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posted by janrinok on Friday August 21 2020, @08:17PM   Printer-friendly
from the charge! dept.

Super-dense lithium-sulfur battery gives electric plane a 230-mile range:

British company Oxis says it's developed safe, high-density lithium-sulfur battery chemistry and will supply Texas Aircraft Manufacturing with a 90-kWh, next-gen battery pack to power the eColt, an electric aircraft with a two hour, 230-mile range.

[...] In practice, they have had issues – notably with the old chestnut of dendrite formation, in which ion deposits on the anode grow into long spikes of conductive material that short circuit the cell and cause it to catch fire. The lithium-metal anodes also tend to degrade in less dangerous ways that eventually just make the batteries die.

In a piece written for IEEE Spectrum, Oxis head of battery development Mark Crittenden details how his team is addressing these problems with a thin layer of ceramic material at the anode, and it's resulting in high-energy cells with significantly longer lifespans than previous Li-S designs.

"Typical lithium-ion designs can hold from 100 to 265 Wh/kg, depending on the other performance characteristics for which it has been optimized, such as peak power or long life," writes Crittenden. "Oxis recently developed a prototype lithium-sulfur pouch cell that proved capable of 470 Wh/kg, and we expect to reach 500 Wh/kg within a year. And because the technology is still new and has room for improvement, it's not unreasonable to anticipate 600 Wh/kg by 2025."

Still needs work on the limited number of number of charge cycles.


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  • (Score: 3, Funny) by Snotnose on Friday August 21 2020, @10:59PM (1 child)

    by Snotnose (1623) on Friday August 21 2020, @10:59PM (#1040145)

    the 5 mile altitude until they hit the ground with dead batteries? I'm guessing that will give them an extra 15-20 miles, which is a significant percentage of what they're claiming.

    Maybe off topic, but I remember a 90s video game. The goal was to get people to ride your rides and not kill anyone. I built a roller coaster ski slope that launched passengers into the competition's park. I got points for getting people to ride my ride, the computer lost points for killing people. This was way before you could play another person over the internet.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 22 2020, @09:55PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 22 2020, @09:55PM (#1040533)

    Also does it count ejecting the battery after it's dead?