Liquid batteries cheaper and more efficient than lithium

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Influit Energy, a company that emerged under the auspices of the University of Illinois Institute of Technology, United States, announced the next commercial launch of a rechargeable electrofuel: a fast-recharging, non-flammable liquid flow battery capable of transporting 23% more energy than lithium batteries, at half the cost.

The alternative to current battery technology proposed by Influit’s “nanoelectric fuels” is intended to supply energy to land and air vehicles.

“Nanoelectric fuels”, an alternative to conventional batteries

influence presented its technology as a new kind of flow — or liquid — battery. These usually involve two chemical liquids being pumped over opposite sides of an ion exchange membrane to create a flow of electrical current.

Under their conventional manufacturing mechanism, liquid batteries tend to have a low energy density. This condition is because only a limited amount of battery material can be dissolved in a liquid, before it begins to settle to the bottom of the tank and becomes useless. It is because of this low density that, in large part, liquid batteries have been relegated to smaller projects, which can operate with a slow and cheap power source.

From Influit they point out that they solved this problem thanks to the use of infinitesimally tiny solid nanoparticles of active metal oxide battery material suspended in their base fluid, instead of dissolved, so that the Brownian movement random is only enough to prevent particles from settling to the bottom.

“We have created a new type of flow battery that is based on a composite material that we invented, which is a nanofluid in which nanoparticles are active battery materials, which we call nanoelectrofuel or NEF”, commented John Katsoudas co-founder and CEO of Influit Energy.

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Given the complexity of this project, Influit is not only taking care of the fluids in this battery, but also of other key components, such as the cells that extract energy from these fuels and their fluid management systems.

Spent fuel can be recycled. Given this, its creators are already projecting the retail sale of electrofuel equipment, the systems necessary to “recharge” spent fuel and the refineries necessary to manufacture these liquid nanofuels.

Although it will be possible to recharge depleted batteries with “rapid replenishment capsules”, which will allow the used liquid to be replaced, Influit stresses that the ability to plug in and refuel will not be lost, as electric vehicle owners now do, either using a home charging station or one with higher power.

“The unique high-energy-density liquid format of NEF flow batteries allows the use of the same fluids in different devices, which means that the fluid, charged at the charging station from renewable energy sources or a network, it can be used to quickly refuel vehicles or for stationary storage and other large portable applications,” adds Elena Timofeeva, professor at Illinois Tech, director of operations and director of research and development for the project. “The discharged liquid can be returned to a recharging/refueling station to be recharged or charged inside the device by connecting it to the power supply”he pointed.

Among other highlights of DARPA, the commercial name that this battery received, is that they are not flammable (in fact, they point out that their fluids can put out fire), they can work between a wide range of temperatures (-40 and 80 ° C) and does not count lithium, heavy metals or rare earth minerals among its raw materials.

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In previous stages, this project had the support of NASA, which financed the development of fast charging systems; and from the US Air Force, which funded work on the refueling nozzles and control systems, as well as contributing to the development of that super-high-density fuel system.

Soon, the team of scientists will continue with the steps outlined in its long roadmap. Apart from the challenges of research and development, their goal is to obtain the financing of risk capital for the future execution of advanced stages of the project.