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posted by martyb on Saturday June 03 2017, @12:59PM   Printer-friendly
from the positive-development dept.

Current electric cars need convenient locations built for charging ports.

"Designing and building enough of these recharging stations requires massive infrastructure development, which means the energy distribution and storage system is being rebuilt at tremendous cost to accommodate the need for continual local battery recharge," said Eric Nauman, co-founder of Ifbattery and a Purdue professor of mechanical engineering, basic medical sciences and biomedical engineering. "Ifbattery is developing an energy storage system that would enable drivers to fill up their electric or hybrid vehicles with fluid electrolytes to re-energize spent battery fluids much like refueling their gas tanks."

The spent battery fluids or electrolyte could be collected and taken to a solar farm, wind turbine installation or hydroelectric plant for re-charging.

"Instead of refining petroleum, the refiners would reprocess spent electrolytes and instead of dispensing gas, the fueling stations would dispense a water and ethanol or methanol solution as fluid electrolytes to power vehicles," Cushman said. "Users would be able to drop off the spent electrolytes at gas stations, which would then be sent in bulk to solar farms, wind turbine installations or hydroelectric plants for reconstitution or re-charging into the viable electrolyte and reused many times. It is believed that our technology could be nearly 'drop-in' ready for most of the underground piping system, rail and truck delivery system, gas stations and refineries."

It's got electrolytes.


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  • (Score: 2) by Nuke on Saturday June 03 2017, @10:14PM (2 children)

    by Nuke (3162) on Saturday June 03 2017, @10:14PM (#519996)

    This sounds like an incredibly complicated system with a lot of built in waste just to save a few minutes when most people don't have any such need.

    A few minutes? At least 30, not what I call "few". If it is like filling a gas tank then the electrolyte change would be the "few minutes". It does not sound like "an incredibly complicated system" or "insanely expensive" to me either. As has been pointed out [sarcastically] the infrastucture is very similar to that of existing gas filling stations, which are neither of those things.

    .... the most driving demographic group .... drives on average 51 miles per day, a range that would fit in the electric only capacity

    BS alert! He got that figure of 51 by dividing annual mileage by 365. But most people don't drive exactly the same mileage every day. Eg I have a 20 mile commute interspersed with 200 mile trips to places which are never likely to have a charging point outside, and I don't want to spend 30 minutes or more kicking my heels in a service area en route.

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  • (Score: 1) by tftp on Sunday June 04 2017, @04:34AM

    by tftp (806) on Sunday June 04 2017, @04:34AM (#520097) Homepage

    BS alert! He got that figure of 51 by dividing annual mileage by 365. But most people don't drive exactly the same mileage every day. Eg I have a 20 mile commute interspersed with 200 mile trips to places which are never likely to have a charging point outside, and I don't want to spend 30 minutes or more kicking my heels in a service area en route.

    I just wanted to say the same thing, but you were faster. Nobody cares about the average mileage per day, just as nobody wants to know the average temperature of all patients in a hospital. Acceptance of an EV is defined by the worst case that you can envision. Not all such cases have to be non-stop, but ideally they are - a gas car has 300-400 mile range, and refueling takes just a few minutes practically anywhere. Running out of energy in an EV can be very dangerous, especially because chargers are few and far between - a regular 120V outlet will not do you any good. The prospective buyer thinks of a few such edge cases - an airport run, a visit to an elderly relative who lives 4 hours away and has no charger, or just the situation when you return home after the work day, park the car and then your daughter calls and says that she has a problem in another town and could you please stop by right away... it's 80 miles to there, and your car is at 20% SoC...

    Perhaps not all these fears are rational, but people are not rational to begin with. We don't like taking unnecessary risks. A gas car (or a hybrid) is a safe answer to this fear. Perhaps in a few years that becomes a plug-in hybrid. And, perhaps, in some more years people will get used to the fact that they aren't running the gas engines of their hybrids anymore, and the chargers are everywhere... at that time the pure EVs rise to the top. Unfortunately, at this time an EV owner has to take the plunge - and only some drivers, who have the ideal circumstances, benefit from an EV: they have personal home, garage, charger, stable job nearby, reasonably warm climate, reasonably stable route, reasonably stable habits and needs...

  • (Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Sunday June 04 2017, @05:32PM

    by hemocyanin (186) on Sunday June 04 2017, @05:32PM (#520282) Journal

    Apparently you missed this part of my original post:

    (Yes -- you 100 mile per day exceptions are the outliers and current electrics aren't great for you - we got it)