Battery capacity being limited due to usefulness for nefarious purposes.........?

[OM617YOTA]

Just had a discussion on another forum. A gentleman was claiming current battery tech is being limited because cramming more energy into a tiny space would make using said device more dangerous if used for nefarious purposes.

Sounds like utter and complete BS to me. Yes we want to limit how much of certain battery technologies we want on passenger aircraft, like we do with lots of other items as well. You can make something with far more boom in the same space as a battery for 1/100th the cost, with items available at the local hardware store. Gentleman did agree that it had zero connection to logic.

Lots of you are more versed in this tech than I, please educate me. Is there any basis to this?

 

[Brucey]

Just had a discussion on another forum. A gentleman was claiming current battery tech is being limited because cramming more energy into a tiny space would make using said device more dangerous if used for nefarious purposes.

Sounds like utter and complete BS to me. Yes we want to limit how much of certain battery technologies we want on passenger aircraft, like we do with lots of other items as well. You can make something with far more boom in the same space as a battery for 1/100th the cost, with items available at the local hardware store. Gentleman did agree that it had zero connection to logic.

Lots of you are more versed in this tech than I, please educate me. Is there any basis to this?

Gallon of gas is much more energy and far deadlier than a thermal runaway lithium ion battery.

 

[OM617YOTA]

Gallon of gas is much more energy and far deadlier than a thermal runaway lithium ion battery.

Completely agreed. I mentioned largely that same thing in my second paragraph.

Not asking if this makes any sense, just if anyone has heard anything about it happening.

 

[Brucey]

Completely agreed. I mentioned largely that same thing in my second paragraph.

Not asking if this makes any sense, just if anyone has heard anything about it happening.

I don't see why it would matter as far as I know the battery size limit for passenger aircraft is based on Watt hours, so a more "dense" battery wouldn't allow for a bigger one to be allowed on board.

 

[OM617YOTA]

Makes no sense to me either, on multiple levels. Part of why I reached out to the group of experts here.

 

[Texas-Mark]

I don't see why it would matter as far as I know the battery size limit for passenger aircraft is based on Watt hours, so a more "dense" battery wouldn't allow for a bigger one to be allowed on board.

I'm assuming the "talk" was referring to a technology where density might be 100x what is available. If true, I could see that being problematic because such a small item could more easily be snuck aboard a plane or whatever. I'm not saying the theroy is true, only that I could understand why it might be kept out of the public eye if it really did exist.

 

[OzSolar]

Lots of you are more versed in this tech than I, please educate me. Is there any basis to this?

Probably not.

These sorts of charts have been around for a long time, as in many decades.

A lot of different people with lots of letters in thier titles built them based on science. Hundreds (thousands??) of scientists in totally unrelated industries on different continents would all have to be in on this conspiracy if there was something way better hiding out there.