Lithium based batteries are a hot research field with lithium air and lithium sulfur compounds at the top of research listings.  Stanford’s Yi Cui, builds the battery anode in the form of silicon nanowires, giving the silicon room to grow and shrink without damage.  That neatly solves silicon’s swelling when charged with positively charged lithium and shrinks during discharge such that the silicon has a tendency to self “pulverize.”

Compared to present lithium-ion batteries, Stanford’s design is “significantly safer” and currently achieves 80 percent more capacity, but it’s nowhere near being commercially viable with just 40 to 50 charge cycles (conventional Li-ion does “300 to 500″) due to the compound’s still rapid degradation. There is still a theoretical quadruple boost in capacity as the technology matures.

Stanford Nanosilicon Wire and Sulfur Battery Electrodes Graphic. Click image for the largest view.

Yi Cui has announced a new cathode consisting of a similarly high capacity lithium sulfide nanostructure.  The cathode is mesoporous carbon/Li2S nanocomposite. A company has formed based on the technology, but the cycle life remains a major problem.

The Stanford team thinks they have found their answer: a proof-of-concept lithium-sulfide cathode with 10 times the power density of conventional lithium-ion cathodes. Together, the anode and cathode could yield a battery that lasts four times as long and is significantly safer than existing lithium-ion batteries. The new battery cannot achieve the 10 times the energy storage capacity because the new cathode has significantly lower conductivity than the lithium metals used in conventional batteries.

All this represents an approximately 80 percent increase in the energy density over commercially available lithium-ion batteries.  But by the fifth cycle the capacity is down by a third and the batteries are, well, dead by the 50th cycle.  There’s lots of hope here though.  Just getting the silicon to work at all is a major achievement. Cui is said to be thinking the capacity loss is likely due to polysulfides, chemicals that form during normal discharging and recharging. If allowed to dissolve into the battery’s liquid electrolyte, polysulfides can poison the battery by blocking future charging and discharging.

The past weekend saw researchers at the Università degli Studi di Roma La Sapienza announce development of a novel polymer tin sulfur lithium-ion battery that takes advantage of the high theoretical specific energy and energy density of the lithium-sulfur battery chemistry.  It’s a whole new take – rather than taking the more conventional approach of using a sulfur cathode and a lithium metal anode, Jusef Hassoun and Bruno Scrosati have developed a lithium-metal-free battery, using a carbon lithium sulfide composite as the cathode and a tin carbon composite anode.

The difference here is Li-ion batteries use a process called intercalation to store lithium ions by inserting the ions between molecules in the electrode, while lithium-sulfur batteries rely on a multi-step redox reaction with sulfur that results in a number of stable intermediate sulfide ions. This storage process, in theory, reduces limitations of electrode structure – thus enabling higher capacity in similar volumes.

“(One) major hurdle is the high solubility in the organic electrolyte of the polysulfides Li2Sx (1≤x≤8) that form as intermediates during both charge and discharge processes. This high solubility results in a loss of active mass, which is reflected in a low utilization of the sulfur cathode and in a severe capacity decay upon cycling. The dissolved polysulfide anions, by migration through the electrolyte, may reach the lithium metal anode, where they react to form insoluble products on its surface; this process also negatively impacts the battery operation,” Hassoun and Scrosati say in their paper.

The pair goes on to explain, “The key challenge is then to totally renew the chemistry of this battery such as to achieve an advanced configuration that can consistently provide high capacity, a long cycle life, and safe operation. Herein, we report an example of a lithium metal- free new battery version and demonstrate that, to a large extent, it can effectively meet these targets. In contrast to most of the Li–S batteries proposed to date, which are fabricated in the “charged” state, that is, using a carbon–sulfur composite cathode that necessarily requires a lithium metal counter electrode (anode) to assure the 16Li+S8→8Li2S discharge process, we propose to fabricate the battery in the “discharged” state by using a carbon lithium sulfide composite as the cathode.”

Polymer Tin and Sulfur Battery Principle Graphic. Click image for more info.

The pair has also replaced the common liquid organic solutions with a gel-type polymer membrane. Since the lithium ions necessary to drive the electrochemical process are provided by the Li2S/C cathode, any material capable of accepting and releasing lithium ions can be chosen as anode to replace lithium metal, they said. They chose a tin/carbon nanocomposite, with Sn/C at 1:1 by weight. The specific capacity of the improved Sn/C electrode matches that of the Li2S/C electrode, and the Sn/C has high chemical stability.

It’s a slick take on the problem – the chemical process goes from the conversion of lithium sulfide into sulfur with the release of lithium ions, which travel through the electrolyte to reach the anode where they form an alloy with the tin.  Completing the process cycle is the reversible reaction of the lithium – tin alloy with elemental sulfur to form tin metal and lithium sulfide.

The pair is saying the results are effective in controlling most of the sulfur based lithium technology problems.  Their calculation shows the innovation could drive specific energy to the order of 1100 Wh kg-1, a value not previously achieved for a lithium metal-free battery.

Hassoun and Scrosati note the “the road to a practical lithium-sulfide battery is still long,” with optimization of the electrode morphology and cell structure needed to further improve the cycle life and the rate capability.

This is progress, offered in multiples of capacity that should excite the electron storage folks quite nicely. Lets hope the puzzle of cycle life and costs come up solved and low cost.

Go here to see the original: New Energy and Fuel

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Javad Rafiee, a doctoral student in the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Nuclear Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, has developed a new method for storing hydrogen at room temperature. Rafiee seems determined to play a key role in solving global dependency on fossil fuels.  The young man is one winner of the 2010 $30,000 Lemelson-MIT Rensselaer Student Prize, of the four 2010 winners announced March 3, 2010.

Rafiee is the fourth recipient of the Lemelson-MIT Rensselaer Student Prize. The prize, first given in 2007, is awarded annually to a Rensselaer senior or graduate student who has created or improved a product or process, applied a technology in a new way, redesigned a system, or demonstrated remarkable inventiveness in other ways.

Hydrogen storage is well known to be a significant problem for the advancement and proliferation of fuel cell and hydrogen technologies in cars, trucks, and other applications. Rafiee has created a novel form of engineered graphene that exhibits hydrogen storing capacity far exceeding any other known material.

Graphene Latticework Graphic. This graphic represents an atom-thin sheet of graphene, a form of carbon. Click image for the largest view. Image Credit: Wikipedia Commons.

The hydrogen storage idea is a development of new method for manufacturing and using graphene, an atom-thick sheet of carbon atoms arranged like a nanoscale chain-link fence, to store hydrogen. The proposed solution is said to be inexpensive and easy to produce.

With adviser and Rensselaer Professor Nikhil Koratkar, Rafiee uses a combination of mechanical grinding, plasma treatment, and annealing to engineer the atomic structure of graphene to maximize its hydrogen storage capacity. The new graphene material exhibits a hydrogen storage capacity of 14 percent by weight at room temperature – far exceeding any other known material.

How big a deal is this?  The 14-percent capacity surpasses the U.S. Department of Energy’s 2015 target of realizing a material with hydrogen storage capacity of 9 percent by weight at room temperature. Rafiee said his graphene is also one of the first known materials to surpass the Department of Energy’s 2010 target of 6 percent.  This is a big deal indeed.

Rafiee’s graphene exhibits three critical attributes that result in its unique hydrogen storage capacity:

The first is high surface area. Graphene’s unique structure, only one atom thick, means that each of its carbon atoms is exposed to the environment and, in turn, to the hydrogen gas.

The second attribute is low density. Graphene has one of the highest surface area-per-unit masses in nature, far superior to even carbon nanotubes and fullerenes.

The third attribute is favorable surface chemistry. After oxidizing graphite powder and mechanically grinding the resulting graphite oxide, Rafiee synthesized the graphene by thermal shock followed by annealing and exposure to argon plasma. These treatments play an important role in increasing the binding energy of hydrogen to the graphene surface at room temperature, as hydrogen tends to cluster and layer around carbon atoms.

Meanwhile . . . Victor Aristov and colleagues indicate that graphene has the potential to replace silicon in high-speed computer processors and other devices. Standing in the way, however, are today’s cumbersome, expensive production methods, which result in poor-quality graphene and are not practical for industrial scale applications.

Aristov and colleagues report that they have developed “a very simple procedure for making graphene on the cheap.” They describe growing high-quality graphene on the surface of commercially available silicon carbide wafers to produce material with excellent electronic properties. It “represents a huge step toward technological application of this material as the synthesis is compatible with industrial mass production.”  Their report is published in Nano Letters.

Aristov is leading an impressive list of researchers from the Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research in Dresden, Germany, the Institute of Solid State Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow District, Russia, the Institute of Solid State Physics, Dresden University of Technology, Dresden, Germany, the MAX-lab, Lund University, Lund, Sweden, and the TASC National Laboratory, INFM-CNR, Trieste, Italy.

Could these two breakthroughs merge or would a technology merger make sense?  That’s an unknown for today, but graphene’s raw material, carbon, isn’t exotic, rare or any kind of wildly expensive material.  Lots of unanswered question come with the news.  The raw material will be a cost, the formation and process techniques will be costs.  If the material will cycle hydrogen in and out without limit that’s one thing, but if there are cycling limits the value would be quite different. Then what is involved to get the hydrogen in and back out again?

There’s not enough in the releases to make conclusions, but the new path is clearer. There is a long way to go, but the prospects are intuitively very promising.  Hydrogen storage is a major problem and if the young man and the European team both have valid starting points for effective, low cost, long life and energy dense hydrogen storage with hopefully simple and cheap loading and unloading – one’s view on hydrogen fuel production might brighten up dramatically.

Source: New Energy and Fuel

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Facilities gesti? ? n is the profese? ? No growth for all int? ress? s the Geste? ? No premises and assets in them. He represented? Feel an area of activity? m? s all? the diseño, adquisici? ? n and? team of b? timents in habilis? s gesti? of? No use of instalace? ? n and c? ? mo? Volue and is d? velopp? r? answer to the changing demands of occupiers. This is a text introducci? of? No? the saga? ? No facilities, with two cap? tulos añadidos that includes the epic? ? No portfolio of properties? t? and? case studies pr? cticos. También stresses r? The TOI of the facilities to perform gesti? of? No one administrator imm? ately tool.
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Some commentary is so well organized and on point it deserves a wide hearing.  At this blog we tend to look down the road at what might be coming, but.  We have to get down the road in the meantime.  John C. Felmy of the API has thought this through and managed to compress the main concepts with language that anyone can use to good effect.  More surprising is the text that follows is an edited version of an answer given as Mr. Felmy was interviewed.  The youTube video is included below.  Its not a long read, but a good wake up call to getting on with the important matters for our economy.  Now if just 200 million or so American’s would catch on.  BW.

John C. Felmy of the API.

There’s a lot of discussion in Washington these days about energy policy, and  unfortunately a significant amount of it is divorced from the facts. Today’s discussion tends to focus on immature and expensive technologies that hold promise for the future  but do not measure up to the expectations of the American public today.

Here in the United States, consumers expect to have a reliable and affordable supply of  energy that helps them heat their homes and fuel their transportation needs. Consumers today also are grappling with a serious economic environment. Job losses and uncertainty make it difficult to plan for the future. Having a stable source of energy can help. In fact, expanding energy exploration and production can have a positive impact on the U.S. economy and the lives of all Americans.

We have a vast amount of undiscovered oil and natural gas in the United States. If the energy industry were allowed to develop it, it would generate jobs, revenue for the  government, and reduce the trade deficit. And that’s a win-win-win proposition for the American people. But energy discussions tend to focus on just one narrow segment of the energy industry such as renewables. In general, policymakers are talking more about solar, wind and geothermal than they are talking about oil development.

Yes, we are going to need those resources going forward, but solar, wind and geothermal energy are used to generate electricity. Here in the United States, we have 250 million cars that don’t plug in. They’re going to need oil products into the coming decades. We should produce the oil here in the United States where expanded oil development can generate jobs and revenue, and improve the deficit.

This nation needs a rational energy policy. Yes, we’ll need energy efficiency. Yes, we’ll need alternatives, but we’re going to need more oil and natural gas as well. We’re going to need oil for the cars, we’re going to need natural gas for power generation, and we’re going to need coal and nuclear. Nuclear power has a role to play. It’s encouraging to see that our elected officials are reexamining nuclear policy, and we hope that moves forward.

As a nation, we also need to be mindful of the Law of Unintended Consequences. For example, we think it’s important to consider new ways to power vehicles. Advances in battery technology also are likely to help the development and utility of affordable electric vehicles. But the electricity for these vehicles must be generated by power plants that in all likelihood are burning coal. Furthermore, the new batteries contain raw materials, including rare earth minerals from China or lithium from Bolivia, that have to be imported.

It’s quite possible that the United States could find itself trading one import system for another. This means that our policymakers will need to consider whether it’s preferable for U.S. energy security and the trade deficit to import oil or other materials.

Likewise, consideration should be given to nuclear power’s impact on our energy security. Today 80 percent of our nuclear fuel is imported – much of it from former Soviet Union countries.

A well-conceived energy policy also should take care to do no harm to the energy industry, but rather encourage it to make the investments needed to find and develop fuels for the future. Unfortunately, the administration’s proposed 2011 budget contains provisions that would drain $80 billion from the oil and natural gas industry, which would have the perverse impact of reducing investments. This approach was tried back in the 1970s and ‘80s, and it was a colossal failure. It led to a reduction in domestic oil and natural gas production and an increase in imports. The United States should not repeat that mistake.

Likewise, the nation should carefully examine the ramifications of climate policy. Studies show that the Waxman-Markey bill, which narrowly passed the House of Representatives last year, would uniformly hurt everyone who drives a car, travels by plane, and moves goods and services in a truck by raising energy costs. It also would destroy more than 2 million U.S. jobs and encourage businesses to relocate overseas where stringent environmental regulations do not exist. In this weak economy with the unemployment rate just below 10 percent, this nation should not adopt a policy that exports jobs and increases emissions.

The United States has fueled its economy on affordable and reliable energy for many decades. It can continue to thrive and provide a much needed boost to the economy by expanding the development of traditional energy resources,including oil and natural gas, while investing in energy resources for tomorrow.

John Felmy is the chief economist and manager of statistics at the American Petroleum Institute (API) in Washington, D.C.

Prepared by:
Jane Van Ryan
Senior Manager, Communications
vanryanj@api.org

American Petroleum Institute (API)
Check out our blog at http://blog.energytomorrow.org/

The original post: New Energy and Fuel

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Last week Houston investment banker and peak oil prognosticator Matt Simmons popped a plan to use wind, the generated electricity and air to manufacture ammonia. Then just use it to fuel cars.  The price to start up is “only” $25 billion plus a new generation of cars for consumers to buy.  Is ammonia, NH3, remotely practical?

Ammonia Molecule in 3D 1 Blue N and 3 Gray H

Lets compare with first fossil petroleum, at less than $5 per barrel in the Middle East to more than $50 from oil sands and some offshore production, petroleum products sell profitably at prices that consumers can pay and keep a reasonably healthy economy intact. It’s the major source for now and subject to risk for pricing in the future, which risks the whole of the world’s economy.

Next would be biomass sources as in methanol and ethanol.  Both are, or can be used with existing consumer products in fuel mixes, the infrastructure is already partly in place and the carbon cycle is current, using airborne CO2 and returning it for reuse.  Light alcohols are undeniably energy positive, although much calculation gives wide variations.  Light alcohols also are candidates for Direct Alcohol Fuel Cells that should offer simple and cheap means to get from fuel to electricity to motion.

Hydrogen, liquefied or stored as a gas, could be burned in internal combustion engines with little engine modification, but quite large portable and stationary storage costs are required.  Hydrogen must also be ‘made,’ requiring energy and capital, for water electrolysis and then cryogenic storage or very high-pressure vessels or media to hold the hydrogen that use energy to function.

Ammonia then is interesting as it is a storage media with the ability to be both burned or used in a fuel cell.  Ammonia holds 18% hydrogen by mass, more than cryogenically formed liquid hydrogen, and far beyond what sensible compression technology allows in comparable volumes.  Is easy to store and stable.  But:

Ammonia is a noxious, caustic vapor at room temperature requiring pressure and cooling to past 8 atmospheres for liquid containment at less energy by volume than ethanol or methanol.  The hydrogen can be freed from ammonia as needed by catalysis at 500º C or simply be burned.  Yet burning usually leaves 20% unburned and produces nitrous oxides, problems that technology should fix and exploit handily given time and resources.

There are more interesting pathways.  The Danish Technical University is developing a system called “Amminex.”  Amminex is an ammonia-based solid-state hydrogen storage solution: a tablet that can be held in your hand. The tablet is a metal ammine complex that stores 9.1% hydrogen by weight in the form of ammonia absorbed efficiently in magnesium chloride: Mg(NH3)6Cl2. The storage is completely reversible, and by adding an ammonia decomposition catalyst, hydrogen can be delivered at temperatures below 347º C (656º F). The tablets can be recharged with additional ammonia.  The team is finding that the kinetics of ammonia adsorption and desorption with the metal ammine complexes are reversible and fast, and that the complex is simple to manufacture and easy to handle.

A company called U3K has patented technology (USPTO 7,140,187) (the u3kenergy.com link has lapsed) can convert urea (in a white solid form) to either ammonia or hydrogen for delivery to internal combustion engines and fuel cells in stationary or mobile applications.  U3K’s system can provide internal combustion engines with ammonia or fuel cells with hydrogen “on demand.”

Urea Molecule 3D Balls CO(NH2)2

U3K’s claimed urea advantages are it is non-toxic, clean burning, non-explosive, and is more economical than refined petroleum products. Urea can fit into the existing liquid based fueling infrastructure. Existing engines can be retrofit cheaply. The capital cost of urea fueling stations is significantly less than the cost of existing gasoline stations. With current urea manufacturing technology, urea has a “well to wheel” efficiency that exceeds gasoline. And urea can be stored as a solid or a liquid.

So far we know that H2 can be effectively stored using alcohols, ammonia and to be complete, natural gas methane.  From a system perspective methane is entrenched, both for fuel in homes, cars and electricity generation.  Light alcohols are gradually becoming competitive without supports from government.  Ammonia is still far underdeveloped.

For burning or oxidizing ammonia is at a disadvantage.  But when considered from a fuel cell perspective ammonia has advantages.  For systems development, ammonia might have a powerful role in stranded or isolated wind or solar installations as the concentration level is superior.  Electrolysis can be comparatively efficient from a financial perspective when the cost of transmission lines is considered.  Flowing ammonia vapor or liquid might be a low cost way to move stored energy in hydrogen.

At the use end all the fuels must be one means or another be stripped of the carbon or nitrogen atoms and in some fuels oxygen for the fuel cells to use the hydrogen.  This step is where the crux of the competition may lie.  Last year saw a paper in Science magazine reveal an alternative to stripping out the oxygen that might work across alcohols and for air batteries.  Further checking shows that paths are being blazed to strip the hydrogen off fuels both in a process step and during the operation of some fuel cell designs.  Lab units seem expensive, but with material development, commercial scale, and fuel price considerations, all of the light carbon based and ammonia fuels look like contenders.

Ammonia has an incredible advantage, the energy source could be free sunlight or dirt-cheap solar or wind.  The alcohols need land surface area.  Straight hydrogen is a devil to handle and contain.  Methane is abundant now, but over time as more use is made of it the price will rise.

The key in ammonia and its disadvantage is the lack of any carbon, which adds to the energy content.  There is little expectation that ammonia as a combustion motor fuel will make a market for itself on the merits.  For fuel cell use the field is still pretty wide open, but the bio-based alcohols head start has made great strides.

From an electrical power generator to ammonia then on to fueling power generation ammonia makes sense.  But can the economic case be made until fuel cell progress promotes demand?

The answer is ammonia can be a viable fuel.  The next question is will the research and development make economic competitiveness possible.

Source: New Energy and Fuel

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It is recommended that the customer install an AC surge arrester in the AC outlet to which this device is connected. This is to avoid damaging the equipment caused by local lightning strikes and other electrical surges.

Source: Home Controls

The need for free hydrogen in industry and fuels is huge and the potential when a low cost method arrives, staggering.  Methane is nothing more than a carbon atom and 4 hydrogen atoms, so any production that comes up with hydrogen at low cost is going to be a breakthrough.  Professor Thomas Nann and colleagues at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, UK may have it.  They have a new technique that can convert 60 per cent of sunlight energy absorbed by an electrode into the inflammable fuel.  And that’s just the discovery rating.

Nann is saying in a New Scientist article, “In fact the 60% figure is probably a worst-case scenario. This is still a preliminary study.”  At 60% performance, 20% work efficiency from the hydrogen would yield 12%, as good as affordable photovoltaic solar cells.  Run it through an 80% efficient fuel cell and that’s 48%, a dream for photovoltaic.

This can be a truly disruptive technology.  Hydrogen can be stored for short terms.  One could just burn it inside a facility or home, as the effluent is only water vapor.  The technology boffins of Britain have to be mighty proud today.

Photon Powered Solar Hydrogen Production Element. Click image for more info.

To generate the gas a gold electrode with a special coating is dipped into water and exposed to light.  Clusters of indium phosphide 5 nanometers wide on its surface absorb incoming photons and pass electrons bearing their energy on to clusters of a sulfurous iron compound.  This material combines those electrons with protons from the water to form gaseous hydrogen. A second electrode – plain platinum this time – is needed to complete the circuit electrochemically.

The all-inorganic method solves the organic material issue of short life spans.  The inorganic materials used in the Nann system are more resilient. The first generation proof of concept is “a major breakthrough” in the field, they say, thanks to its efficiency of over 60% and the ability to survive sunlight for two weeks without any degradation of performance.

Nann describes that the high efficiency is largely thanks to the indium phosphide clusters being better at grabbing photons than organic molecules. “Think of them as a butterfly net for catching photons.”

Nann explains in using a standard measure of the probability that a material will absorb a photon that hits it, each cluster is 400 times better at netting photons than the organic molecules used in previous systems. “That’s why it works so well,” he says.

The team now plans to refine the system, including lowering the cost by making it with less expensive materials. “There is no major reason for using gold or platinum,” he said. The chosen materials were used simply because they are common in the laboratory.  The other potential materials may be better.  For certain the gold and platinum used need replacements.

As New Scientist is noting, others have welcomed the announcement.  Vincent Artero at the Joseph Fourier University in Grenoble, France is quoted saying, “It’s a significant result, my overall appreciation of this work is highly positive, both regarding the scientific level and the promises that are held by the new result.”

Licheng Sun at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden, agrees. “It will certainly provide future research topics for water splitting,” he said.

For those of you interested in the published paper, it’s at Angewandte Chemie International, DOI: 10.1002/anie.200906262.

There are all the questions of scaling up, commercial production matters, costs to install, and a wealth of other milestones to cross before one might put a kit on the roof.  But the energy input, solar energy is still free, and without organics the lifespan should be quite long.  If this pencils out as a disruptive technology it could get very widespread very fast indeed.

Hydrogen used quickly, or bound up with carbon has immense value.  We’re witnessing one more step in a chain from sunlight to powered work.  Just how sunlight gets to heating, cooling and moving us isn’t so important as what it costs.  The Brits look to be on to something, lets hope it works out and quickly.

Congratulations, too!  When someone does the math on the “yield” per square meter there’s going to be a lot more news about this.

The original is here: New Energy and Fuel

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