructure, with subtle modification.

In order to utilise a huge infrastructure based upon the burning of hydrocarbons, biomass and biofuels make the most sense, as long as they can be grown and used economically within the pertinent economic scale and jurisdiction. As microbial conversion of biomass to fuels becomes more efficient, there should be fewer and fewer objections to biofuels.

Robert Bryce on The Physics of Energy

The author of Power Hungry, the Myths of Green Energy and the Real Fuels of the Future recently published a piece in Forbes on the physics of energy -- specifically the power density of different energy approaches.

.... let's consider the power density of wind energy, which is about 1.2 W/m2, and solar photovoltaic, which can produce about 6.7 W/m2. [Wind and solar] are incurably intermittent, which makes them of marginal value in a world that demands always-available power. Nor can they compare to the power density of sources like natural gas, oil and nuclear. For instance, a marginal natural gas well, producing 60,000 cubic feet per day, has a power density of about 28 W/m2. An oil well, producing 10 barrels per day, has a power density of about 27 W/m2. Meanwhile, a nuclear power plant like the South Texas Project--even if you include the entire 19 square-mile tract upon which the project is sited--produces about 56 W/m2.

Simple math shows that a marginal gas or oil well has a power density at least 22 times that of a wind turbine while a nuclear power plant has a power density that is more than 8 times that of a solar photovoltaic facility. Those numbers explain why power density matters so much: if you start with a source that has low power density, you have to compensate for that low density by utilizing more resources such as land, steel, and ultra-long transmission lines. Those additional inputs then reduce the project's economic viability and its ability to scale.

That can be understood by comparing the land use needs of a nuclear plant with those of a wind energy project or a corn ethanol operation. The two reactors at the South Texas Project produce 2,700 megawatts of power. The plant covers about 19 square miles, an area slightly smaller than the island of Manhattan. To match that output using wind energy, you'd need a land area nearly the size of Rhode Island. Matching that power output with corn ethanol would require intensive farming on more than 21,000 square miles, an area nearly the size of West Virginia.

Environmental groups and many politicians in Washington insist that the U.S. must lead the effort to develop renewable energy sources, with wind, solar and biomass being the lead components. But doing so will mean replacing high-power-density sources that are reliable and low cost with low-power-density sources that are highly variable and high cost. _Forbes

Low power density is a strike against wind, but the intermittency and unpredictability of wind power is a devastating drawback of that approach to big power. The tendency for expensive wind turbines to break down and require extravagantly expensive maintenance and replacement parts, is a killer. The need for pricey natural gas turbine backup for wind power should make any serious investor alarmed over wind's long term prospects.

Of course, the Obama Pelosi regime loves wind energy, and will pay investors to install huge wind farms -- even if they never generate power! This is the government that is shutting down US coal, offshore and arctic oil, and oil shale projects. This is the government threatening to shut down importation of oil from Canadian oil sands, and threatening to shut down US unconventional natural gas resources on trumped-up faux environmental concerns. This is the government that takes a "go-slow" approach to new nuclear power designs and projects, to placate its fringe dieoff.left core political base.

Methanol Fuel Cells Make Sense

Brian Westenhaus takes a look at a successful California manufacturer of methanol fuel cells for fork lift vehicles. A Nissan assembly plant in Tennessee recently ordered 60 units of the relatively new methanol fuel cell.

Fuel cells can be much more quickly and easily re-fueled than a large battery bank can be recharged. Using fuel tanks, fuel cells can easily hold far more energy than batteries as well. Methanol is safe and easy to handle and store, and is inexpensive, when compared to hydrogen -- which is the fuel usually thought of for fuel cells -- or other gases besides hydrogen.

Oorja’s Protonics’ methanol fuel cells eliminate the dangerous and time-consuming task of switching out and recharging batteries and owning the extra sets Oorja’s OorjaPac fuel cell sits on the forklift and feeds electrons to the battery pack, charging it as the day progresses. Filling up the fuel cell at the beginning of a shift, ideally, provides enough power for the day. A 3.4 gallon-storage tank of methanol powers a vehicle for 10 hours.

...The Nissan factory in Smyrna Tennessee has tested Oorja’s product over 18 months and then ordered 60 units. Mark Sorgi, senior manager of material handling at Nissan said the factory would save near $225,000 per year and avoid spending $300,000 for battery replacements. Oorja’s fuel cells also save time and reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. “We can probably run anywhere from 14 to 16 hours on one tank of methanol,” Sorgi said. “It takes 60 seconds to refill versus battery change-out that takes 15 minutes.”
Methanol, a one-carbon atom chemical is one of the mostly commonly produced chemicals in the world, costs about $1 to $2 a gallon and doesn’t have to be transported under pressure so it’s easy to ship. It’s the main chemical in windshield washer fluid. Methanol can be delivered in large plastic drums and is fully biodegradable.
Oorja has improved the performance of its fuel cell. The new 1.6-kilowatt Model H is about 25 percent to 30 percent smaller than the previous version, at $16,000 costs about 50 percent less than the earlier version, and can be refilled with methanol in about a minute. _NewEnergyandFuel

Entrepreneurs are oriented toward problem solving -- because that is how they make a living. Academics and pundits, on the other hand, are oriented toward magnifying problems and extending a problem's lifespan. That makes sense, because academics and pundits make a living by studying problems, not by solving them.

It may well be that when fuel cells, batteries, and supercapacitors reach their next limitational plateus, that the best electric vehicle will include a combination of a fuel cell feeding the batteries and supercapacitor, a medium sized battery pack between the fuel cell and the motor, and a modest supercapacitor for quick bursts of power. The battery will be kept topped off by the fuel cells, and will provide normal cruising. Supercapacitors will provide rapid acceleration, and will likewise be kept charged by the fuel cells.

Such a combination would come close to matching the performance of an internal combustion engine -- and would beat the ICE at low speed torque.

Combining Ultracapacitors in Parallel w/ Batteries

Brian Westenhaus takes an intriguing look at an ultracapacitor kit from Ioxus for forklifts, which combines ultracapacitors in parallel with the lead acid storage batteries for superior performance and much longer battery life.

The effect is that the battery set can run 30% longer and avoids a deep discharge, an enemy to lead acid cells life expectancy. If not in a deep freeze ware house customers can reduce the total battery set size by 15% or so.

...This gets more interesting when considering a regenerative braking system. The charging effect is magnified in a fast braking effort. A lot of energy is suddenly loaded into a system – a reverse of the discharge. As readers know, the battery chemistries don’t like those fast charges and discharges. The Ioxus design does just what is needed for those fast cycles. _NewEnergyandFuel

Some very interesting speculation on how to apply this technology, and what the future may hold. Brian goes right to the core of the electric vehicle problem: how to achieve excellent power density and energy density, plus long component life and low cost.

Ultracapacitors provide high power density with rapid charge and discharge. Batteries provide high energy density for long cycling. Combined in parallel, they provide reasonable power density and energy density, plus longer life for the expensive batteries. Not as good as internal combustion engines, but getting there slowly but surely (and with better torque).

Better Batteries Needed

Battery systems that fit in cars don't hold enough energy for driving distances, yet take hours to recharge and don't give much power for acceleration. Renewable sources like solar and wind deliver significant power only part time, but devices to store their energy are expensive and too inefficient to deliver enough power for surge demand.

...Electrical energy storage devices fall into three categories. Batteries, particularly lithium ion, store large amounts of energy but cannot provide high power or fast recharge. Electrochemical capacitors (ECCs), also relying on electrochemical phenomena, offer higher power at the price of relatively lower energy density. In contrast, electrostatic capacitors (ESCs) operate by purely physical means, storing charge on the surfaces of two conductors. This makes them capable of high power and fast recharge, but at the price of lower energy density. _Source

The molten electrode battery pictured above may change the rules of the game. They should be scalable, and when ganged together may offer utility scale storage -- which is badly needed.Nanocapacitor arrays developed at the University of Maryland offer another alternative for electronics devices.
From the Universities of Miami, Tokyo, and Tuhoku, comes the completely new concept for energy storage pictured above. It derives voltages from large numbers of spinning nano-magnets.

And then there is the MIT developed electrode for the lithium ion battery that allows much more rapid charge and discharge speeds.

The need for better batteries ranges from the small -- cellphones -- to the medium -- electric cars -- to the very large -- utility scale storage. For merely large scale power storage -- apartment complexes, hospitals, commercial buildings -- the need is also significant.

No single technology will suit all needs. But the race is on, and the stakes are high.

Ultrabattery: First In A Long Line of Advanced Non-Combusting Powerplants?

Australia's CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization}, has developed a promising "ultrabattery" concept that combines a supercapacitor and a lead acid battery in a single unit. The ultrabattery is being developed for commercialisation by a Japanese battery maker and a US manufacturing company.

The exclusive sub-license agreement will see the UltraBattery distributed by East Penn to the automotive and motive power sector throughout North America, Mexico and Canada while Furukawa Battery Company will release the technology in Japan and Thailand.

Previous tests show the UltraBattery has a life cycle that is at least four times longer and produces 50% more power than conventional lead-acid energy storage systems. The technology is approximately 70% less expensive than the NiMH batteries currently used in hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs).

The UltraBattery’s PSOC (partial state of charge) and rapid charge/discharge cycle life is four times that of a conventional lead-acid battery. The ability to deal with PSOC pulse charge/discharge cycles overcomes a major difficulty for application in hybrid electric vehicles.

The technology is scheduled to be commercially available in the automotive market and for motive power applications throughout Japan, Thailand, North America, Mexico and Canada within two years. _GCC

The combination of lead-acid battery with a supercapacitor provides much better power density for acceleration, along with longer charge/discharge cycle life. The future addition of a fuel cell stack to the combo, would provide the high energy density for combustion free, long-range transport applications.

It is the ability to combine the special strengths of these different storage and non-combustion generation devices that will allow for a much smoother transition from the internal combustion engine vehicular fleet to an "all electric" vehicular fleet.

Quick Energy

ZBB Energy Corporation has developed a regenerative zinc bromide aqueous flow storage system:

Unlike the lead acid and most other batteries, the ZESS uses electrodes that cannot and do not take part in the reactions but merely serve as substrates for the reactions. There is therefore no loss of performance, unlike most rechargeable batteries, from repeated cycling causing electrode material deterioration. During the charge cycle metallic zinc is plated from the electrolyte solution onto the negative electrode surfaces in the cell stacks. Bromide is then converted to Bromine at the positive electrode surface of the cell stack and is immediately stored as a safe chemically complexed organic phase in the electrolyte tank. When the ZESS discharges, the metallic zinc plated on the negative electrode dissolves in the electrolyte and is available to be plated again at the next charge cycle. In the fully discharged state the ZESS can be left indefinitely.

The ZESS offers 2 to 3 times the energy density (75 to 85 watt-hours per kilogram) with associated size and weight savings over present lead/acid batteries. The power characteristics of the ZESS can be modified, for selected applications. Therefore, the ZESS has operational capabilities which make it extremely useful as a multi-purpose energy storage option. _ZBB_HT_NextEnergyNews

The ZESS is said to be compatible with solar recharging, and ZBB plans to install a combined ZESS/Solar energy system at LifeVillage in Cote d'Ivoire.

Also on the energy front, Brian Wang gives an excellent presentation on the efforts to approach Carnot efficiency from heat engines--the source of 90% of the world's power production. Read the article and follow the links to expand your knowledge of this important and growing area of energy technology.

Toyota is taking a close look at "metal-air cells" for the next generation of their hybrids.

In this type of battery, electricity is generated by a reaction between oxygen in the air and a metal like zinc at the negative electrode. The battery does not require the use of a combustible liquid electrolyte, so there is no danger of ignition as is the case with lithium-ion batteries. Moreover, an air battery has over fives times the energy-storage capacity of a similarly-sized lithium-ion battery...It may take some time before air batteries reach the practical stage, but Toyota believes that they will ultimately become the next-generation battery technology of choice. _GCC

The problems with the technology include a poor scaling to large sizes, and complex recharging requirements (as discussed here previously). More work at the drawing board, and in the lab.

Brian Westenhaus at New Energy and Fuel continues looking at new LED technology, and its potential to significantly reduce power consumption across the developed world.