Comments on: Thinking About Lithium Batteries and Safety

By: Tony Cardella

Tony Cardella — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 16:42:06 +0000

FYI Possible solution to exploding batteries.

3M settles battery suits with CDW and Hitachi Koki
Tuesday October 30, 11:40 am ET

3M Co. said Tuesday it settled patent suits over use of its ion battery technology.
Under terms of the deal, CDW Corp. and Japan's Hitachi Koki USA certified that they import and sell batteries containing 3M's patented cathode materials only from manufacturers licensed by 3M.

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In return, Maplewood-based 3M (NYSE: MMM - News) requested that those two companies be dismissed from the U.S. International Trade Commission investigation over lithium ion battery technology and from a patent suit 3M filed in Minnesota district court.

3M has settled similar suits with Sony Corp., Lenovo Group, Matsushita Industrial Electric Co. Ltd., Panasonic Corp. of North America over its lithium ion technology.

Lithium ion batteries are used in laptop computers, mobile phones and portable electronic devices, and are an emerging source of power for battery-powered hand tools and hybrid electric vehicles.

By: Guest

Guest — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 18:07:36 +0000

Felix, great blog, thanks. Part of the problem occurs when power flows are high, or when recovering energy from regenerative braking. At least one company discussed recently in a Green Car Congress article, has coupled Ultra Caps with the high energy storage form of the Li-Ion battery, so that should lessen the management of the batteries to preclude fires and explosions.

By: rwielk

rwielk — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 18:07:07 +0000

According to their news releases, Altair Nano has sold a battery for delivery this September. To quote "In anticipation of Altairnano's delivery of its first NanoSafe battery pack for use in an electric vehicle in September, this is the final of four planned news releases identifying features of Altairnano NanoSafe batteries that may prove advantageous in the power rechargeable battery market."

If not "existing," this is pretty close.

By: Guest

Guest — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 18:06:39 +0000

I started out by saying we were "sticking primarily to existing products and solutions." I immediately got emails with links to press releases (including one dating back to 2003) about better solutions.

Yes, it will be interesting to see what Altair Nano announces -- we'll be there. And people are looking at all sorts of battery options. That's discussed in many places. But here I would appreciate focusing on existing implementations.

By: Guest

Guest — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 18:05:55 +0000

Has anyone looked at the possibility of using a zinc matrix power battery as a replacement for the lithium ion batteries? Better yet, does anyone have any pratical experience in using them? Any sense for the advantages and disadvantages?

http://www.zmp.com/press/IDF06.html

By: rwielk

rwielk — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 18:05:25 +0000

Altair Nano claims to have produced a Li-ion battery with very favorable safety characteriistics. They say that by using nano-structured electrodes, they have eliminated the thermal runaway problem. see this link: http://www.b2i.us/profiles/investor/ResLibrary2.asp?BzID=546&GoTopage=&Category=856
which will probably need to be cut and pasted to be accessed. They will be presenting at the CARB ZEV Symposium. Here is their anouncement: “Advances in the manufacture of safe, fast-charging, long-lasting batteries used to power electric and hybrid electric vehicles will be addressed by Altair Nanotechnologies Inc. (NASDAQ: ALTI) at the California Air Resources Board Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) Technology Symposium, held September 25-27, 2006 in Sacramento, California.”

This should provide ample opportunity to evaluate the claims of the company. I hope Ron Gremban and others will be there to let the CalCars community know whether Altair’s technology may lead to useable Li-ion batteries for vehicles.