honda-banking-on-flouride-ion-batteries-for-future-hybrids-ev
Hybrids and electric vehicles alike may soon benefit from a new type of battery that will help them have better range, and deliver more power to the pavement.
Scientists from Honda Research Institute recently collaborated with researchers at California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to develop a new type of battery chemistry that will enable higher energy density, while also producing less carbon footprint than current battery technologies. The research proved successful after they were able to develop and use flouride-ion as an alternate means of energy beside the more common lithium-ion.
Unlike typical lithium-ion batteries, flouride-ion batteries have higher energy density capacity, meaning it would make for better energy storage. In addition, they are also more environmentally-friendly and do not pose a risk of overheating and causing a fire.
“Fluoride-ion batteries offer a promising new battery chemistry with up to ten times more energy density than currently available lithium batteries. Unlike Li-ion batteries, FIBs do not pose a safety risk due to overheating, and obtaining the source materials for FIBs creates considerably less environmental impact than the extraction process for lithium and cobalt,” said Dr. Christopher Brooks, Chief Scientist at Honda Research Institute and co-author of the paper.
With this new breakthrough, Honda stated that this will prove useful as an alternative to lithium- or metal hydride-based battery packs. Moreover, Honda even went on to say that flouride-ion rechargeable batteries will have ten times the energy densities compared to current technologies.
However, flouride-ion batteries can only work at temperatures above 150 degrees Celsius. To workaround this problem, Honda deviced an electrochemical cell that can operate at room temperature while also keeping the flouride-ion batteries in an operative state.
Should this type of technology make its way to production, this could change the way batteries are made, stored and used. Here’s to hoping Honda can make that happen in the near future, as well as benefit future automobiles and infrastructure.
