There’s been a lot in the news lately about the battery problems Boeing is having with the new 787 airplane. Batteries have always been a puzzlement to me. Just look at all the advances in electronics over the past 20 years — but battery technology just seems to poke along. I still get about the same amount of hours of use from my notebook computer that I did with my first one, and that was probably at least 15 years ago — maybe more.
If you wonder why electric cars are still a novelty and why the new ultra-efficient “Dreamliner” isn’t even flying right now, the answer is simple — batteries. There have been lots of attempts to build a better battery: I can think of lead-acid, carbon-zinc, nickel-oxide, nickel-cadmium, alkaline-manganese, zinc-mercuric oxide and of course today’s “sate-of-the-art” lithium ion. Lithium-ion, like most of its predecessors, was touted to be the battery to solve all our problems. Lithium-ion batteries do store more energy at a higher voltage and a lighter weight than other batteries and I guess represent the most recent “big jump” in battery technology. But the fact is that this technology has struggled with a safety problem from the start. Even today, it’s fairly common to hear about lithium-ion cellphone batteries overheating, short-circuiting and exploding. Supposedly, additional safety features were installed on the batteries used in the 787, but the outcome of that seems questionable.
Now to be fair, when I said I still get about the same amount of use out of my current notebook and the first one I owned, you have to remember that the current notebook consumes considerably more power and the notebook and battery is much lighter and smaller — so batteries have improved, not just in size and weight, but in cost and energy density. I realize that technologies don’t develop at the same rate, its just that with the tremendous demand for battery power, the battery industry is surprisingly slow moving.
In my working days, we spent a lot of time, money and effort to develop fuel cells. Even today, every time the topic of energy-dense storage comes up, people think of fuel cells. They certainly seemed promising at one time and do even today — I still think they’re the technology of the future — maybe they always will be.
I guess this entry wouldn’t be complete without some extensive research. I poked around a bit and discovered that the first batteries may have been developed over 2000 years ago. Some relics belonging to the Parthian Empire were uncovered near the city of Baghdad in 1936. The Parthians were the dominating force in the area between 190 BC and 224 AD. Among the relics found was a clay jar sealed with pitch at its top opening. An iron rod protruded from the center, surrounded by a cylindrical tube made of a copper sheet. Later test of replicas of the jar, when filled with an acidic liquid such as vinegar, showed it could have produced between 1.5 and 2 volts between the iron and copper. I wondered what they would have used a battery for — my extensive research didn’t turn up the discovery of any flashlights or transistor radios… The theory that I like best is that the “battery” may have been used to electroplate gold onto silver artifacts.
The battery industry needs to find the “next big thing.” Unfortunately, from what I can tell, no one knows what that big thing will be yet, or when it will come. But I have faith — I don’t think you’ll be hearing battery engineers saying, “I canna do it, cap’n!”
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