Sometimes I really don't know what is in the head of many domestic car reviewers? But when it comes to electric vehicles, the "high-tech" in their mouths is only what automatic driving, lidar, n more cameras, chat with the eyes in the car, and when they talk about cars, they can really come up with real talent, what is the control performance, with language and words to express clearly, it is even rarer, the biggest is to talk about power, talk about configuration on the car review... In a muddy automotive media industry, human design is more important than knowledge, and appearance is more important than cars...
A previous article introduced a more advanced lithium-air battery than today's popular lithium-ion batteries, the last article of the author mentioned the development of nuclear fusion technology, the conclusion is: BEV models, that is, the current domestic pure electric vehicles blown up by various car critics or their mouths of the incomparably advanced new energy vehicles, the end of this technology tree will stop at nuclear fusion or large-scale civilian application of solar technology, of course, this must also rely on the development of battery technology, the author dares to assert, today's development and mainstream status of those lithium-ion batteries , insisting on less than 2030. There are two reasons, the energy density of lithium-ion batteries is much lower than that of aluminum-ion batteries under study, followed by the stock of lithium metal on the earth is too low, and now the development of BEV models, relying entirely on battery capacity to promote its development model, whether it can persist until 2030 is also a problem, you know, lithium metal on land content is only 0.0065%.
Pictured: What is this? Sell a close first, and then introduce it later.
The type of battery to be introduced this time is called aluminum battery, but this is only a general term, the aluminum battery currently under research is divided into aluminum ion batteries (Aluminium-ion Battery) and aluminum air batteries (Aluminium–air Battery) two categories, let's briefly introduce these two new batteries that will soon be put into practical applications.
The first is the aluminum-ion battery, which is a rechargeable battery: when discharged, aluminum ions flow through the positive electrode of the battery to the negative electrode to generate energy; when charging, aluminum ions return to the negative electrode, each aluminum ion can exchange three electrons, and lithium ions have only one. It is precisely because of the three units of charge, so its energy density is much higher than the lithium-ion battery, the energy density of lithium-ion batteries is 406Wh/kg, while the energy density of aluminum ions is 1060Wh/kg, and the more important thing is that the stock of aluminum on the earth is four orders of magnitude higher than lithium, and the stock of the earth reaches 8%, which is more than iron. The abundant stock also indicates that once the problem of short shelf life is overcome, its higher energy density, fast charging time, wide applicable temperature range (-40 °C ~ 120 °C), and not easy to burn. At present, the Department of Polymer Science of Zhejiang University in China is also at the forefront of aluminum-ion battery research.
Figure: Note the equation in the lower left corner, an aluminum-ion battery can emit 3 electrons, which is the basic reason why its energy density is higher than that of lithium-ion batteries.
Another more high-tech aluminum battery called aluminum air battery, it is temporarily a non-rechargeable battery, the voltage of each battery is 1.2 volts, the principle is to use oxygen in the atmosphere to produce a chemical reaction with aluminum to generate electricity, but its theoretical value is as high as 8000Wh /kg, practical applications have reached a very high energy density level of 1300 Wh / kg, after practical testing, its equivalent fuel efficiency reached 15%, and 13% of the internal combustion engine car is equivalent. This advantage has made it the first to be applied to the military field, such as some inconvenient to remove and replace batteries frequently or do not often transmit electricity to the instrument or radar standby power supply, will use aluminum-air batteries, the United States Air Force aluminum-chlorine batteries have been put into use in the 1970s. Although it cannot be recharged, it is also normal and acceptable to abandon it in the military field after use. But this feature is not suitable for civil or commercial use, although the endurance of the aluminum-air battery in the same volume state is 8 times that of the lithium-ion battery, but it is necessary to replace it when it is used up, and how many car owners can accept it? Or I can, but that doesn't mean everyone can accept it.
Figure: This is the entity of the aluminum air battery, the principle is actually not complicated, a little learned chemistry, can understand its reaction formula. Similar technologies have been used in the U.S. Air Force as early as the 1970s.
Aluminum-air batteries have actually been replaced by lead-acid batteries in experimental institutions since 1989 for vehicle testing, and in March 2013, Israel's Phinergy Company released a video of the application of aluminum-air batteries on electric vehicles; in February 2014, the company established a partnership with Alcoa (Alcoa) to develop aluminum-air batteries for electric vehicles, which after testing, the range can reach 1600 kilometers; in March 2021, The company formed a joint venture with The Indian Oil Company to promote the commercial application of Al-Air batteries.
Pictured: Israel's Phinergy, one of the main promoters of aluminum-air battery technology and the first company to enter quasi-commercial applications, has begun experimental promotion in India.
Although the aluminum air battery has the performance of "invincible" so far, but there are still problems from large-scale, popular commercial applications, such as pure aluminum anode pole is easy to be corroded by electrolyte, aluminum ion reaction after hydration alumina will form a gelatinous substance and reduce power output, the ideal cathode material is still groping, such as Italian scientific research institutions have submitted patents for aluminum glass batteries, in addition to aluminum-sulfur batteries and so on.
Figure: Although there are still many practical application problems to be solved in aluminum-air batteries, the energy density, safety, temperature adaptability, and low cost of lithium-ion batteries that make lithium-ion batteries unattainable are enough to become the mainstream of energy storage in the foreseeable future.
Pictured: The above is the aluminum air battery test car jointly developed by Israel's Pinergy and Alcoa, which is the battery pack seen in the tail box, so that the car ran 1600 kilometers, you can use your imagination, if the bottom of Tesla is replaced with this aluminum air battery, how far can it run? The author estimates that it is not less than 3000 kilometers.
The development of energy storage technology is one of the branches of the electric drive technology technology tree, but here must also be a clear truth, the use of vehicles as a means of transport, the key to solving the endurance problem lies in how to make the vehicle itself produce energy, back to the 1900s ~ 1920s of the first electric vehicle glory period, its abundant power output is the reason for its popularity, but the crappy endurance is the fatal blow it loses to the internal combustion engine, because the internal combustion engine itself comes with the ability to convert heat energy into kinetic energy, while the electric vehicle does not, The historical lesson of failure should not be repeated again, and now those so-called new forces car manufacturers, we can only see the PPT exchange of capital into stacking equipment and market packaging, almost no one can come up with real high-tech research and development capabilities, such as the research and development of new batteries, such as the drive system and drive management of the innovative revolution, let alone the ability to think about the energy generation or transformation of the vehicle. Don't tell me what industry 4.0 era, let alone say that can automatically drive is high-tech, cars or trams, don't learn lessons from history, don't cry when you go out of business, don't cry and sell misery, then it's difficult to smell gasoline again.