Thread: EV 1500km per charge, Aluminium Air fuel Cell

That was an interesting read. Hope there is merit in this as lithium tech, if it hasn't already, is probably approaching it's peak.

In another forum on the subject of climate change I said that "alternative energies will be the future we just haven't found the right one's ..... yet". This bloke may have found one.

Not sure how he came to his calculation of 7p per mile. At 1500 mile range and £5000 to replace that makes 30p per mile by my figuring. Also if the average British family travel 7,900 miles per year at 1500 miles per cell that's 5.26 cells per year @ £5000 each making £26,300. Seems like a lot of money (£5000) to shell out in one hit 5 times a year. Yes, I understand you are not putting fuel in the tank every week/other day so that money is building in your account to be able to get your next cell. Even if I could just fuel my vehicle 5 times a year not sure I would be wanting to cough up 5 grand for the privilege each time. Roughly ever 2 1/4 months.

Like other power storage tech will this one lose charge over time when not in use? Guess we will have to wait and see where this goes but it does sound promising. Best of luck to him.

Originally Posted by ChookD2

That was an interesting read. Hope there is merit in this as lithium tech, if it hasn't already, is probably approaching it's peak.

In another forum on the subject of climate change I said that "alternative energies will be the future we just haven't found the right one's ..... yet". This bloke may have found one.

Not sure how he came to his calculation of 7p per mile. At 1500 mile range and £5000 to replace that makes 30p per mile by my figuring. Also if the average British family travel 7,900 miles per year at 1500 miles per cell that's 5.26 cells per year @ £5000 each making £26,300. Seems like a lot of money (£5000) to shell out in one hit 5 times a year. Yes, I understand you are not putting fuel in the tank every week/other day so that money is building in your account to be able to get your next cell. Even if I could just fuel my vehicle 5 times a year not sure I would be wanting to cough up 5 grand for the privilege each time. Roughly ever 2 1/4 months.

Like other power storage tech will this one lose charge over time when not in use? Guess we will have to wait and see where this goes but it does sound promising. Best of luck to him.

Good thinking but the way I read it the £5000 was up front for the battery/fuel cell. replacing it with a full one wont be £5000 every time, but rather a nominal fee, other wise the comparison with a Tesla battery at £30,000 is false economy , £30k would only give 9000miles , where the Tesla battery is good for 1,000,000 miles.

"old tech" so to speak.

THIS article explained it a year or so ago.

Still interesting info tho.

I remember reading the physics.org article and thought .. why don't they make it(the battery) compartmentalised in such a way that if all that is needed is fresh aluminium and electrolyte, then the user/owner has spare Al and electrolyte on hand and replenishes the battery cell themselves .. rather than paying thousands for the new cell from company X.
It'd be just like new diesels now .. you add diesel and ad blue and you go again.

And in the OP's article, the chap says they approached supermarket chains to discuss cell exchanges .. why limit to supermarket chains, and not major fuel station chains.
After all, if this kind of thing is to take off in a big way, the service stations have the most to lose (and to stay relevant) in the coming future of electro power.

Another article(actually Youtube vid too) I saw recently was that of liquid metal batteries. Sounds interesting, but not so much for transport.
Don Sadoway. Watch the Youtube of his hour long lecture at some UK university. Would never have thought I'd ever enjoy an hour long lecture on anything(I have the attention span of an dead ant).

Originally Posted by goingbush

....the way I read it...... replacing it with a full one wont be £5000 every time, but rather a nominal fee........

Fair call. 1500 miles is roughly 2400 km which for me is about 3.5 - 4 tanks of fuel @ about $120 per fill comes to $420 - $480. On that basis it would have to be an extremely nominal fee to compare or compete with today's fuels.

He is saying the cost is 105 UKP to recycle the cell. 5000 is the initial cost. So $0.083 AUD per km.

While I’d love to be proved wrong here, this all smells like BS to me.

Originally Posted by Homestar

While I’d love to be proved wrong here, this all smells like BS to me.

It is all well established technology. The sticking point has been the cost of the aluminum and the dangers of the electrolyte. He is staying he has solved both. Since he is refusing to release details of how he did that, we would need real world examples being sold for reasonable prices.

As I said, would love to be proved wrong, but he only claims he’s solved the issues. I’ll wait until there’s proof of this (which I hope there is, but until then I’m a sceptic)