Batteries

So, its after one month that we came to the blog. Last month was really a lot of work. So, last night our son in his Halloween party dressed as iron man (he is a second grader). I saw the paladium thingi (plastic in this case) on iron man's chest and thought we should spend some time on batteries/cells/source of power generically.

Lets see what is going around the world.

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have been studying the properties of a molecule called fulvalene diruthenium in the hopes of developing a rechargeable battery that can store heat rather than electricity. Such a battery could be used for solar thermal devices to allow it to provide a stable source of renewable energy. Fulvalene diruthenium, which was discovered in 1996, works to store and release heat on demand. The molecule undergoes a structural transformation when it absorbs sunlight, putting it into a higher-energy state where it can remain stable indefinitely.

The fact is: if we get heat as the source of energy and it is easier to store heat that may be a better form than to store electricity which I guess has already been proven takes more or less some unitary amount of volume growth against energy growth.
If I may slightly digress: I like this idea because it reminds me of the following research about finding an optimum Hamiltonian Path by bees when they collect necter.
http://www.qmul.ac.uk/media/news/items/se/38864.html
Its just solving the same problem by defining it differently and approaching differently.

Anyhow enough of digration.

If we study the recent events we see that (just taking a short sighted view purposively:)

1. SBI Energy predicts the fuel cell market will double to $1.22 billion in four years.
2. McPhy Energy gains ground for expansion after pocketing $17.2 million in second funding round.
3. A major focus off late has been shifted from traditional hydrogen fuel cells into
1. Producing Hydrogen from bio degradables using bio components (microbes specifically). Example: Scientists at Biodesign Institute of Arizona State University produce hydrogen using specialized bacteria.
2. Sea water could become a major source of energy if the previous one works correctly.
3. Purdue scientists develop new process to generate and store hydrogen without use of a catalyst
4. Developing new organic fusable components that help in lighter production of energy storage ( lets face it, major problem of storage today is the bulkiness - we need to trim it down).
5. In United States, California, Connecticut, New York, Ohio and South Carolina are leading states for fuel cell technology.
4. Some transactions (from SBI report).
1. The portable sector boasts of the fastest growth in the fuel cell market due to toys and educational devices powered by low-watt fuel cells. Companies such as Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies and Thames & Kosmos have created fuel cell car kits that allow children to assemble the cars while learning about the basics of the technology.
2. However, the largest demand for fuel cells is for power generation units. In August, Ballard Power System shipped the largest fuel cell system to an Ohio utility for a five-year trial run. The system can produce as much as 1 megawatt of electricity – enough to power 500 homes.

In summary, storage of energy will act as a major factor in responding to energy demand response apart from the rate (in fact it may influence rate and rate will become a dependent variable to the storage capability) as we explored in previous blog entry about smart grid architecture.

 

Now, lets all get back to work. Have a wonderful week ahead.