This week we will look at a few developments and potential developments in battery technology. It is a space that has massive investment and development. We investigate the progress in the development of Quantum batteries. We discover a new solid state battery and a sand battery for grid storage. We will also look at an AI that will help our current batteries last longer. Finally we examine a new idea that will make space travel up to 10 times faster.
Quantum Batteries
We have spoken a lot about batteries and the many incremental gains in battery technology recently. This week I will take a dive into the possible future of batteries. Not this year or next year but hopefully sometime later this decade. It will give us an idea of where battery technology might take us and it will let us dream of a very different future.
A quantum battery in an electric car would only need charging once every million miles. That would eliminate battery charging for the vast majority of vehicles. Other parts will wear our first. Quantum batteries would hold massive amounts of energy and would charge incredibly quickly.
Quantum batteries are still a theoretical model however there are numerous teams working in universities, corporates and startups around the world trying to prove this concept. The number of research papers in the field has recently grown significantly.
It is difficult to describe a quantum battery without going down a technical rabbit hole but let’s dive in for a quick look. The quantum world is probabilistic rather than deterministic. In a traditional battery it is either in a ground state or an excited state. In the quantum world it is a combination of both which we describe with probability functions. The likelihood of transition between the states is known as a transition amplitude.
An Australian-Italian-UK research group has released a paper about photosensitive dyes (Lumen-F Orange) which can be used as storage units. They were able to measure the rate that photons of light were able to excite various groups of varying size dye. Each dye molecule had its’ own transition amplitude describing the probability it would transition from a ground state to an excited state.
The magic happens when the transition amplitudes were allowed to interfere with each other. They act in a similar way to waves interfering with each other. They produce crests when they constructively interfere and troughs when they destructively interfere. Through constructive interference, the combined transition amplitude of the system is larger than the sum of the individual parts.
So what does this mean. It allows a quantum battery to charge faster than a classical battery. Additionally the more dye molecules that were added the faster the battery charged. This is known as super extensive energy absorption.
The team was also able to demonstrate decoherence. If a battery has been charged quickly it should also discharge quickly. Decoherence however is asymmetric, meaning that the battery will discharge very slowly. A team at the University of Albert published a paper in 2019 that detailed dark states for quantum batteries that effectively decouples the battery from its’ environment which means that it does not discharge over time (as conventional batteries do).
There is much more work to do before a commercial quantum battery is available. It is likely to take $1Billion to $2Billion in research funding however given the potential for energy storage there are many people and corporations working on this problem. For example IBM and Mercedes Benz are currently developing a quantum simulation of the molecular interaction inside of a battery. This will initially allow them to make incremental improvements to battery technology however it is also another step along the path to Quantum Batteries.
Imagine a world where we never have to recharge our phones, computers or cars. It may be here sooner than we think.
Solid State Batteries
While we wait for Quantum Batteries there will be a range of incremental improvements to current battery technology. US listed company, QuantumScape is developing a solid state battery for electric vehicles. Solid state batteries promise prolonged life, faster charging and safer chemistry when compared to lithium-ion batteries.
The QuantumScape prototype can fast charge in 15 mins (from 10% charged to 80% charged) and testing has taken the battery through 1,000 cycles (if you recharge once a week that is a 20 year life). This is much better than current lithium-ion alternatives. The estimated range for a solid state battery powered EV is 640 kilometers (380k for a Li-ion battery). Lithium based batteries have an energy density of 600 watt/hours per liter where the QuantumScape battery has an energy density of 1,000 watt/hour/liter.
Both types of batteries send electrons from the cathode to the anode. Lithium-ion batteries use a liquid to manage the transfer. This is easy to produce. Solid state batteries use a solid electrolyte material (every company uses different materials and the materials are commercial secrets). The types of materials used include crystalline ceramics, glass ceramics and organic polymers.
There are a range of companies developing solid state batteries. Toyota expects to have their first solid state batteries on the road in 2025, Nissan will have large scale production by 2028. QuantumScape hopes to deliver their first solid state batteries to their partner, Volkswagen in late 2022. There are other startups including Solid Power from Colorado and ProLogium Technology from Taiwan working on solid state batteries.
It is likely that Auto Manufacturers will use solid state batteries to differentiate their product range. Higher end product will have the more expensive but longer performing solid state battery. Nissan however believes that by 2028 solid state battery packs will cost as little as US$75/kwk which is about half of the current US$132/kwk for current Lithium-ion batteries. The next 5 years will see a wide range of improvements to the performance and cost of EV battery technology.
Sand Batteries
Whilst we are talking about batteries a team of researchers from Finland have set up the world’s first commercial scale sand battery. Used for grid storage, the battery can store power for months at a time. Power generated in summer can be stored for winter. Important for colder countries like Finland.
A sand battery uses resistive heating to increase the temperature of the air which is then transferred to the sand through a heat exchanger. The melting point of sand is about 1000 degrees celsius thus allowing a lot of heat to be stored before melting becomes an issue.
Working with a small power plant in Kankaanpaa in Western Finland Polar Night Energy have built a silo that stores approximately 100 tons of construction sand. The battery currently powers the central heating system for the district. When energy prices rise the hot air can be used to heat water for a turbine power generator. The downside is that converting heat back into electricity is not that energy efficient however it is a cheap and effective long term storage mechanism for excess energy production.
Using Less Power
Whilst we are talking about batteries, one way to extend battery life is to use less power in the first place. A team at the University of Essex has developed the EOptimizer, an AI powered smartphone app that could boost phone battery life by 30%.
The team claims that by using their software it will dramatically increase the efficiency of batteries in everything from phones, tablets and computers to smart fridges and cars. The product was first demonstrated to industry on 11 July 2022 in Cambridge.
The technology analyses how each app is being used throughout the day. The app can then optimise energy use. For example quickly scrolling through a news app during a work break in the middle of the day will require a higher frames per second (FPS) than when slowly scrolling and reading more slowly, later at night.
The AI changes the FPS for the app being used to find the best operating frequency of CPU and GPU processors whilst consuming the least amount of power and smallest temperature gain. This is a simple gain that will extend the useful time and life of our devices without requiring new hardware.
Faster Space Flight
Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (part of the US Dept of Defense) physicist, Dr Fatima Ebrahimi has designed a plasma thruster that may make space missions 10 times faster.
With current technology it takes 7 months to travel from Earth to Mars. This exposes astronauts to a large amount of radiation during the flight. Speeding up the flight completely changes the dynamics of space exploration and potentially settlement.
The design comes out of work that was done on Tokamaks that are used for managing Nuclear Fusion reactions. Dr Ebrahimi observed a similarity between a car’s exhaust and the high velocity exhaust particles from a tokamak experimental device. She realized that when operational, the tokamak could make plasma bubbles travel at speeds of 45,000 miles per hour (20k per second).
This gave her the inspiration for the plasma thruster design. It uses magnetic field energy to create high levels of thrust. The new design will also allow velocity to be increased or decreased by changing the strength of the magnetic fields. The thruster would use the ejection of both plasma particles and plasmids to produce movement. Almost any type of gas would be able to be used as fuel. Variation in fuel would allow different levels of thrust.
If the design is successful it will allow us to explore much larger portions of space. The faster the rocket, the shorter the mission and a much lower cost.
James Webb Space Telescope
The first images from JWST have been released. You can see them all here.
Paying it Forward
If you have a start-up or know of a start-up that has a product ready for market please let me know. I would be happy to have a look and feature the startup in this newsletter. Also if any startups need introductions please get in touch and I will help where I can.
If you have any questions or comments please comment below.
I would also appreciate it if you could forward this newsletter to anyone that you think might be interested.
Till next week.